Was human skin really used in book binding?
Asked by Jill Pascoe of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia The use of human skin to bind books would disgust us today, but it was fairly widely practiced up until about 200 years ago, particularly with medical books. In centuries gone by, doctors who wrote medical books would sometimes specify that they be bound in human skin. Some doctors even participated in the preparation of human skin for use in book binding. Dr John Hunter (1728-1793), the famous anatomist, father of British scientific surgery, and the person after whom the London Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England is named, reputedly commissioned a textbook on dermatology to be bound in human skin. The skin used was often that of a flogged prisoner who was later executed, particularly a murderer. In 1821, John Horwood was hanged for murder in Bristol, England in 1821. Horwood’s skeleton became a prized exhibit at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. A book containing details of his crime, trial, execution, and dissection was pu
