Before The Invention Of Book Cloth,

expensive leather was used to cover books, 

photograph Winterthur Museum, apart from the already mentioned costs, book cloth had the advantage of being available in so many colours, one of the most popular book cloth colours of the late 19th century was a vibrant green that came to be known as Paris green or emerald green, no other pigment even came close in terms of intensity, but, and it was a big but, to produce this colour involved the use of arsenic, although a series of arsenic poisoning accidents were reported during that time, the demand for it was so strong that manufacturers didn’t even consider cancelling production!

Melissa Tedone, a conservator at Delaware’s Winterthur Museum, discovered arsenic-infused books while examining a green book published in 1857, She was repairing the book’s spine and boards when she noticed the green pigment flaking off, which she found unusual, when disturbed, emerald green pigment flakes and invisible fragments fly into the air from where they can be inhaled. Some of it can also remain on the hands of whoever is handling one of these emerald green books, and even though it would take a fair bit of this poisonous pigment to actually kill a person, the arsenic can still cause serious health problems and even prove fatal in the long-term, acute symptoms of arsenic exposure can include gastrointestinal symptoms, and over time it can cause lesions and even cancer. To prevent such problems, Melissa Tedone has created the Poison Book Project, an initiative meant to educate people on the dangers of handling books dyed with emerald “We are not aware of any cases of anyone getting seriously ill from handling a book like this,” Tedone told CBC Canada. “We just want to make people aware of the potential hazards so that we can avoid any tragedy ever happening from one of these books.”

this reminds me of a post we made way back in December 2020, Shadows From The Walls of Death, a book featuring samples of arsenic-pigmented wallpaper that people used to decorate their homes over a century ago, it is considered one of the deadliest books ever published.