![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Bookbinder Edward Hertzberg describes the Monastery Hill Bindery having been approached by "n Army Surgeon. Other examples of the Dance of Death include an 1856 edition offered at auction by Leonard Smithers in 1895 and an 1842 edition from the personal library of Florin Abelès was offered at auction by Piasa of Paris in 2006. Dance of Death Īn exhibition of fine bindings at the Grolier Club in 1903 included, in a section of 'Bindings in Curious Materials', three editions of Holbein's ' Dance of Death' in 19th-century human skin bindings two of these now belong to the John Hay Library at Brown University. Once he died, a piece of his back was taken to a tannery and utilized for the book. It is by James Allen, who made his deathbed confession in prison in 1837 and asked for a copy bound in his own skin to be presented to a man he once tried to rob and admired for his bravery, and another one for his doctor. What Lawrence Thompson called "the most famous of all anthropodermic bindings" is exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum, titled The Highwayman: Narrative of the Life of James Allen alias George Walton. (Note that Horwood, Corder, and Burke were all hanged and not flayed.) The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh preserves a notebook bound in the skin of the murderer William Burke after his execution and subsequent public dissection by Professor Alexander Monro in 1829. Surviving examples of human skin bindings have often been commissioned, performed, or collected by medical doctors, who have access to cadavers, sometimes those of executed criminals, such as the case of John Horwood in 1821 and William Corder in 1828. Panel with Latin inscription in the book: Hic liber femineo corio convestitus est ("This book has been bound with the skin of a woman") Criminals The practice of binding a book in the skin of its author – as with The Highwayman – has been called 'autoanthropodermic bibliopegy' (from αὐτός, autos, meaning "self"). Thompson's article on the subject, published in 1946. The phrase "anthropodermic bibliopegy" has been used at least since Lawrence S. 1859 and the OED records an instance of 'bibliopegist' for a bookbinder from 1824.Īnthropodermic ( / ˌ æ n θ r oʊ p ə ˈ d ɜːr m ɪ k/ AN-throh-pə- DUR-mik), combining the Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ( anthropos, "man" or "human") and δέρμα ( derma, "skin"), does not appear in the Oxford English Dictionary and appears to be unused in contexts other than bookbinding. The earliest reference in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1876 Merriam-Webster gives the date of first use as c. It combines the Ancient Greek βιβλίον ( biblion, "book") and πηγία ( pegia, from pegnynai, "to fasten"). ![]() Terminology īibliopegy ( / ˌ b ɪ b l i ˈ ɒ p ɪ dʒ i/ BIB-lee- OP-i-jee) is a rare synonym for ' bookbinding'. As of April 2022, The Anthropodermic Book Project has examined 31 out of 50 books in public institutions supposed to have anthropodermic bindings, of which 18 have been confirmed as human and 13 have been demonstrated to be animal leather instead. A book bound in the skin of the murderer William Burke, on display in Surgeons' Hall Museum in EdinburghĪnthropodermic bibliopegy is the practice of binding books in human skin. ![]()
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