Tracing the historic meaning of two books of hours: the interdisciplinary research underlying conservation decisions

The new focus on material culture draw attention to the way people and objects histories can interact and inform each other, building singular biographies. This article focuses the relevance of “objects biography” for the conservation decision-making process, through the analysis of two Books of Hours. These items are important objects of our cultural heritage that can show impressive “biographies”, passing from the first owner into their family descendants, till current institutional environments.
A team of researchers from art history to conservation sciences reveal features of the current physical and conservation appearance of two Books of Hours kept in the library of the National Palace of Mafra / Portugal that allows tracing its historic path discuss aspects of its meaning and significance evolution and propose a biography interpretation for each case. In close relation to individual “objects biography”, the conservation decisions and the treatments of textblock and bookbinding will be presented. Two different conservation solutions for each case will be also examined and compared, covering significance interpretation versus conservation aims.