LONDON - A 300-year-old book that appears to be bound in human skin has been found in northern England, police said Saturday.
The macabre discovery was made on a central street in Leeds, and officers said the ledger may have been dumped following a burglary.
Detectives were trying to trace its rightful owner and believe it may have been taken from a dwelling in the area.
Much of the text is in French, and it was not uncommon around the time of the French Revolution for books to be covered in human skin.
The practice, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, was sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries when accounts of murder trials were bound in the killer's skin.
Anatomy books also were sometimes bound in the skin of a dissected cadaver. In World War II, Nazis were accused of using the skin from Holocaust victims to bind books.
In a brief statement, West Yorkshire police said the ledger, which contained handwriting in black ink, appears to date back to the 1700s, and they appealed to anyone who may be able to help identify the owners of the item to contact authorities.
West Yorkshire Police put two photographs of the book on their Web site, but officers were unable on Saturday to answer any questions about it, including the book's subject matter.
See: 'Ce curieux petit livre...' A book bound in human skin, a recent acquisition by the Wellcome Library, is evidence of a relatively common publishing practice. John Symons - Curator of the Early Printed Book Collection in the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine - describes the latest addition.
There was an exhibition about those books (for the period between 1500 and 1800) in the famous Wolfenbüttel library in 2004 - unfortunately, I can't find any sites in English about it.
From my own bookshelf, a normal book from that period:
(That book consist actually of two different books, only connected by the topic: one from 1711, the other from 1674.)
0 Replies
edgarblythe
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Sun 9 Apr, 2006 09:09 am
I read about this yesterday. I don't think I could preserve such a book if it were left in my care.
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shewolfnm
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Sun 9 Apr, 2006 09:31 am
I think it is sort of morbid..
but, if I had one, I think I would be a proud owner.
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dyslexia
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Sun 9 Apr, 2006 09:36 am
Slip me some skin, baby.
Ok, here's page 23.
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Walter Hinteler
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Sun 9 Apr, 2006 09:42 am
shewolfnm wrote:
I think it is sort of morbid..
but, if I had one, I think I would be a proud owner.
It's quite funny, but when hold such a book in hands ... actually, it feels better than the one I've pictured from my bookshelves
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snood
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Sun 9 Apr, 2006 10:01 am
Yeah, I hear cannibalism is something you shouldn't knock 'till you try, either. Tastes just like chicken, they say.
And necrophilia is a much maligned practice, too. Who's to say what an adult should get their freak on with?
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Walter Hinteler
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Sun 9 Apr, 2006 10:03 am
snood wrote:
Yeah, I hear cannibalism is something you shouldn't knock 'till you try, either. Tastes just like chicken, they say.
But what should be done with those books? Burn them?
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snood
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Sun 9 Apr, 2006 10:26 am
Well, I sure don't think they need to be brought to grammar school for show and tell.
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Walter Hinteler
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Sun 9 Apr, 2006 10:30 am
snood wrote:
Well, I sure don't think they need to be brought to grammar school for show and tell.
Certainly not - I was talking about those in (scientific) libraries.
(Not even about those from "collectors" .... and I'll never understand the more than 18 million people , who have seen and those, who still queue up to see the "Body Worlds".)