– Brown University’s library boasts an unusual anatomy book. Tanned and polished to a smooth golden brown, its cover looks and feels no different from any other fine leather.
But here’s its secret: the book is bound in human skin.
A number of prestigious libraries – including Harvard University’s and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia – have such books in their collections. While the idea of making leather from human skin seems bizarre and cruel today, it was not uncommon in centuries past, said Laura Hartman, a rare book cataloger at the National Library of Medicine in Maryland and author of a paper on the subject. More, from The Associated Press
glad that’s history (bookbinding in human skin)
I’ve talked to people who’ve viewed the new traveling Bodies, The Exhibition , exhibiting real human remains. Many have enjoyed it. But I can’t imagine going there myself. Not that I’m squeamish (having been a participant/observer of birth, death and a few things in between), but it seems well, kind of ~inhuman~.