Identification of pigments on a XV century illuminated parchment by Raman and FTIR microspectroscopies

The pigments used to illuminate a precious, richly decorated XV century document on parchment, the property of the State Archives of Milan, have been thoroughly investigated by the complementary use of Raman and reflectance Fourier transform infra red (FTIR) microspectroscopies, both performed non-destructively and in situ. The palette has been determined and the pigments used unambiguously characterised. These were all natural mineral pigments: azurite, ultramarine blue, malachite, vermilion and minium. The advantages and disadvantages of each technique, with respect to the identification of single pigments, are discussed, especially in the cases of malachite and ultramarine blue.