During The Nineteenth Century, Books Were Sometimes Bound Using Human Skin As A Form Of Punishment
Back in 2014, Harvard University’s Houghton Library revealed the unsettling history of one of its books. The work, entitled “Des Destinees de l’Ame,” was actually bound using human skin.
The university staff believed the skin used came from an unknown female mental patient who had died of natural causes. Then, the grisly book-binding process began.
After the author of the book, Arsene Houssaye, finished writing in the mid-1800s, he passed the literature on to a friend. That friend, Dr. Ludovic Bouland, then actually performed the gruesome binding process.
As macabre as this practice may seem, though, covering books with human skin– otherwise known as anthropodermic bibliopegy– was actually a subject of particular interest during the nineteenth century.
Some examples even date as far back as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but popularity truly spiked during the 1800s.
And the reasons why books were bound in this way were plentiful. Some justified the practice as punishment or to aid in the promotion of propaganda, while others simply coveted the rarity of owning such unusual “collector’s items.”
Primarily, during the early nineteenth century, human skin book binding was sometimes used as a sort of post-mortem punishment for executed criminals– especially since it fits in quite well with the idea of dissection.
Following the introduction of the Murder Act in 1752– which aimed to “better prevent the horrid crime of murder”– dissection was used as a deterrent to the English public.
It also undignified criminals who were executed one last time by publicly dissecting them post-mortem.
kharchenkoirina – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Two of the most famous cases of dissection– William Burke and Charles Smith– were both hanged and dissected. Then, parts of their skin were removed and used for book-binding.
Not only was this practice meant to be humiliating, though. It also supposedly held metaphysical consequences.
At the time, many Christians believed that their bodies needed to remain whole and untampered in order to rise on judgment day.
So, removing a piece of skin to bind a novel or create a pocket notebook was viewed as one of the most heinous punishments of all– since it could have prevented you from entering Heaven.
Other circumstances surrounding anthropodermic bibliopegy involved the perpetuation of propaganda.
Most notably, rumors swirled that some French Revolutionaries had set up a tannery in Meudon. At this tannery, a wide range of leather boots, breeches, and book bindings were supposedly made solely from human skin.
It was also believed that a copy of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, dating back to 1793, was made using human skin.
This only helped feed into the legend that Revolutionaries were tanning the skin of enemies.
Finally, some of the most common uses of human skin-bound books were actually collector’s items. At the time, book collectors sought after everything rare and novel. And what is more niche than a novel bound in the hide of humans?
These collectors of such unique commodities also took pride in their collections– often considering themselves gentlemen and even medicine men.
In fact, much of the truly authenticated human skin-bound books actually originated in the libraries of surgeons and doctors.
This makes sense since medical men had two key factors working in their favor– access to virtually limitless raw materials and a sense of clinical detachment.
Of course, though, using the skin of patients’ past is an example of clinical detachment being taken far too extremely– since patient consent was never a consideration, and the humanity of these patients was essentially forgotten.
It is also important to note that most commonly, people of the poorer classes– whose death circumstances left their bodies open to post-mortem exploitation– were used for this gruesome practice.
In very rare cases, someone might volunteer, such as James Allen– who wanted his memoirs to be encased in his own skin.
That was far from the norm, though, and the skin was most often dissected and used without prior consent or even in direct opposition to the deceased person’s wishes.
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