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Books Bound In Human Skin

Here's a 2014 BBC Magazine article about books bound in human skin ...
The macabre world of books bound in human skin
A book owned by Harvard University library recently revealed its grisly history, when scientists confirmed that it was bound in human skin.

Staff at the university believe that the book, Des Destinees de l'Ame (Destinies of the Soul), was covered with the skin of an unclaimed female mental patient who died of natural causes. Writer Arsene Houssaye is said to have given the book in the mid 1880s to his friend, Dr Ludovic Bouland, who apparently carried out the unusual binding.

Covering books in human skin, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, was a particular subject of interest in the 19th Century, although it is understood the practice goes back further. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27903742
 
Anthropodermic bibliopegy is the only kind of "Facebook" I would ever participate in. Sorry Zuckerberg.
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How would you tell human skin from pigskin (Which is beautiful leather BTW)

Short of DNA?
 
Here's a review of a new(?) book on the subject of anthropodermic bibliopegy ...
'Dark Archives' Explores The Use Of Human Skin In Bookbinding

... Megan Rosenbloom, a young librarian-in-training, wanders through the Mütter Museum's collection of medical oddities. In an inconspicuous corner, she discovers a display case of leather-bound books with their covers closed — unusual for rare books. The caption explains these books are closed because their binding is more notable than their contents, and that's because they were made from human skin. This marks the beginning of Rosenbloom's obsession with "anthropodermic bibliopegy" and the opening scene to Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin, an adventurous tale of how one librarian's morbid curiosity leads her across the Atlantic and back as she investigates the origins, motivations, and techniques behind this macabre bookbinding practice. ...
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FULL REVIEW: https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/925832512/dark-archives-explores-the-use-of-human-skin-in-bookbinding
 
Seeing as the book's premise is a reflection on the soul and life after death O guess human skin seemed appropriate for the binding at the time.

Apparently, in the 1800s, it wasn't unheard of for books to be bound in human skin. And Harvard University still had one such book in its library — until its decision to remove it this month.

Harvard's copy of the 19th century book, Des destinées de l'âme by Arsène Houssaye, has a morbid history. According to a Harvard Library statement, the book, published in 1879, was first owned by Dr. Ludovic Bouland, a French doctor who took skin off of a dead patient "without consent" while working at a hospital. He then used her skin to bind the book.

Harvard received the book in in 1934, and for a while, those in the know would "haze" Harvard student library employees by asking them to "retrieve the book without being told it included human remains."

But it wasn't until 2014 that the university "publicly confirmed that the binding was made from human skin," according to ABC News. And Harvard admits that, even after acknowledging the book's binding material, "anyone who asked for it, regardless of their reason for wishing to consult it," could still have access to it. Until this month.

From ABC News:

The book's premise is a reflection on the soul and life after death, and a handwritten note by Bouland inserted into the volume states that "a book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering," according to the University.
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https://boingboing.net/2024/03/28/a...pse-finally-removed-from-harvard-library.html
 
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