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Umberto Eco or Alexandre Dumas had imagined it: a killer book which signs the end of the one who reads it by means of the poison which coats its pages. They may have existed. In an article in The Conversation, spotted by Franceinfo, two Danish researchers announce having discovered three books contaminated with arsenic. These are rare 16th- and 17th-century books found in the University of Southern Denmark Library and all show large amounts of arsenic on their cover.
The two scientists were looking for to look more closely at small fragments of older texts in the covers, the manuscripts of the time being often recycled, when they realized that a layer of green paint covered the characters they wanted to observe. After a fluorescent X-ray, the green paint turns out to be arsenic. "This chemical element is among the most toxic in the world," the researchers write, "and being exposed to it can lead to various symptoms of poisoning, such as the development of cancer or death.
Insecticides
The arsenic on book covers could be Paris green, very colorful pigments used by the Impressionists. Because of its high toxicity, it is gradually abandoned by artists during the nineteenth century to be used as insecticides on farms, where its use will decline during the twentieth century. The three books could have been covered with Paris green during the nineteenth century, not for its aesthetic qualities, but to keep away insects and vermin.
The toxicity of arsenic does not weaken with the In the meantime, the three poisonous works of the University of Southern Denmark were placed in three separate cardboard boxes, all in a ventilated room. Scientists will continue to search for the secrets hidden in their pages.
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