To assess the short and long-term effect of a newly developed minimally invasive lipid extraction method an parchment, sacrificial pieces of parchments were subjected to artificial ageing and investigated usingvarious analytical methods. Lipids were extracted using our novel vacuum-aided extraction method and characterised by high-temperature gas chromatography (HTGC-FID). Lipids were identified as arising fromdegraded animal fats. The physical, molecular, and mechanical properties of the parchment samples before/after lipid extraction, and before/after ageing were assessed using scanning electron microscopy(SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and pure shear single notch fracture testing. SEM imaging allowed for an assessment of potential structural changes of the collagen fibres while FTIR wasused to investigate the possible molecular changes indicated by changes in amide I and II bands. Mechanical tests were used to record the changes in brittleness and stiffness occurring in the materials through lipid extraction and ageing. The multimodal investigation did not highlight measurable changes in the structural, molecular, and mechanical properties of the lipid-extracted parchment, thus indicatingthe suitability for the minimally invasive lipid extraction method to be applied to historical parchments
