Basilica di Santa Maria Novella (Firenze): Tracce di interventi di restauro eseguiti nel XX Secolo

During the last restoration works performed on the main façade of the Santa Maria Novella Church (Florence), different materials have been analyzed in order to evaluate the state of conservation, past restorations and give indications on the supplying areas useful in the case of material replacements. All the analyses have been carried out in order to supply informations in the restoration works. White marbles, “green and red marbles”, mortars, have been sampled and analysed. In particular on the "crusts" and plastering of the stones materials, chemical, mineralogical and physical analyses have been performed in order to determine the origin: decay or previous treatments? The comparison between the performed analyses and the maps of distribution of some elements, like magnesium, fluorine, chlorine, phosphorus, performed on the façade during a previous diagnostic study, has allowed to reconstruct the sequence of conservative treatments made in the past century that unfortunately had already given place to strongly phenomena of decay.