Harvard University book bound in human skin

A book owned by Harvard University has been bound in human skin, scientists believe, reports the BBC. Des destinees de l'ame – Destinies of the Soul – has been housed at Houghton Library since the 1930s.

Writer Arsene Houssaye is said to have given the book to his friend, Dr Ludovic Bouland, in the mid-1880s. Dr Bouland then reportedly bound the book with skin from the body of an unclaimed female mental patient who had died of natural causes.

"The analytical data, taken together with the provenance of Des destinees de l'ame, make it very unlikely that the source could be other than human," Bill Lane, the director of the Harvard Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Resource Laboratory, told the Houghton Library Blog. The practice of binding books in human skin – termed anthropodermic bibliopegy – has been reported since as early as the 16th century.
Full report on the BBC site