Caratterizzazione chimico-fisica di mattoni gotici veneziani

The aim of this experimental work was determine the characteristic features of Venetian Gothic bricks, in order to create an initial database for the city of Venice, and improve our knowledge of this class of materials, for the conservation of the walls of Gothic buildings and the dating of architectural surfaces. The study was extended to bricks found in dated archaeological sites of the town and of the Venetian lagoon. A total of 34 samples was subjected to mineralogical-petrographic, chemical and physical analysis (oM, XRD, SEM + EDS, XRF, MI) to get a initial overview about these Venetian bricks. The results identified some groups of samples sharing the same source materials and, probabily, also the same manufacturing technology. The study showed that this grouping does not depend on the origin of the bricks, rather on their dating, as di-mostrated by comparison with data related to more ancient Venetian bricks.