Harvard removes human skin binding from book

Des Destinées de l‘Ame (Destinies of the Soul) has been housed at Houghton Library since the 1930s. In 2014, scientists determined that the material it was bound with was in fact human skin. The university has now announced it has removed the binding. Located within the book is a note written by Dr Bouland, stating no ornament had been stamped on the cover to “preserve its elegance.

He wrote: “I had kept this piece of human skin taken from the back of a woman,”” The practice of binding books in human skin - termed anthropodermic bibliopegy - has been reported since as early as the 16th Century. It generally seems to have been done in the 19th Century by doctors who had access to human bodies for dissection. Harvard apologised and said it had further objectified and compromised the dignity of the human being whose remains were used.