![]() ![]() A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering: I had kept this piece of human skin taken from the back of a woman. By looking carefully you easily distinguish the pores of the skin. "This book is bound in human skin parchment on which no ornament has been stamped to preserve its elegance. ![]() Un livre sur l'Ame humaine méritait bien qu'on lui donnait un vetement humain: aussi lui avais je réservé depuis longtemps ce morceau de peau humaine pris sur le dor d'une femme". En le regardant attentivement on distingue facilement les pores de la peau. "Ce livre est relié en peau humaine parcheminée, c'est pour lui laisser tout son cachet qu'a dessein on n'y a point appliqué d'ornement. Interestingly, researchers doubted the cover's composition despite the fact the book had come with a note stating the cover was made of human skin: Further testing determined the cover is comprised from the skin of an unidentified French woman who died suddenly in a mental hospital. An old story recently resurfaced that Harvard University's library had discovered a trio of books in its collection were bound with human skin, including skin from a man who was flayed alive. Though two of the three volumes were made from sheepskin, Houssaye's book is most definitely human skin. Scientists took various samples from the covers of three books suspected to have part or whole covers comprised of human skin and tested the samples using peptide mass fingerprinting to identify the binding's source. ![]() This past week, Harvard University confirmed Arsène Houssaye's (1815-1896) Des destinées de l'ame in their Houghton Library is "without a doubt bound in human skin." Yes, human skin. ![]()
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