Chapter 84 Human leather binding

Holbrooke Jackson Many lovers of book binding are very eccentric, and only things that are generally unavailable to others are enough to make them happy.If it was fashionable to bind books in calfskin or morocco, they searched for sealskin or sharkskin; they countered the fashion of sheepskin and pigskin with boa constrictor and cobra; into strange colors to vary its monotony; a few of them yearn for at least one book bound in human skin, which they presumptuously exalt above all others.This taste is not worth the slightest attention to a clean-spirited stomach, but to those who find satisfaction in perverse notions and queer exotic experiences, can offer a strange, even profane delight.Modern psychology researchers attribute this taste to abnormal psychology, while Dr. Ivan Bloha and others say it belongs to fetishism of perverted sexual desire.For example, he said that women's breasts are a natural physiological object of worship for men, but in addition to this normal hobby, there is another kind of breast worship fanatics worth noting. For book binding; he cites Wittjoski's work, saying that some bibliophiles and satyrs use leather-bound books taken from women's breasts so that the nipples form a special pattern on the cover. raised part.There are those who doubt the existence of books in such a bound, and laugh off such tales as the anecdotes of anglers, the flattery of sailors, and the gossip of old wives.Whether or not such stories are credible, I think, is a matter, but there are quite a few reliable eyewitnesses who attest to the existence of books bound in human skin.Before we get to the facts, however, let us speak of the legend, lest it be confused with the real.

In all overexcited and tense periods, such as wars, revolutions, famines, and plagues, the element of rumors plays a major role in the dissemination of news. We who have experienced the danger and anxiety of world wars know it better.In that tragic autumn of 1914, many people believed that a large number of Russian troops had been transferred from the Russian city of Akanza to the north of Scotland, and then sent by rail to the south of England and sent to France by ship. To replace our weary army, which may be crushed under German pressure.Later, it was said that our army on the front line in Mons, Belgium, was once protected by hordes of angels, and many soldiers saw it with their own eyes; and our news papers later said that this was exactly what we wanted, because fat and oil Due to the lack of human beings, Germany has organized a large factory to refine their own and the corpses of their enemies into the necessities of life.Stories of this kind became the fashion of those troubled times, and are so closely interspersed with all records that it is almost impossible to tell which is true and which is not.It would be no surprise if a few credible authorities said that true and false are the same.

It has long been proven that human skin has been refined to make leather in ancient times and modern times.It is as suitable for all tanning processes as the leather of any other animal, but the texture of hides varies from hide to hide. Some are hard and rough to the touch, others are soft and smooth; The thickness of the leather sometimes varies from one-sixth of an inch to one-seventh of an inch (original note: see Ferron's "Tanning Industry").Tanning can thicken thin skin and turn rough skin into firm soft skin.In appearance, Davan Port said, it resembled calfskin, but it was difficult to pluck.Another authority says that human skin is more like sheepskin, with a fine and firm texture, soft to the touch, and suitable for a high degree of polishing; another says it is loose and porous like pigskin.I myself support the latter opinion, based on my own observation of a hide made from a piece of human skin, which was made in London some thirty years ago, and is now in the possession of Samsdorf.The hide was like soft pigskin, it was almost an eighth of an inch thick, but Mr. Edwin Samsdorf said it had a Moroccan texture rather than a pigskin.To nitrate human skin for use, it must first be soaked in a thick solution of alum, iron sulfate, and salt for several days, then taken out to dry in the shade, and then kneaded according to ordinary leather-making procedures.

The earliest reference material I can find involving human skin leather is the legend of Marsyas, who challenged Apollo to a music competition beyond his limits, and after failing, he endured the skinning punishment alive as promised.Some say his skin was fashioned into blisters or footballs, others believe it was fashioned into a leather bottle: they could skin me alive, as Stasspus said, If only my skin were not made into a bottle like Marsyas, but into a piece of virtue.The other is an industrial legend at the time of the French Revolution, how the bodies of the nobles were sent to a tannery at Morton, where their skins were turned into leather for book binding and other uses.One of the most memorable of these stories is that of a certain Frenchman who had a pair of lederhosen made from the skin of his burglary maid.The eminent moralist never tires of berating his maid, and every time he makes a rant, he pats his hip with satisfaction and mutters: "But she's still here, the fellow, She's still here!"

In 1684, Lord Rob Fenrir, the devoted Sheriff of London, donated to the Boutley Library "a tanned human skin, and a skeleton, a dried negro Children's corpses".William Haffey also donated a tanned human skin to the Faculty of Physicians. In addition, there are human skin specimens at the University of Basel and the Lisai Museum of Physiology in Versailles.In the Centennial Exposition in the United States, there was a display of playing cards made of human skin.Ferron said in his "Tanner Industry" that in the eighteenth century, Ducksbury, Massachusetts, USA made children's boots and shoes from the skins of the poor, and later issued a law that anyone who bought and sold human skins would be punished It took five years for this trend to be curbed.But the most romantic story about human skin is probably that of General Johann Ziscar of Bohemia, who ordered after his death to make a drum out of his skin, because he thought it was loud enough To scare off his enemies, as he was famous in life.

