哈佛大學驚現“人皮封面”藏書

A book owned by Harvard University has been been bound in human skin, scientists believe.

Des destinees de l'ame (Destinies of the Soul) has been housed at Houghton Library since the 1930s.

Writer Arsene Houssaye is said to have given the book to his friend, Dr Ludovic Bouland, in the mid-1880s.

Dr Bouland then reportedly bound the book with skin from the body of an unclaimed female mental patient who had died of natural causes.

"The analytical data, taken together with the provenance of Des destinees de l'ame, make it very unlikely that the source could be other than human," Bill Lane, the director of the Harvard Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Resource Laboratory, told theHoughton Library Blog.

The practice of binding books in human skin - termed anthropodermic bibliopegy - has been reported since as early as the 16th Century.

Numerous 19th Century accounts exist of the bodies of executed criminals being donated to science, their skins later given to bookbinders.

Located within Des destinees de l'ame is a note written by Dr Bouland, stating no ornament had been stamped on the cover to "preserve its elegance".

"I had kept this piece of human skin taken from the back of a woman," he wrote. "A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering."

The book, said to be a meditation on the soul and life after death, is believed to be the only one bound in human skin at Harvard.

Comparable tests undertaken on books at the university's law and medical school libraries revealed books bound in sheepskin.據英國廣播公司報道，一些科學家證實，哈佛大學的一本藏書用人類皮膚做封面。

這本《靈魂的歸宿》（Des destinees de I'ame， Destineies of the Soul）自20世紀30年代以來就收藏在霍頓圖書館（Houghton Library）時。

據稱，作家Asene Houssaye在十九世紀八十年代中期將這書送他的朋友Ludovic Bouland博士。

據報道稱，Bouland博士那時從一名自然死亡、無人認領的女性精神病患者身上取下皮膚來作爲封面。

哈佛大學質樸分析法和蛋白質組合資源實驗室（Harvard Mass Sepctrometry and Proteomics Resource Laboratory）主任比爾•朗恩（Bill Lane）在霍頓圖書館的博客中說道：“結合《靈魂的歸宿》起源，分析數據表明，這封面有極大可能是人類皮膚。”

對於人類皮膚用作書的封面——也稱爲人皮書（antrhopodermic bibliopegy）——最早在16世紀就有所報道。

19世紀的衆多記錄表明，許多執行死刑的罪犯屍體捐給科研機構後，他們的皮膚後來都運給了書籍裝訂商。

《靈魂的歸宿》這本書中夾着一張Bouland博士寫的字條，字條上寫道，一直以來封面都沒有裝飾，目的是“保持優雅”。

“我一直保留着這張從女性背部取下的皮膚，”他寫道。“一本有關人類靈魂的書值得有一張人皮作封面。”

據稱，這本有關對人類死後的靈魂和生命冥想的書籍是哈佛大學唯一一本以人皮爲封面的圖書。

在哈佛大學的法律和醫學院圖書館裏作了一些相似的書籍檢，顯示有一些書用羊皮作封面。