Third, enlarged, and revised edition of the handbook first published by same editor in 1975. Chapters and informative composition of content follow the standards of the first edition. It is not only a very handsome one, but directly written from experience for the practitioner or student of this specialized field of conservation. The author has built up the restoration institute of the National Library in Vienna. He trained there and at the Academy of Arts at Vienna more than 200 specialists for over three decades with numerous highlights of conservation problems solved for the first time. The third edition discusses materials, decay, and preventive measures, principles and methods of various conservation methods in the field, and concludes with chapters on climate and storage, exhibition problems, and those of disasters. A glossary in four languages, records of pigments used in history, comprehensive literature, and index are added. Various modern and newly developed conservation techniques for bleaching and analyzing lignin content are reviewed. Numerous basic recipes are listed. An approach to the new developments is briefly discussed.