Anthropodermic bibliopegy

Anthropodermic bibliopegy is the practice of binding books in human skin. Though extremely uncommon in modern times, the technique dates back to at least the 17th century. The practice is inextricably connected with the practice of tanning human skin, often done in certain circumstances after a corpse has been dissected.

History

Surviving historical examples of this technique include anatomy texts bound with the skin of dissected cadavers, volumes created as a bequest and bound with the skin of the testator (known as 'autoanthropodermic bibliopegy'), and copies of judicial proceedings bound in the skin of the murderer convicted in those proceedings, such as in the case of John Horwood in 1821 and the Red Barn Murder in 1828.

The libraries of many Ivy League universities include one or more samples of anthropodermic bibliopegy. The rare book collection at the Harvard Law School Library holds a book, Practicarum quaestionum circa leges regias Hispaniae, a treatise on Spanish law. A faint inscription on the last page of the book states:

The bynding of this booke is all that remains of my deare friende Jonas Wright, who was flayed alive by the Wavuma on the Fourth Day of August, 1632. King Btesa did give me the book, it being one of poore Jonas chiefe possessions, together with ample of his skin to bynd it. Requiescat in pace.

(The Wavuma are believed to be an African tribe from the region currently known as Zimbabwe.)

The John Hay Library's special books collection at Brown University contains three human-skin books, including a rare copy of De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Vesalius.

Some early copies of Dale Carnegie's Lincoln the Unknown were covered with jackets containing a patch of skin from an African American man, onto which the title had been embossed.

The National Library of Australia holds a book of 18th century poetry with the inscription "Bound in human skin" on the first page.

There is also a tradition of certain volumes of erotica being bound in human skin. Examples reported include a copy of the Marquis de Sade's Justine et Juliette bound in tanned skin from female breasts. Other examples are known, with the feature of the intact human nipple on one or more of the boards of the book.

Holocaust

It was commonly believed for a time that prominent Nazis, such as Ilse Koch, had commissioned the creation of items from the skin of victims of the Holocaust, including books and lampshades. However, reports of this particular supposed Nazi atrocity are widely considered today to be apocryphal, according to authorities such as the Nizkor Project.

The Nazis are known to have taken and preserved individual pieces of skin, chiefly those sections displaying tattoos; several examples of such can be found within the collections of the National Museum of Health and Medicine and the United States National Archives, although neither institution places these items on display.

Related interest

The serial killer Ed Gein made a lampshade from human skin.

In March, 2006 a human skin lampshade was sold for $35 to a collector in post-hurricane Katrina New Orleans. This object was verified at a DNA lab and the frame of the shade was verified as of Eastern European origin dating to 1920-1940. The full story of this object was documented in "The Lampshade" by Mark Jacobson, published by Simon and Schuster in September, 2010.

Saddam Hussein commissioned the creation of the Blood Qur'an, which, while not bound in human skin, is a complete copy of the Islamic holy book penned in Hussein's own blood; perhaps ignorantly opposing Islamic law, which regards blood as najas (unclean).

Popular culture

The binding of books in human skin is also a common element within horror films and works of fiction:

• Peter Greenaway's 1996 film The Pillow Book contains a sequence in which the body of a writer is exhumed and his skin painstakingly tanned, written upon, and bound into a book.
• In the Evil Dead series of films and comic books originally created by Sam Raimi, a fictional Sumerian book called the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis is bound in human skin and inked with human blood.
• The video game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem centers around a book called the Tome of Eternal Darkness which is bound in human flesh.
• Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby (novel) features a book bound in human skin called The Grimoire

Further Reading

• R.W. Hackwood, "Human Skin Tanned", Notes and Queries, 3rd series, X (Oct 27, 1866), 341.
• F. A. Carrington, "Human Skin Tanned, etc.", Notes and Queries, 2nd series, II (Oct 11, 1856), 299.
• Alfred Wallis, "Book Bound in Human Skin", Notes and Queries, 7th series, VIII (March 30, 1889), 246.
• H. Tapley-Soper, 'Books Bound in Human Skin", Notes and Queries, CLI (July 24, 1926), 68-9 and CLXXXVII (Dec 30, 1944), 306. Tapley-Soper was librarian of the Exeter City Library.
• John Pavin Philips, "Human Skin Tanned, etc", Notes and Queries, 2nd series, II (Sept 27, 1856), 251-2.
• Paul McPharlin, "Curious Book Bindings", Notes and Queries, CLIII (1927), 6.
• C. Roy Hudleston, "Books Bound in Human Skin", Notes and Queries, CLXXXVII (Nov 18, 1944), 241.
• A.H. W Fynmore, "Books Boun in Human Skin", Notes and Queries, CLXXXVII (Dec 2, 1944), 259.
• [anon] "Curl Up on a Good Book", The Dolphin, Fall, 1940, Pt 1 (no 4), p. 92.
• Henry Stephens, "Human Skin Tanned, etc", Notes and Queries, 2nd series, II (Sept 27, 1856), 252.
• Walter Hart Blumenthal, "Books Bound in Human Skin", The American Book Collector, II (1932), 123-4.
• "G", "Human Skin Tanned", Notes and Queries, 3rd series, VIII (Dec 2, 1865), 463.
• "T.G.S.", "Human Skin Tanned, etc", Notes and Queries, 2nd series, II (Sept 27, 1856), 252.
• "F.S." of Churchdown, "Human Skin Tanned, etc", Notes and Queries, 2nd series, II (Sept 27, 1856), 250-1.

External links

• 'Spooky' face on skin-bound book BBC News, 27 November 2007
• Books Bound in Human Skin; Lampshade Myth?
• Book covered with human skin resurfaces at Bailey Library, The Online Rocket, Slippery Rock University, 22 January 2010
• Holbein's Dance of Death bound in human skin as catalogued by Leonard Smithers