Library life imitates art
"My own garden: the young gardener's yearbook" by Mrs Loudon. A toxic little book found in Leeds Library rare books collection.
Anyone who had read Umberto Eco’s 1980 novel “The name of the rose” might have thought poisoning people by contaminating a book with a deadly toxin is the stuff of fiction but books manufactured in the nineteenth century were often made with the most hazardous of substances. Green covers achieved using arsenical dyes and anti-fungal agents added glues make some books from this era positively dangerous to handle without gloves.
