Book bound in human skin?

Book bound in human skin?

The Daily Cal recently spoke to David Faulds, Curator of Rare Books and Literary Manuscripts, about L’office de l’Eglise en François, a book in the Bancroft Library that was until recently thought to be bound in human skin. As a note in the OskiCat record now states, the book is actually “bound in horse hide, resembling black pebble-grained morocco; with metal clasps; edges gilt. Peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) analysis conducted in December 2015 determined that the binding was not human skin, as had previously been described.”

Watch David Faulds explain their detective work.