Anthropodermic bibliopegy

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Anthropodermic bibliopegy is the practice of binding books in human skin. Though uncommon in modern times, the technique dates back to at least the 17th century.

300 year old ledger covered in human skin

[edit] History

Surviving historical examples of this technique include anatomy texts bound with the skin of dissected cadavers, volumes created as a bequest and bound with the skin of the testator, and copies of judicial proceedings bound in the skin of the murderer convicted in those proceedings.

The libraries of many Ivy League universities include one or more samples of anthropodermic bibliopegy. The rare book collection at the Langdell Law Library at Harvard University holds a book, Practicarum quaestionum circa leges regias Hispaniae, a treaty of Spanish law. A faint inscription on the last page of the books states:

"The bynding of this booke is all that remains of my deare friende Jonas Wright, who was flayed alive by the Wavuma on the Fourth Day of August, 1632. King Btesa did give me the book, it being one of poore Jonas chiefe possessions, together with ample of his skin to bynd it. Requiescat in pace." (The Wavuma are believed to be an African tribe from the region currently known as Zimbabwe.)

[edit] Legend and Controversy

It was commonly believed for a time that prominent Nazis, such as Ilsa Koch, had commissioned the creation of items from the skin of victims of the Holocaust, including books and lampshades. In the absence of evidence the claim is now held, by some, to be an urban legend. However, those who seek to minimize such accounts may merely be among those who fall victim to "denier," propaganda. Reputable investigation and documentation by survivors of Jewish Holocaust victims -- as well as the research of non-biased historians sheds new light on the old controversy:

"It's exceedingly well-documented that such ornaments did exist; there's no question but that someone made them out of human skin. When one can see a book whose cover is tanned skin with a decorative tattoo on it, there's little question that the skin was that of a human being. If one has any doubt as to the origin of the substance, one should examine the forensic report conducted on some of the skin. It concludes, based on microscopic examination and the placement of the nipples and navel, that the skin was certainly human." (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/skin.html)

Ilsa Koch of Buchenwald was found guilty of war crimes by both an international court and in Germany and sentenced to life in prison. However, her sentence was later commuted due to a "lack of evidence," that many experts believe was a result of restricted evidence and technicalities over the time frame in question. "In the last days of 1948, a Senate investigation into the Koch case, begun only four days after the commutation of her sentence in September, was completed. The excerpts from that report printed in the Times regarding human-skin atrocities are as follows:[11]

• Tattooed skin was carefully cut from bodies of dead inmates, tanned and used for a variety of pseudo-scientific and decorative purposes. • As to the human-skin aspects of this case, there is no doubt that tattooed human skin was scraped, tanned, and dried by the pathological departments at Buchenwald. Numerous witnesses testified as to its existence, and three samples of it and a shrunken human head were placed in evidence. These same samples were made exhibits at the hearings before this subcommittee. • One defense witness (Wilhelm) testified that a lamp had been made of skin to his knowledge, and offered hearsay evidence to the fact that Ilse Koch had ordered and had been delivered a lampshade of this sort. • Prosecution witnesses (Titz and Froeboess) testified that they had seen the accused in possession of a skin lampshade, a skin-bound album, and a pair of gloves of human skin. Two defense witnesses (Wilhelm and Biermann) and one prosecution witness (Sitte) testified, from hearsay, that she had possession of articles made of human skin." (ttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/skin.html)

Amid the storm of controversy fueled by Holocaust-deniers, the question of Koch's guilt or innocence is fanned by inaccuracies or inconclusiveness of evidence.

"Yet they forgot to mention the important evidence, much more easily uncovered, which indicates that the statements made in this interview (and later in Smith's book) are incorrect or ill-informed. They forgot to mention that the trial which Clay reviewed did not cover the full period during which Koch was at the camp. They forgot to mention that Clay was incompletely informed by his assistants, and that he admitted as much in his 1950 book, saying: "I could take action only on that record." They forgot to mention that a Senate investigatory committee saw, with their own eyes, the very same "three samples" of "tattooed human skin" that Clay says don't exist. They forgot to mention the conclusion that the subcommittee reached: that "there is no doubt" that human skin was tanned at Buchenwald. They forgot to mention that there is a forensic report which, based on microscopic analysis and the placement of nipples and navel, concludes that the skin is indeed human. They forget to mention that the same German court that found her innocent of the charge of murdering anyone for tattooed skin, also declared it indisputable that human-skin artifacts were made. And all that information is much more readily available than the transcripts of an obscure interview by an obscure organization conducted 28 years after the fact." (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/skin.html)

The Nazis are known to have taken and preserved individual pieces of skin, chiefly those sections displaying tattoos; several examples of such can be found within the collections of the National Museum of Health and Medicine and the National Archives, although neither institution places these items on display.

The binding of books in human skin is also a common element within horror films and works of fiction. H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon, as well as the Necronomicon from the Evil Dead series, are the best-known of these.

Peter Greenaway's 1996 film The Pillow Book contains a sequence in which the body of a writer is exhumed and his skin painstakingly tanned, written upon, and bound into a book.

[edit] External links

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[1] " Frau Ilse Koch, General Lucius Clay, and Human-Skin Atrocities"