One of the names that was suggested for our yearbook was »Clavicula«, key, in reference to an early medieval manuscript called »Mappae Clavicula«. It was a compendium of recipes on the preparation of paints, paint media, the artistic treatment of metals and minerals, etc. In accordance ivith medieval alchemist symbolism this manuscript was intended as a »key to the secrets«, to a given knowledge and skills. The symbolism expressed is valid even in our days, so we can say that we would like this yearbook to be a key . to forgotten or little known art techniques of the past, not only for the expert but for painters, collectors and all persons who have a deep interest in art. The appreciation of art remains the poorer without a knowledge of the techniques and materials out of which the artifacts were created.

If we, in the end, decided on the name »Technologia artis«, that is, the »technology of art«, it was with the realisation that it is a brief term of one self-reliant scientific branch of art history, whose beginnings can be traced back to the very beginning of theory of art but achieved exact methods only in this century with ths development of the natural sciences, their analytical approach and the resulting possibility of comparison. Ths more precise term is »historical art technology«, for it is a science that encompasses individual techniques of art, specific (artistic) or assistant (non-artistic) in general, facilitating mutual comparison and tracing its historical development. It is concerned with the detailed analysis of individual artifacts during which the restorer uses a number of partial analyses of various fields of the natural sciences and interprets them comprehensively on the basis of the direct study in the course of restoration. lie confronts his findings with period recipes or existing records and compares this in ths period setting. The development oj historical art technology depends on ths exactness of partial analyses and interpretations and on the quantity and publication of specific findings. Our image of technological development supplies itself like a mosaic that gives the more precise outlines as each stone is added. And this is not possible without international co-operation.
We are publishing this yearbook in the conviction that it mil contribute to filling in the mosaic and in the hope that – with contributions from other countries – it will become open to a broader European and world-wide context. It is our aim to establish a platform for a comprehensive approach, that is, the systematic mapping of the development of individual techniques in their historical transformations.

The »Mánes« centre of the community of Czech artists was for many decades the headquarters of the organization of artists, now known as the Union of Artists, and it was also the centre of the Czech School of Restoration. The building was erected on the site of the one-time Sitek's mills, of which a high medieval water tower was conserved. The construction was financed by the Mánes Association of Artists, and it was designed by its chairman, architect O. Novotný in the years 1928-29. (Photograph of the time, 1930 – courtesy National Technical Museum, archives)

For we realize that Man's relation to the world begins with his relation to the material, and that the interdependence between the two, so difficult to detect, is the bearer of the primary significance of the art form.

Council of Archives (AHVT)

A seminar on »Artistic Aspects of Restoration«was held in Prague on 6-7 June 1989.

It was devoted to problems and basic principles of the Czech School of Restoration. This inter-disciplinary meeting was organized by the Department of History of Art at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University, the Institute for Art History of the ČSAV and the Union of Czech Artists.

The following four contributions were selected from among the papers presented at the seminar.