The process of binding a book using human skin, also called anthropodermic biblipegy, has taken place as early as the 16th century. Though it may seem peculiar to us in the modern age when that wouldn’t exactly be tolerated (though again….when was the last time you checked?), it was reportedly common in Houssaye’s time. The university confirmed that the cover is made of human flesh by using various techniques, including peptide mass fingerprint (PMF) which tests the subjects proteins. Well….at least she wasn’t living at the time. The skin was reportedly harvested from the back of an unclaimed female mental patient who died after having a stroke.
The book, Des Destinées de l’ame, or Destiny of the Soul, was written by French novelist and poet Arsène Houssaye in the mind 1880’s and has been stored at Harvard’s Houghton Library since 1934.Ī note found inside the book claimed that the it was bound in human skin in order to reflect the text’s themes of the human soul after death. His name, along with his iconic lines, flashed through my mind, however, after I learned that Harvard University is the home to a book bound in human skin.
#HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOOKS BOUND IN HUMAN SKIN SERIAL#
Buffalo Bill, the notorious serial-killer introduced in Thomas Harris’ novel The Silence of the Lambs (and portrayed in the 1991 film adaptation) who skins women to make clothing may be real after all! Okay, he isn’t actually real (though he was inspired by a multitude of real-life serial killers, but that’s a whole other article).
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