Harvard University confirms library book bound with human skin

Scientists at Harvard University’s Houghton Library in the US have confirmed that the cover of a book in their library is made from human skin.

The book, Des destinees de l’ame, is believed to date from the 1880s when the process of anthropodermic bibliopegy, or binding a book with human skin, was a more common practice.

The scientists confirm that the skin is human in origin by using a technique called peptide mass fingerprinting. Daniel Kirby of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies described the results:

“The PMF from Des destinées de l’ame matched the human reference, and clearly eliminated other common parchment sources, such as sheep, cattle and goat. However, although the PMF was consistent with human, other closely related primates, such as the great apes and gibbons, could not be eliminated because of the lack of necessary references.”

The book, which is a series of essays on the human spirit, is believed to have been bound with the skin of a female mental patient who died of a stroke and whose body was never claimed.

In the inscription in the book, the author French novellist Arsene Houssaye, explained why he chose to bind the book in such a gruesome fashion, saying:

“By looking carefully you easily distinguish the pores of the skin

“A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering.”

Two other books that were tested were found to be sheepskin. Scientists used a technique called peptide mass fingerprinting to establish that the book was made from human flesh.