Having thus proved that the skin of man had been tanned, and that the leather was usable, it took no ingenuity to extend its usefulness; etc., I think the use of this leather in books is a logical, albeit terrible, attempt.The development of this use is more encouraged economically and temporarily in France.In the storm of the Revolution, says one writer, the art of bookbinding disappeared, and books were bound in human skin; Human skins were used to bind books; everyone remembers the words of Carlyle quoted in "Mr. Claudius" "The French nobles laughed at the doctrine of Roussau, but their skins were used to bind the second edition of his work." .I could give many more accounts of this kind, but suffice it to say, for there is no substantiation to these claims, and several trusted authorities, including the great executioner Sanson, have denounced them in his diary up.So it may be said that the reason why these stories are not popular is that most people prefer hearsay to history; they just believe what they like to believe.

Books bound in human skin can be seen in many public and private collections.In the Galaval Museum in Paris, Cyril Davanport had seen a constitution of 1793, bound in the skin of a revolutionary; He had seen one in the library, but he had forgotten its title; another historian said that there was a book in Marlborough House, bound in the skin of Mary Butman, a Yorkshire witch.Pansy Fitzgrater gives several examples: The report of the interrogation and execution of Hart, the murderer of Mary Martin, bound in the murderer's skin, which was made by St. It was specially refined by a surgeon in Desmonds.He also mentioned a collection of poems by a Russian poet, which was bound with the skin of his own leg, which was cut off due to an accidental injury while hunting. This collection of poems was "To the Lady of His Heart"; finally, he mentioned And how a bibliophile was shown to him by a bookstore owner in Bristol, England. Several books were sent by the Bristol Law Library and asked him to repair them.They are all bound in human skin, which is custom-made, from the body of local death row prisoners, and peeled off after execution.In the diary of French brother Goncourt, it is also mentioned that "an English antique man bound his books with human leather".

But we are not the only ones who have this hobby.The French writer of astronomy, Myriel Flamarleon, once complimented a pretty countess with beautiful shoulders on the loveliness of her skin.When she died, she commanded that the skins of her shoulders and back be made of leather after her death, and be given to Flamaleon, as a memorial of his tribute to its nearest owner.The astronomer used part of it to bind one of his most famous works: "Heaven and Earth".Another record tells that a few years ago, a medical officer of the Paris Medical College bound the skin of an executed assassin Compi to the report file of his post-mortem autopsy.Andrew Lello managed to get a small piece of skin from the poet Dreyer.He used it to inlay a richly bound translation of Virgil's pastoral poems (Dreyer's translation).Other French writers, including Musset, have expressed a taste for this kind of leather, so I believe that in many other countries, a taste for human leather binding must also be found; but I am not writing a monograph on this subject. So I'll end this article with the closest example I could find.In 1891, a doctor commissioned Samsdorf to bind a copy of Holbein's The Dance of the Dead with a piece of woman's skin.The skin, which I have already mentioned, was tanned by Sweetin of Shaversbury Street, and the man who wrapped and ironed the book is still alive.The silk top band at both ends of the spine is also replaced by human hair.The current whereabouts of the book are unknown, but it is believed to be probably in the United States. (Translated from Holbrooke Jackson: "The Anatomy of a Book Lover")

Translator’s note: Japan’s Saito Masamune once wrote a short article about a book bound in human skin brought back from South America by the artist Tsuguharu Foujita he saw, which is appended below (according to Mr. Zangyuan’s translation): Although I often see people talking about the barbaric taste of using human skin as a binding, I never dreamed of putting the real thing in my hands to take a closer look. However, recently, because he decided to publish a collection of essays for the painter Foujita Tsuguharu, and chatted with him about the barbaric anecdotes of Sifang Mountain, he suddenly remembered that someone said that Mr. Foujita really liked books bound in human leather, so he turned the conversation to this issue. He casually took out a book from the shelf on the right of the seat and handed it to me. It was a sixteen-moment volume, which seemed to be a small book with pigskin as the surface, and it looked as if it had been bound into a book by a layman.

When I didn’t see it in person, I always thought that the binding made of human leather would make people feel bad, but when he handed it to me casually, I forgot the horror and put it on my palm, probably because of the cooked leather, the tentacles are very soft. , After all, it is not comparable to pigskin or sheepskin.The skin is yellowish in color, but it always feels white. I don't know which part of the human body it is. There are some muscles stuck under the skin. According to Mr. Fujita, it was given to him very sincerely by the son of the chief when he was traveling in Ecuador, South America. The book is a religious book in Spanish.The title of the book shows that it was published in 1711, which is obviously more than 200 years ago, but the human skin on the outside seems to have been added later.

But is the skin on which the writing is written on white or native?Based on the skin color, I thought it was probably Caucasian.In short, I got to see this precious object fulfill a long-standing wish.