Anthropodermic books

found: Work cat: 2020023645: Rosenbloom, M., Dark archives : a librarian's investigation into the science and history of books bound in human skin, 2020,galley (Shortly thereafter, I joined forces...to create the Anthropodermic Book Project. Our aim is to identify and test as many alleged anthropodermic books as possible and dispel long-held myths about the most macabre books in history...As of this writing, my team has only identified about fifty alleged anthropodermic books in public collections and a few more in private hands (p. 15-16)...Who were the binders who agreed to put the skin on the book, and who were the collectors who commissioned the anthropodermic bindings? (p. 12)...We have confirmed two anthropodermic bindings on text written by one of the earliest African American authors, Phillis Wheatley. (p. 101-102))

found: Anthropodermic Book Project website, viewed June 10, 2020(Anthropodermic bibliopegy, or books bound in human skin...The historical reasons behind their creation vary: 19th century doctors made them as personal keepsakes for their book collections or at the request of the state to further punish executed prisoners. Persistent rumors exist about French Revolutionary origins as well. The best evidence most of these alleged skin books have ever had were rumors and perhaps a pencil-written note inside that said "bound in human skin"... until now. Our team has developed an easy, inexpensive, and truly authoritative method for testing alleged anthropodermic books to see if they're of human origin.)

found: Melville House website, June 15, 2020(Books bound in human skin are more common than you think. The practice of binding books with human flesh, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, was fairly common through the 17th and 18th centuries)

found: Madrigal, A.C. It Was Once 'Somewhat Common' to Bind Books With Human Skin, Apr. 3, 2014; viewed online via Atlantic, June 15, 2020(Early print culture and the practice of what book historians call anthropodermic bibliopegy. That would be binding books in human skin)

found: Memento Mütter, viewed June 15, 2020(Anthropodermic book: This book is unusual in that it is partially bound in skin taken from the thigh of Mary Lynch, an Irish immigrant who died in the Almshouse at Philadelphia General Hospital in 1869)