Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Anthropodermic bibliopegy

Anthropodermic bibliopegy is the technical term for books bound in human skin.

While it's not clear how many extant books actually have been bound in human skin, many older libraries (such as the library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia which has four such books, including one with a visible tattoo) have these books in their collection, suggesting there may be hundreds.

Read the rest of this rather morbid, but fascinating article entitled Deviant Behavior from The Record (The Independent Newpaper @ Harvard Law School)...if you dare.

Frankly, I can't believe how much like leather it looks.

10 comments:

cube said...

Forgot to mention that the book pictured is the account of William Corder's trial bound in his own skin.

I know...ewwwwww!

Onotheo said...

I love books specially the old ones. I would probably want to have the book but then what is written in it doesn't interest me and the fact that it's from human skin is somewhat disturbing to me.

otxvrgy

Jen said...

Chuck Palahniuk's novel "Lullaby" tells of a book bound in human skin. That was the first I'd heard of it. It seems odd that Harvard has some sitting around...

Jessica said...

First, let me say ew. Ew.
Now, it's not all that odd that it resembles leather, I mean, leather just means "animal skin dressed for use" and humans are certainly animals.
The word leather is like the word fur, it's descriptive, but not precise. Chinchilla fur and rat fur, different, but similar.
Cow leather and people leather, different, but similar.
In both cases, one is decidedly more creepy than the other, no doubt.

cube said...

Jessey, you seem to be quite conversant in anthropodermic bibliopegy. Should we be concerned?

Unknown said...

Oh, that is just a little creepy. I do know some odd people who would probably think that would be cool to have. I have to admit it would be a great conversation piece.

Jessica said...

Yeah, I'd be concerned about me too, but not because of this!

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