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January 10, 2006

Many Libraries Contain Books Bound With Human Skin

And not just the infamous Necronomicon at Miskatonic University, either:

Brown University's library boasts an anatomy book that combines form and function in macabre fashion. Its cover — tanned and polished to a smooth golden brown, like fine leather — is made of human skin.
In fact, a number of the nation's finest libraries, including Harvard's, have such books in their collections. The practice of binding books in human skin was not uncommon in centuries past, even if it was not always discussed in polite society.

...

Nowadays, libraries typically keep such volumes in their rare book collections and do not allow them to circulate. But scholars can examine them.

Anyone else getting antsy to play Call of Cthulhu?

Brown's John Hay Library has three books bound in human skin — the 1568 anatomy text by the Belgian surgeon Andreas Vesalius, and two 19th-century editions of "The Dance of Death," a medieval morality tale.
One copy of "The Dance of Death" was rebound in 1893 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf, a master binder in London.

...

"The Dance of Death" is about how death prevails over all, rich or poor. As with many other skin-bound volumes, "there was some tie-in with the content of the book," said Sam Streit, director of the John Hay Library.

...

The Boston Athenaeum, a private library, has an 1837 copy of George Walton's memoirs bound in his own skin. Walton was a highwayman — a robber who specialized in ambushing travelers — and left the volume to one of his victims.

The Cleveland Public Library has a Quran that may have been bound in the skin of its previous owner, an Arab tribal leader.

Weird. Until a half hour ago I thought the "human-leather book in the special collections section of a New England university library" was just a staple of horror fiction.

Thanks to the A-Man as well as SobekPundit.

posted by Ace at 04:17 PM

Comments

Just a rumor, but I've heard there are plans for a special expanded version of Encyclopedia Brittanica bound in Dick Cheney's junk.

Posted by: TallDave on January 10, 2006 04:23 PM

I vaguely remember seeing a pair of human skin boots in a museam in South Dakota, or somewhere. A sherriff spent a long time catching a criminal and had the boots made for his trouble. They were yellowish, kind of ostrich skinnish, if anyone cares.

Posted by: adolfo velasquez on January 10, 2006 04:27 PM

Museum not museam. Sheesh.

Posted by: adolfo velasquez on January 10, 2006 04:28 PM

I've heard there are plans for a special expanded version of Encyclopedia Brittanica bound in Dick Cheney's junk.

Cool. An encyclopedia that will inform you--like a viking.

Posted by: utron on January 10, 2006 04:30 PM

Anyone else getting antsy to play Call of Cthulhu?

Shit, Ace. . . do you even have to ask??

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on January 10, 2006 04:40 PM

Encyclopedia Brittanica, Dick Cheney Edition... stroke it a couple of times and it turns into the Library of Congress!

Posted by: Madfish Willie on January 10, 2006 04:45 PM

Dick Cheney's "little black book" is bound in human skin.

Posted by: WWDCD? on January 10, 2006 05:00 PM

If the Cleveland Library's Quran is actually bound in its owner's skin, one wonders if they waited until he was deceased first.

Posted by: Fatwa Arbuckle on January 10, 2006 05:23 PM

Freaky, that does get me antsy to play Call of Cthulhu. Now how to work Encyclopedia Brittanica, Dick Cheney Edition into my next game. This is going to be the scariest Call of Cthulhu adventure ever! Thanks!

Posted by: Disgruntled Monkey on January 10, 2006 05:32 PM

An American reporter of the 1920's was assigned to dine with cannibals in Africa but they tricked him by feeding just monkey meat (afraid of the authorities and stuff. Disappointed our intrepid reporter wnet to France and managed to get himself a big chunk of fresh human flesh from a medical school's anatomy department (for scientific purposes, of course).

He grilled it and ate it with rice . In the end he said it tasted like (not chicken) overbred veal.

http://food.oregonstate.edu/ref/culture/taboo_allen.html

The link above takes a while with a lot of explanations but it gets to the story near the end.

Posted by: jmchez on January 10, 2006 05:48 PM

I hear there are plans for a special edition of Encylopedia Brown bound in Chris Klein's junk.

Posted by: Eric J on January 10, 2006 08:21 PM

The nazis made lampshades with human skin and the bound books with it to

Posted by: spurwing plover on January 10, 2006 09:14 PM