A DATABASE OF THE PALERMO ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY'S LIBRARY CONSERVATION PROJECT ON FONDO PIAZZI

The Fondo Piazzi is the first core of Palermo Astronomical Observatory’s historical library and in 2019/2020 it is was object of a large scale conservation project. It counts more than 800 books and 600 journals dated back from XVI to early XIX century.  The collection was fully identified and catalogued in the previous years by the work of the librarian D. Randazzo, but it had never been analysed by a conservator. So, we started a conservation survey on the collection and we designed a database to store the collected information. The database is especially important because it is multifunctional: on the one hand, it helped the conservator to prioritize and establish the program of conservation treatments, to record bibliographical, structural and material information on the books; on the other hand it is a set of data that can be enriched, shared and used for everybody working on the collection, now and in the future, improving the knowledge of Fondo Piazzi.