The prestigious Harvard University says it has removed human skin from the binding of a book it has had in one of its libraries for over 90 years.
In 2014, it was discovered that a copy of the book “Des Destinées de l’Âme” (Destinies of the Soul) – a book about life after death – was bound with the skin of a dead woman.
Harvard states that it has removed the binding and notes “previous failures in the handling of the book which objectified and violated the dignity of the human whose remains were used in the binding”.
The book’s first owner, doctor Ludovic Bouland, is said to have taken skin from the corpse of a mentally ill woman who died of a heart attack at a hospital where he worked, according to the university.
– A book about the human soul deserves a human cover, he is said to have said.
Today, Harvard says that it has not handled the ownership in line with the university’s ethical standards.
Harvard, which is considered the oldest university in the United States, has previously capitalized on interest in the book’s morbid history. In 2014, the discovery that human skin had been used in the binding was referred to as “good news for both supporters of binding with human skin, book fans and cannibals”. In a blog post the same year, Harvard wrote that the practice of binding books in human skin had previously been relatively common.
