Entrance gate and south facade of Wigglesworth Hall Widener Library at Harvard Yard in Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, MA, USA. (Sergi Reboredo/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
- Harvard University removed the human skin binding from a 19th-century
book called “Des Destinies de l’Ame,” a meditation on life after
death, which was held at one of its libraries. - The university acknowledged its past failures in stewardship of the book
and is consulting with French authorities to determine a respectful disposition
of the human remains. - Harvard had previously indulged in the story of the book, calling the
discovery “good news for fans of anthropodermic bibliopegy, bibliomaniacs
and cannibals alike.”
Prestigious
Harvard University said Wednesday it had removed human skin from the binding of
a book held for over 90 years at one of its libraries.
A
copy of the 19th-century book “Des Destines de l’Ame” – or Destinies
of the Soul, a meditation on life after death – was found in 2014 to be bound
in the skin of a deceased woman.
Harvard
said it had removed the binding and noted “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.”
The
university said it was consulting with French authorities “to determine a
final respectful disposition of these human remains.”
Harvard
– widely considered the oldest college in the United States – had indulged
interest in the morbid story of the book, calling the 2014 discovery “good
news for fans of anthropodermic bibliopegy, bibliomaniacs and cannibals
alike.”
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Anthropodermic
bibliopegy – the practice of binding books in human skin – was once a
relatively common practice, Harvard said in a 2014 blog post.
The
university said at the time that Dr Ludovic Bouland, the first owner of the
book written by French author Arsene Houssaye, had taken skin from the body of
a mentally ill woman, who died of a heart attack, at a hospital where he
worked.
Bouland
was said to have told Houssaye in a note:
A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering.
In
Wednesday’s media release, Harvard said its stewardship practices related to
the book had “failed to meet the level of ethical standards to which it
subscribes.”
It
noted that, following scientific analysis confirming it was bound in human
skin, the library made blog posts which “utilised a sensationalistic,
morbid, and humorous tone that fueled similar international media
coverage.”
In
2022, Harvard released a report that identified more than 20 000 human remains
in its various collections, which ranged from skeletons to teeth, hair and bone
fragments.