[LIS-Forum] US Libraries have Books bound using human skin

[Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy]

 Tales of the macabre
Some U.S. libraries have books bound in human skin
>From The Hindu 12th January 2006
PROVIDENCE: Brown University's library boasts an anatomy book thatcombines form and function in macabre fashion. Its cover — tanned andpolished to a smooth golden brown, like fine leather — is made ofhuman skin. In fact, a number of the finest libraries in the U.S.,including Harvard's, have such books.
The practice of binding books in human skin was not uncommon incenturies past, even if it was not always discussed in polite society.At the time, the best libraries belonged to private collectors. Somewere doctors who had access to skin from amputated parts and patientswhose bodies had gone unclaimed. In other cases, wealthy bibliophilesacquired skin from executed criminals, medical school cadavers andpeople who died in the poor house.
Nowadays, libraries keep such volumes in their rare book collectionsand do not allow them to circulate. Brown's John Hay Library has threebooks bound in human skin: the 1568 anatomy text by the Belgiansurgeon Andreas Vesalius, and two 19th-century editions of The Danceof Death, a medieval morality tale. One copy of The Dance of Death wasre-bound in 1893 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf, a master-binder in London. Anote to his client reports that he did not have enough skin and had tosplit it. The front cover, bound in the outer layer of skin, has abumpy texture, like soft sandpaper. The spine and back cover, madefrom the inner layer, feel like suede.
The Dance of Death is about how death prevails over all, rich or poor.As with many other skin-bound volumes, "there was some tie-in with thecontent," said Sam Streit of the John Hay Library.
Medical books
Many of the volumes are medical books. The College of Physicians ofPhiladelphia has some bound by Dr. John Stockton Hough, who diagnosedthe city's first case of trichinosis. He used that patient's skin tobind three of the volumes.
"The hypothesis is that these physicians did this to honour the peoplewho furthered medical research," said Laura Hartman, a rare-bookcataloguer.
It is not clear if some of the patients knew what would happen totheir bodies. In most cases, the skin appears to have come from thosewho had no one to claim their remains. In any case, the practicepre-dated the age of consent forms.
While human leather may be repulsive to contemporary society,libraries can ethically have the books if they are used with respectfor academic research and not displayed as objects of curiosity, saidPaul Wolpe of the University of Pennsylvania. "There is a certaindistancing that history gives us from certain kinds of artefacts," hesaid, noting that museums often have bones from archaeological sites.The Boston Athenaeum, a private library, has an 1837 copy of GeorgeWalton's memoirs bound in his own skin. Walton was a highwayman andleft the volume to one of his victims.
Decades ago, the Harvard Law School Library bought a 1605 manual forSpanish lawyers for $42.50 from an antiquarian books dealer. It sat ona shelf unnoticed until the early 1990s, when curator David Ferris wasgoing through the library catalogue and found a note saying it wasbound in a man's skin. DNA tests to find the type of skin wereinconclusive — the genetic material having been destroyed by thetanning process — but the library now keeps it on a special shelf. "Wefelt we couldn't set it just next to someone else's law books," Mr.Ferris said. — AP==============http://www.hindu.com/2006/01/12/stories/2006011204052400.htm
--Dr P Vyasamoorthy,SENIORS(Society for Enriched Information of Relevance to Seniors),30, Gruhalakshmi Colony, Secunderabad 500018Phone 27846631