Introduction

The purpose of these pages is to make available a variety of texts crucial to the understanding of the conservation and restoration of stained glass. All but one of these texts are appearing here in English for the first time, and they cover a wide range of technical and aesthetic considerations. In addition to the English-language version of the guidelines agreed by the CVMA’s International Committee for the Conservation of Stained Glass (approved in Nuremberg in 2004, at the 22nd International Colloquium), the reader will find an article by Ivo Rauch that introduces the general issues, and three studies covering specific technical issues from a recent, already standard work on the subject: A. Wolff (ed.), Restaurierung und Konservierung historischer Glasmalereien (‘The Restoration and Conservation of Historical Stained Glass’), Mainz, 2000. More information on conservation can be found under Other Websites.

We are grateful to the publishers, authors and picture-rights holders for their kind permission to make these translations available, and to English Heritage for the grant that made development of this part of the website possible.