In a story best suited to the horror genre, Harvard University has made a rather gruesome discovery. Hidden within several of the university’s library’s the Countway Library of Medicine, the Landgdell Law Library and the Houghton Collection, were three books “bound in human hide”.
The content of the three books are vastly different. A book on medieval law, one on French philosophy, and oddly enough one on Roman poetry. The book titled Practicarum quaestionum circa leges regias comes with an inscription on its final page to the person whose flesh was used.
From the Harvard Crimson: The book’s 794th and final page includes an inscription in purple cursive: ‘the bynding of this booke is all that remains of my dear friende Jonas Wright, who was flayed alive by the Wavuma on the Fourth Day of August, 1632. King Mbesa did give me the book, it being one of poore Jonas chiefe possessions, together with ample of his skin to bynd it. Requiescat in pace.’
