25 September 2018

Can you ever judge a book by its cover?

With the upcoming British Book Design and Production Awards, books are never far from the mind. However few will have heard of the world of Anthropodermic Bibliopegy.

Anthropodermic Bibliopegy is the process of binding books in human skin, which reached its macabre peak in 19th century. Some examples of people who were made into books using this unusual process include William Burke, the infamous Edinburgh murderer, John Horwood, the first man to be hanged at the British gaol in 1821, whose skin now envelopes an account of the crime. However the largest collection is housed at The Historical Medial Library in Philadelphia.

Over the years though there has been many questions raised on the authenticity of books being made using this process. The Anthropodermic Book Project has begun testing specimens using a process known as a peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF). Of the 31 tested so far, 18 have been confirmed as human.

The question remains whether the practice was for sheer vanity, a deterrent to criminals or an unusual reminder of our morality, what is clear though is that it's definitely okay to judge these books by their covers.

Source: Issue 7 of Ernest Journal by Duncan Haskell.