Dénesi Tamás (szerk.): Collectanea Sancti Martini - A Pannonhalmi Főapátság Gyűjteményeinek Értesítője 6. (Pannonhalma, 2018)
II. Közlemények
254 Fehrentheil Henriette Henriette Fehrentheil Repairing the Missale Salisburgense’s copy of 1492 kept in Pannonhalma The mediaeval ritual of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, the Missale Salisburgense was printed by Georg Stuchs, a typographer of Nuremberg in 1492 and then in 1498. The first edition is listed among the most beautiful incunabula, twentyseven– twentyeight complete copies of this edition are known all over the world, one of them is kept in the Library of the ArchAbbey in Pannonhalma. In connection with the copy in Pannonhalma, Ágnes W. Salgó made an interesting statement of cultural history, namely that it was used as the textbook of the Passion plays during the Holy Week after the Council of Trent. Its binding of wooden board completely covered with leather and decorated with copperplating was made in the workshop of Paulus Wolf in Uffenheim, its spine was given a new covering of gilded leather at the beginning of the 19th century. From the direction of the back cover, the volume was soaked through with some unknown liquid, it deformed the wooden board, and together with the substances dissolved from the wood, it left brown stains on the edge of the last fifty leaves. Fortunately, the paper’s chemical reaction did not prove to be acidic inside of the stains, either. The copy’s greatest treasure is the set of twentythree magnificent initials richly gilded and silverplated. Their condition was acceptable, but – in many places – the coat of paint broke up in a scaly way, shows sign of wear, and smaller portions dropped off. The includes a good number of simpler initials of red minimum and blue azurite. In the 16 th century, the continent was provided with azurite from Hungarian mines, therefore the paint was also called “Hungarian blue”. Chemically it is basic coppercarbonate, it is easy to be identified because of its characteristic colour and its thickly laid surface of rough grains. It badly combines with its bonding agents – albumen, in most cases –, and it easily peels off paper, which caused a great problem in the case of our volume. In the course of repairing, before aqueous treatments (cleaning wash, deacidification) paints had to be fixed temporarily, and in the case of azurite permanent fixing was necessary in many places. After many experiments, the temporary fixing of colouring agents was worked out by combining two techniques. The saturated petrol solution of cyclododecane was directly applied to the initials, then after drying, they were coated with the 3% isopropanol solution of polyvinylbutyroacetal. After the wet treatments, the cyclododecane sublimated in a few days from beneath the adhesive film on its surface, which could then be easily raised from the surface of the paint with the help of a scalpel. For the permanent fixing of the
