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 allegedly bound in human skin, Practicarum quaestionum circa leges regias Hispaniae, a treatise on Spanish law, though testing on the binding has proven inconclusive. 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.^[1]

The National Library of Australia holds a book of 18th century poetry with the inscription "Bound in human skin" on the first page.^[2]

Another such book resides at the University of Georgia in the Richard B. Russel Special Collections Library.

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.

Popular culture

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

• PC Hodgell's Kencyr series features "the Book Bound in Pale Leather", which appears to be bound in living human skin.
• 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
• Mayhem's 1994 album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas references books bound in human skin in the title track.
• In the episode "Like a Virgin" of the TV series Supernatural, the book containing the spell to release the Mother of All is printed on human skin

Notes

1. ^ San Francisco Chronicle
2. ^ "Poems bound up in a human skin". Canberra Times. 8 August 2011. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/poems-bound-up-in-a-human-skin/2250959.aspx. 

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