![]() ![]() ![]() There are so many book inscriptions claiming to be bound in human skin, but many turn out to be false. Medical books were also bound in cadaver skin as a way of saying thank you from the doctors to their patients for helping them learn from them.The cover reads “Hic Liber Waltonis Cute Compactus Est:” “This book was bound in Walton’s skin.” The Highwayman Narrative is available for viewing at the Boston Athenaeum. One copy was for his doctor the other was to be presented to the only man who ever stood up to him, John Fenno, Jr. He was so impressed with one man he robbed, but who fought him bravely that he wanted to show penance, so he asked that two copies of the memoir he wrote in prison be bound with his skin after his death. James Allen aka George Walton was a highwayman or thief. Keep in mind though, medical consent as we know it today is a relatively modern concept. Some folks gave consent to have their skin used for this purpose. People bound books in human skin to memorialize the dead.It has gilt paneled spine, gilt borders, cover ornamentation and fillets. As a medical student he decided to bind a book using the skin of a female patient whose body went unclaimed. The Wellcome Library in London has a book which was bound and signed by Dr. They especially liked to collect books that had been bound with tattooed skin. Collectors wanted something unusual to impress friends – in the 18th & 19th century these would be referred to as curios for their collection.They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but many of these book covers have been judged! Father Henry Garnet heard the confessions of many involved in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the houses of Parliament (the 1605 Gunpowder Plot with Guy Fawkes) and although he wasn’t involved in the plot, because he heard the confessions and didn’t do anything he was hung, drawn, quartered and his skin removed for binding the book A True and Perfect Relation, the book has the impression of Garnet’s face on the front cover. Sometimes their confessions would be bound with their skin. For punishment, many skin books are bound in the skin of executed criminals.Why was this done and was this common?Īre from the late 16th through the 18th century. This strange visit to the museum is what led me to do more research on the topic. His skin apparently was used to bind this gruesome souvenir. Hare turned state’s evidence on Burke who was hanged () in front of a huge crowd of 25,000, his corpse was then publicly dissected and his skeleton displayed at the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh Medical School where, you can still visit it today. It is estimated they killed at least 16 people before they were caught. ![]() They decided grave robbing to sell bodies to doctors was too much work, simply murdering someone and selling their corpse saved them all that digging. I was looking in a glass case that held a pocketbook that stated it was “ bound with William Burke’s skin.” William Burke and William Hare were a couple of entrepreneurial resurrection men in Victorian Edinburgh. On a dark and chilly December evening in Edinburgh, Scotland, I visited the Surgeons’ Hall Museums and found it deserted. By Storm Stoker, Technical Services Support Specialist ![]()
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