Source | Fuente
I never cease to feel insignificant every time I start thinking about everything we don't know. How many things existed and exist today and how much there is out there to discover. And my intention is not to start telling an Indiana Jones movie, but the fact of knowing that the book binding with human skin really existed does not cease to seem to me something out of horror movies.
And yes, you read that right. Book binding with human skin. At first I thought it was something like a religious sect, satanic or even something from the Nazi era. But no, it turns out that a long time ago it was something quite frequent, though not common. To be more precise, anthropodermic bibliopegia, is the name given to the set of techniques used to bind a book with the skin of a human being.
Source | Fuente
According to records, this technique was widely used in the 17th and 19th centuries, mainly in France and England. On some occasions, this technique was used for sentimental reasons and other times it was a kind of sign of victory over an enemy. A clear example of this was during the French Revolution, where the skins of many decapitated nobles were used to bind several copies of the constitution. It was also common to find many medical anatomy books bound with the skin of the corpse of the patient being studied.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the skins of executed criminals were used to bind a kind of book where all their crimes were described in detail. There were also found volumes of judicial processes bound with the skin of the accused and sentenced to death. A clear example was the case of William Corder who killed his lover in 1827 and to this day his skin preserves his story in the Bury St. Edmunds Museum in England. Another extremely bizarre case was that of Jonas Wright, who was skinned alive by the Wavuma tribe on August 4, 1632. It is said that King Btesa gave a book called Practicarium Quaestionum along with a large piece of Jonas' skin to have the book bound. Today the book is part of the Harvard Law Library.
Source | Fuente
To date, it is not known for sure how many books bound with this technique exist, but it is known that they are scattered all over the world. The problem is that a DNA test is needed to differentiate whether a book is bound with human skin or animal skin. This is because many have tried to counterfeit such books to fool collectors. So who knows and you or a relative of yours might have one of these books at home.
Thank you very much for reading my post. If you liked it, please leave a comment and consider following me so you don't miss my next posts. I'd love to know your opinion and your thoughts about the topic I discussed in this post, see you in the next one!Translated by DeepL
