The chilling reality of books bound in skin

Today‘s post is not for the faint of heart. If you even question your sentiments, please turn away. I will happily see you next time. For the rest, you have been warned. Let us begin.

You have read the title. Stories of books bound in skin are commonplace hoaxes. Yet, some are legitimate. Anthropodermic bibliopegy, the process of binding books in human skin, was a secretive but real practice. The skin commonly came from unwilling victims including prisoners and the poor. Practitioners of anthropodermic bibliopegy were not underneath graverobbing either. From what we know, more often than not they were linked to medical offices and the anatomist trade. 19th-century doctors would sometimes keep them in their book collections

What does a skin-bound book look like? That‘s the worst part: almost exactly like any other leather-bound book. After all, human skin can be made into leather, just like any other animal skin. It can be treated with lime, scraped, tanned, saturated in a solution and dried. It could also be coloured to be entirely indistinguishable from, say, pig leather. Creepy. Strangely enough, Human leather is known as more durable and water-resistant than other leathers.

So then, how can we identify books bound in human skin? Well, looking at and testing one by one thousands of books in collections is impractical. Therefore, the best evidence is found within the rumours and notes left behind pointing it out. Indeed, written notes stating that the book is bound in human skin can be found. We do have to keep in mind that such notes are not eligibly true (as we can see) even more so when you consider that it could be made to add some emotional power to a tome. Why so? Think about it. Would you handle a book the same way knowing it was bound with human skin? Of course not. In that way, some poets and gothic authors found it suitable to write such a note. As we saw before, anatomist sometimes found allegations of that sort a (very) macabre way to express their expertise in anatomy. One thing is certain: some of these practitioners might have known much about anatomy but definitely not how to handle leather. Ironically, that is another great clue for forensic scientists. A leather book that was bound incorrectly is another sign used to tip off human skin covers.

As stated, fortunately most alleged skin-bounded books are hoaxes. One famous example was a copy of the Bibliotheca Politica (a historical piece on European constitutions of all things) held in a National Library in the USA. Turned out it was sheepskin. Another was a 1504 philosophy book said to be owned by Christopher Columbus. It was pig skin after all.

Before modern equipment, visual clues were the only tools forensic scientists could use. Of course, now we have DNA testing. The Anthropodermic Book Project worked (until 2020 at least) on collecting stories of alleged anthropodermic books and testing them. From the 32 books they tested, 18 were truly anthropodermic. 14 were not.

Let us close things off with examples of anthropodermic books that were verified by the Anthropodermic Book Project. Some of them are chilling:

Controversially, there was a Nazi photo album likely made in a Holocaust camp.
Two printings of Hans Holbein the Younger's Dance of Death woodcuts (one from 1816 and the other from 1898). Go look up the original woodcuts.
The human dissection reference De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem (originally Andreas Vesalius, 1543) was bound in skin by Josse Schavye in the 1860s.
Probably worst of all, John Stockton Hough (a nineteenth-century physician) bound three books from the skin of a poor Irish émigré called Mary Lynch that he autopsied in 1869.
One strange case is the Narrative of the Life of James Allen (1837). Indeed, the binding was requested by Allen himself and used his own skin. From what we know, he gave the copy to the one man who resisted being robbed by Allen - John Fenno.

In most cases, the exact reason why such books were bound in human skin remains unclear. In any case, they are real dilemmas for collectors and museums. Where does the line between ethical concerns and preservation lie?

In the end, I am happy to say that the practice seems to have died out in the early twentieth century. Rest assured that even then, it was not a common practice. Remember that the Anthropodermic Book Project only identified 51 books with stories solid enough to warrant testing. Even then, only half were bound in skin. The practice had more power in its mental impact than its reality. That could be said for many things less macabre but no less important. But enough said for today. Take it as an opportunity to leave such appalling thoughts behind for the day and enjoy what is ahead!

See you next time.

References

In the Flesh? Anthropodermic Bibliopegy Verification and Its Implications, Jacob Gordon, 2016.
https://anthropodermicbooks.org/