Investigation of the Composition of Historical and Modern Italian Papers by Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (SEM-EDS)

In this work, a study concerning the composition of Italian papers from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries was carried out using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS). The analyzed samples consisted of papers employed for drawing, writing, printing, and absorbance. Observations carried out by SEM magnified the typical paper morphology. EDXRF in combination with XRD and SEM-EDS allowed the determination of calcite, gypsum, kaolin, talc, magnesite, and dolomite, used as fillers in the production of the papers studied herein. The inks present in the handwritten and printed papers, investigated by SEM-EDS and mu-EDXRF, were synthetic, Fe based, and iron gall inks.