How we discovered three poisonous books in our university library.

Pedro_P

Arsenic and old manuscripts.

Poisoning by books?
Raman Saurei/ Shutterstock.com

▼ Some may remember the deadly book of Aristotle that plays a vital part in the plot of Umberto Eco’s 1980 novel The Name of the Rose. Poisoned by a mad Benedictine monk, the book wreaks havoc in a 14th-century Italian monastery, killing all readers who happen to lick their fingers when turning the toxic pages. Could something like this happen in reality? Poisoningby books?
Our recent research indicates so. We found that three rare books on various historical topics in the University of Southern Denmark’s library collection contain large concentrations of arsenic on their covers. The books come from the 16th and 17th centuries.
The poisonous qualities of these books were detected by conducting a series of X-ray fluorescence analyses (micro-XRF). This technology displays the chemical spectrum of a material by analysing the characteristic “secondary” radiation that is emitted from the material during a high-energy X-ray bombardment. Micro-XRF technology is widely used within the fields of archaeology and art, when investigating the chemical elements of pottery and paintings, for example.

One of the poisonous books.
SDU, Author provided
Glaring green
The reason why we took these three rare books to the X-ray lab was because the library had previously discovered that medieval manuscript fragments, such as copies of Roman law and canonical law, were used to make their covers. It is well documentedthat European bookbinders in the 16th and 17th centuries used to recycleolder parchments.
We tried to identify the Latin texts used, or at least read some of their content. But then we found that the Latin texts in the covers of the three volumes were hard to read because of an extensive layer of green paint which obscures the old handwritten letters. So we took them to the lab. The idea was to filter through the layer of paint using micro-XRF and focus on the chemical elements of the ink below, for example on iron and calcium, in the hope of making the letters more readable for the university’s researchers.
But XRF-analysis revealed that the green pigment layer was arsenic. This chemical element is among the most toxic substances in the world and exposure may lead to various symptoms of poisoning, the development of cancer, and even death. (▪ ▪ ▪)

► Please, read the full note here: Source

bsk

interesting article, thanks for the share

b_mayukh

Interesting

Jaypie101

This is interesting... More so because it amazes me to think that people would go as far as poisoning books to assassinate people.

Akm1001

A very unique way to assasinate .

Danielle

Assassination Literal Meaning
Assassination usually refers to killing someone prominent and powerful. Are we using correct term here?

Illuminati

Yet another reason to read ebooks instead!

soothsayer

Phew! The present day criminal does not have to plot anymore. If his victim is a booklover, he has had it!

somyajeet

Great article

Srinivas1939

Scary.Good reason to stick to e books.