Coordination : Vaiedelich S., Hatté C.
Ile de France project – Domaine d’Intérêt Majeur “Patrimoine et Matériaux”
DatIM aims to remove the scientific obstacles to the chronological positioning of the instrumentarium by adding 14C dating to the range of approaches traditionally used. As well as continuing to build up a history of musical use and the maintenance, repair and restoration practices that are applied to musical instruments, this will consolidate the emergence of historically documented concerts, helping to enhance museum or private collections. DatIM will endeavour to build a chronology around 3 major bodies of work: 1- the seventeenth-century bow and its successive practices, 2- the harpsichord and questions of the relative positioning over time of the body, playing and stand components, 3- emblematic lutes from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the authenticity of their barrage.
DatIM combines the expertise of 4 entities, 2 public players and 2 private players, and the emergence of a new generation of 14C measurement equipment that can work on some 10µg of carbon (compared with 1mg conventionally). The cross-fertilisation of expertise starts with the in situ characterisation of the sample, its collection, the definition of potential contaminants and the integration of all available chronological indices, relative and absolute, museological and physical, to define the temporal framework of the life of the instruments. DatIM involves museology, materials characterisation, chemistry, physical measurement and Bayesian statistics. In addition to the classic applications in the form of articles or communications aimed at the 14C, museum and instrument-making communities, DatIM is also involved in communicating with instrument-making professionals and experts linked to these ancient objects, as well as with the general public, particularly in the context of actions in Paris-Saclay.
Contact : Christine Hatté