Science Confirms: Yup, This Book Really Is Bound in Human Skin

Houghton Library, Harvard University

Surely, you've seen our recent work on anthropodermic bibliopegy, the early modern practice of binding books in human skin? 

No? Well, a quick refresher: some books, since the 16th century but before our own time, were bound in human skin. Why? "The confessions of criminals were occasionally bound in the skin of the convicted," Harvard librarian Heather Cole explained, "or an individual might request to be memorialized for family or lovers in the form of a book."

Qué romantico!