Harvard University has removed a copy of the 19th century book Des Destinées de l’Ame from its library, due to the fact that the book had a human skin binding. Talk about skin-deep literature, hey? Hey? … hey? Alright, I’ll see myself out.
Holding the book in the Harvard library for more than 90 years, the skin-ny copy of Des Destinées de l’Ame — also known as Destinies of the Soul — by French author Arsène Houssaye, has been removed from the university’s Houghton library to be rebound by literally any other material please.
In a media release Harvard said it was getting rid of the skin book because it “failed to meet the level of ethical standards to which it subscribes”.
Harvard discovered that the book was bound in the taboo material back in 2014, and that the book’s original owner Dr Ludovic Bouland had used skin from a deceased mentally ill woman to bind the copy of Des Destinées, because he thought that “a book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering.” (Red flags all round TBH.)
Get this: Apparently back in the day it was a relatively normal practise to bind books using human skin. Ick, ick, ick.
The craft is called anthropodermic bibliopegy, and for some reason it isn’t around anymore. Funny that.
In a statement the prestigious university clarified that when removing the binding it observed “past failures in its stewardship of the book, that further objectified and compromised the dignity of the human being whose remains were used for its binding”
Harvard confirmed it is currently working with the proper authorities “to determine a final respectful disposition of these human remains”.
Sorry, but if you turned me into a book, I’d be haunting you for eternity.
Wait actually, scratch that. In this economy it may be the only ethical and affordable thing to do with my corpse.
So on that note, when I die I don’t want to be cremated or buried anymore.
Just turn me into a copy of Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. Please and thank you.
[Image Credit: Harry Potter, Harvard University]
