The book of birds in Portuguese scriptoria: preservation and access

In this thesis, the Books of Birds from Hugh of Fouilloy produced in the Portuguese monasteries of São Mamede of Lorvão, Santa Maria of Alcobaça and Santa Cruz of Coimbra, were studied for the first time through an interdisciplinary and holistic approach. This investigation opened doors to a customized methodology for the study of manuscript circulation, by converging their history, codicology, iconography, colour – both molecular and symbolic – text analysis and conservation state. This allowed proposing new chronologies and correlations between each copy. Santa Cruz still lacked a comprehensive study from a material and technical point of view, contrarily to Alcobaça and Lorvão, which could ultimately support the research on the Books of Birds. Therefore, the Santa Cruz manuscripts were subject of a detailed investigation on their painting materials and techniques, as well as its bindings, used in their production. Since the collection had been previously analysed in a MOLAB access, the experimental work developed in this thesis was compared with the MOLAB data and the advantages of an in situ and micro-sampling approach were discussed. The three collections were compared, which allowed establishing more in-depth the colour palette used in Romanesque manuscripts, their singularities and main degradation issues. In order to study the meaning behind the usage of these colours, a colour mapping tool was developed and systematically applied in the three scriptoria. It was established that this complementary technique can bring new insights to art history, by correlating colour patterns to specific historical periods. Finally, it was also developed a new methodology for the study and characterization of dyes in illuminated manuscripts, by combining microspectrofluorimetry and SERS for the first time. It allowed establishing that lac dye was used to paint dark reds and pinks in Portuguese scriptoria, during the Romanesque period