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Summary Transparent papers have been made since the Middle Ages and their production and use have evolved since then through to the present day. The first supports, paper and parchment, were made transparent by impregnation with oily or resinous substances and destined for domestic and artistic uses. The beginning of the nineteenth century was a turning point in the production of transparent papers with the appearance of the first parchment papers and the search for new methods of production of paper. The papermaking industry discovered new papers such as natural tracing, imitation parchment and glassine papers. In this article, historical study based on published sources is complemented by an analytical protocol carried out on a large group of samples of transparent papers. Analytical results are compared with information from published sources in order to verify whether there is a true correlation between the two.

The paper is a review of bibliographical publications relating to transparent papers during the period 1960 to 1999. Emphasis is placed on conservation treatments. An introductory chapter covering the history and technology of these papers is followed by a description of types of degradation frequently encountered and a short paragraph dedicated to analysis. Subsequent chapters discuss conservation treatments, including dry cleaning, humidification and flattening, washing and deacidification, lining, local repairs, resizing, facing, solvent use and bleaching. A discussion of housing and storage methods completes the review.

En 1973 l'Universite de Paris-I Pantheon Sorbonne a cree, au sein de son department d'histoire de l'art et d'archeologie, une formation a la conservation et a la restauration des biens culturels. Le programme de cette formation qui permet l'obtention d'une maitrise de sciences et techniques est presentee brievement

Actes de la journée d’étude du 22 septembre 2017, organisée par L’HiCSA (Histoire Culturelle et Sociale de l’Art) de l'Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne et le département des restaurateurs de l'Institut National du Patrimoine.; International audience