A book bound in human skin found in a library turns out to be genuine
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A book bound in human skin at Harvard University's Houghton Library , where you can even see the pores, has been found to have a 99.9% chance of being bound in human skin. Three books believed to be bound in human skin had been discovered at Harvard University, but in April 2014 it was announced that one of them was a fake.
» Caveat Lecter Houghton Library Blog
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghton/2014/06/04/caveat-lecter/
» Bound in human skin Houghton Library Blog
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghton/2013/05/24/bound-in-human-skin/
The book that was discovered to be authentic was written by French novelist Arsène Houssaye , who gave it to psychiatrist and bibliophile Ludovic Bouland, who bound it in skin from a woman who had died of a stroke.
The book is hand-written by Bouland, who wrote: 'This book is bound in parchment made of human skin, without any engraving or decoration, so as not to mar the natural elegance of the skin. If you look closely, you can easily discern the pores. I kept the skin from a woman's back, and this book, which is about the human soul, is fittingly bound in human skin. It is interesting to note how the skin changes color with storage, giving it different aspects. I have another book bound in human skin, smaller than this one, which has faded to the color of sumac in the sun.'
The 'other book' in the above passage is 'De integritatis & corruptionis virginum notis' by Séverin Pineau, published in 1663 and kept in
It is decorated with intricate details.
Inside was a handwritten note by Bouland.
When this human skin-bound book was discovered at Harvard University, it was not clear whether human skin was actually used. Therefore, the research team took several samples from the binding and investigated them using peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF), a method of identifying proteins, and concluded that the book was bound with human skin with a 99.9% probability. Bill Lane, who conducted the investigation, said, 'The PMF investigation showed that this binding was clearly different from common bindings such as sheep and cows, and matched the human protein data. We could not completely discard the possibility that it was a primate very close to humans, such as a gibbon, but we used liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry to determine the amino acid sequence and concluded that it was almost impossible for it to be skin other than human.'
It is believed that ' human skin bound books ' have appeared since at least the 16th century, and the bookbinding technique was established in the 17th century. At that time, the bodies of executed criminals were used for the development of science, and their skin was given to tanneries and bookbinders, so books were bound using the skin of criminals, or the skin of deceased family members was used to bind books as mementos. When you hear 'books bound with human skin,' you may imagine something gruesome, but it seems that it was not so unusual at the time.
In 2006, it was thought that Harvard had three books bound in human skin , but investigations revealed that the remaining two were made of sheepskin. One of the books had a cryptic inscription: 'The binding of this book was left by my good friend, Jonas Wright, who was skinned alive by the Wavuma tribe on August 4, 1632. This book was given to me by King Mbesa, and was the most significant of Jonas' possessions, despite his poverty. Jonas' skin was sufficient to bind the book. May he rest in peace.' So, investigations were carried out, but it turned out that the other book was the real one.
852 RARE: Old Books, New Technologies, and “The Human Skin Book” at HLS
http://etseq.law.harvard.edu/2014/04/852-rare-old-books-new-technologies-and-the-human-skin-book-at-hls/
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