The National Library of France quarantined books decorated with arsenic – Curious

The National Library of France reported that it had quarantined four books from the 19th centurydecorated with arsenicto avoid any risk from this toxic product, reported AFP.

The warning was issued in late 2010 by scientists who discovered this chemical element on the covers of books from this period.
A German-American research program called the “Poisoned Book Project” is working to identify the books in question. Most of the books known to date are located in the United States.

The National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France – BnF) compares titles already identified in other countries with its own catalogue. After analysis, it turns out that only four of the 28 potentially affected volumes actually contain arsenic.

“These works are staged under quarantine and will undergo further analysis by an external laboratory to assess the amount of arsenic present in each volume,” the institution said.

What the four volumes have in common is that they were printed in Great Britain and are rarely used. These are two volumes of Irish ballads compiled by Edward Hayes in 1855, a bilingual anthology of Romanian poetry by Henry Stanley in 1856, and a collection of proceedings of the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain for 1862-1863.

Arsenic was valued for the hue it imparted to blankets, known as “Schweinfurt green” or “Paris green,” between the 1890s and 1880s, according to the current database. This pigment was mainly used in English-speaking countries and Germany, and less often in France.

BnF states that it is also investigating other books with green covers “outside the Poison Book Project list”.

In theory, readers who consult such books run the risk of feeling sick or vomiting. The library said the risk to users was considered very moderate.

There have been no suspected cases of poisoning anywhere in the world in recent years.

Since March, German public libraries have been engaged in large-scale investigation to find the books in question, with tens of thousands of analyzes to be performed. The results are not yet known.

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