This handbook contains the text of lectures delivered during a series of courses held in Venice from 1975 to 1987 under the auspices of UNESCO and ICCROM on the treatment and conservation of stone. Architectural problems encountered in Venice exemplify many of the problems of stone deterioration discussed in the book. In addition, treatments applied to building stone in Venice in the past can be observed. The handbook's introductory chapters concern basic geological characteristics of stone used as building material, stone carving technology, and the basic processes of stone deterioration. The emphasis of the book, however, is on deterioration due to biological agents, which primarily affect buildings in non-industrialized countries, and deterioration due to atmospheric pollution, which threatens the stone buildings in industrialized countries. In the second half of the book all the various treatments are described in detail.