--- title: This Book Is Bound in Human Skin description: Experts at Harvard have confirmed that the binding could not have come from any other animal canonical: https://time.com/2835499/this-harvard-university-library-book-is-bound-in-human-skin/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-06T00:59:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:10:26.860Z og:title: This Book Is Bound in Human Skin og:description: Experts at Harvard have confirmed that the binding could not have come from any other animal og:url: https://time.com/2835499/this-harvard-university-library-book-is-bound-in-human-skin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Book Is Bound in Human Skin twitter:description: Experts at Harvard have confirmed that the binding could not have come from any other animal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Harvard University Library Book Is Bound in Human Skin > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=298d45d3-1fea-44ed-8df0-091e82b2f64a&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jun 6, 2014 12:59 AM UTC  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jun 6, 2014 12:59 AM UTC A book bound in human skin sits in one of Harvard University’s libraries, experts at the school [said this week](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghton/2014/06/04/caveat-lecter/). Scientists tested the 19th-century book _Des destineés de l’ame_ and concluded that they were “99.9% confident” that the binding comes from a person’s epidermis. The [library says](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghton/2014/06/04/caveat-lecter/) that Dr. Ludovic Bouland bound the book in the mid-1880s after receiving it as a gift from the author, Arene Houssaye. He wrapped it using skin from the unclaimed body of a female mental patient who died of a stroke. He left a [now-missing note](http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/2/2/the-skinny-on-harvards-rare-book/) in the book to shed some light on his decision, albeit : “A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering.” The tests of the binding ruled out other animal sources, including sheep, cattle, goats and primates closely related to humans like apes and gibbons. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2835499/this-harvard-university-library-book-is-bound-in-human-skin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2835499/this-harvard-university-library-book-is-bound-in-human-skin/"},"headline":"This Harvard University Library Book Is Bound in Human Skin","datePublished":"2014-06-06T00:59:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:26.860Z","description":"Experts at Harvard have confirmed that the binding could not have come from any other animal","url":"https://time.com/2835499/this-harvard-university-library-book-is-bound-in-human-skin/","keywords":["Newsfeed","History","Bizarre","Harvard","book","Library"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2835499/this-harvard-university-library-book-is-bound-in-human-skin/","name":"This Harvard University Library Book Is Bound in Human Skin"}}]}] ```