Petrographic characterization of renders from the Lucchesian Villas

Abstract

Around the Tuscan city of Lucca, a complex system of about 300 villa has developed between 15th and 19th centuries in a ring of territory called the Six Miles District. Nowadays, many of the buildings inside the villas enclosures are damaged and their materials – in particular renders -­ need to be restored. A research program was developed taking into account the complexity of the Lucchesian Villa System and economic aspects of the research: simple and clear results should be obtained avoiding expensive and long test procedures. The majority of the villas are private property, and special attention had to be reserved to landlords in order to keep them involved in the research. Four Villas from the north / northeastern part of the Six Miles District have been selected on the basis of their history, importance and available archival sources. About 80 samples of renders have been collected from ten different buildings of these villas; 19 of these have been analyzed with polarization-­and-­fluorescence microscopy (PFM) in order to identify materials, establish stratigraphies and mutual correlations and relationships, as part of providing a basis for selection of compatible restoration materials.