Book at Harvard Library Is Bound in Human Skin

Tests have confirmed that a book stored at Harvard University's rare-book repository is bound in human skin, according to a blog post by the Houghton Library on Wednesday. The book, which translates to "Destinies of the Soul," contemplates life and death, so its owner had it bound in the skin of a female mental patient who had died of a stroke. "A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering," said Dr. Ludovic Bouland, who received the book as a gift from its French author in the mid-1880s.

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