"This practice is very real and Harvard has just confirmed that it has a copy: the copy of Destinées de l'âme, a meditation by Frenchman Arsène Houssaye, held by the Houghton library is well and truly covered with human flesh," says the site. The Verge . Fascinating even if it is a bit repulsive: it is called"the anthropodermic bibliopegy" .

Here is what we can read on this subject on the slate.fr website So why apply human skin to a book? This idea is not the work of the author himself, but of one of his friends, explains the institution in a blog post . In the mid-1880s, Arsène Houssaye presented her book to Ludovic Bouland, a renowned physician and bibliophile. As the book deals with the soul and life after death, the doctor therefore"naturally" bound the book with the skin of a patient suffering from psychiatric disorders who died following a stroke. The doctor took care to leave a note to explain his approach. The term"anthropodermic bibliopegy", used to designate the bound book in human skin, appeared at least as early as the 16th century. This practice was quite common. Sometimes a criminal's confession was connected to their own …