Book believed to be bound in human skin

The binding of books in human skin – anthropodermic bibliopegy – peaked in the 19th century. The practice was most popular among doctors, who had access to cadavers in their profession. It was nonetheless a rare phenomenon even at the peak of its popularity, and fraudulent claims were commonplace; by 2020, the Anthropodermic Book Project had confirmed the existence of 18 books bound in human skin, out of 31 tested cases. The ability to unequivocally identify book bindings as being of human skin dates only to the mid-2010s. The development of peptide mass fingerprinting permitted conclusive testing and became the gold standard method. The first book confirmed as authentic through its use was in 2014; it was a copy of Des destinées de l'ame by the French philosopher Arsène Houssaye. Themes emerge in what purportedly anthropodermic books turn out to be legitimate or illegitimate. Most legitimate anthropodermic books were owned or bound by physicians, and many of them are dedicated to the practice of medicine. (Full list...)