The leadership of Harvard University decided to remove the cover from the book “The Fate of the Soul”, published in the XIX century, due to ethical concerns. It was previously established that the cover was made of human skin.
This is reported by daily.afisha.ru with reference to the BBC.
Arsene Weisse's book has been in the university library since the 1930s. Previously, the “ethically questionable” cover material had not raised concerns among university officials.
After carefully reviewing the cover, the university admitted its mistake and apologized for its unethical handling of the matter.
Information about the cover material first appeared in 2014. At the time, the university called it “good news for fans of anthropodermic bibliopegy”.
The further fate of the cover is still unknown. The university promises to find a respectful way to handle the remains used to create it.
“The Fate of the Soul” was written in the mid-1880s. Presumably, the author gave the book to his friend, Dr. Louis Buland, who bound it using human skin, probably taken from the body of a deceased patient.
Inside the book was a note from Buland in which he explained his choice of material:
“I saved this piece of human skin taken from a woman’s back. A book about the human soul deserved to have a human cover”.
The practice of using human skin to bind books was common in the XVI-XIX centuries.