Religatum de Pelle Humana - Jeremy Norman's HistoryofScience.com

150 Bibliologia Comica
ture whose names are associated with anthropodermic
binding. In the Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. L. Veydt
issued in Brussels in 1879 we nnd the following entry:
Opuscules philosophiques et littéraires, par MM. Suard et
Bourlet de Vauxcelles (Paris, Thevet, in-80). Exemplaire
relié en peau humaine, comme l'affirme une note collée contre
la gerbe. Cette note porte les mentions de la provenance, du
prix de la reliure et du nom du relieur. Vingt francs,
Deromme, 1796. Provenant de la bibliothèque de M. de
Musset. Acheté le 15 de sept. 1832. 94
The Chronique médicale's expert logically speculates that the
M. :Musset is most probably M. de Musset-Pathay, father of
the poet, and not the poet himself as sorne authorities have
improperly assumed. Likewise, it is most probable that coauthor
Suard is 'Thonnête et paisible académicien de ce nom."
Bookish men in France are so thoroughly fascinated by
the notion of anthropodermic bindings that the Gallic mind
has even resarted ta pictorial literary symbolism combined
with the bibliopegic variety. One lover of unusual bindings,
a Dr. Cornil of the Academy of Medicine, senator from
L'Allier, and professor of pathological anatomy in the Faculty
of Medicine in Paris, managed to find a tattooed skin portraying
two knights from the period of Louis XIII in single combat,
and he could think of nothing more appropriate than to
order his copy of the Three M usketeers bound in this hide.
He had another tattooed bit of human integument showing
a heart pierced by an arrow, and this was used for binding
his copy of Bubu de "A-f ontparnasse. His binder was René
Kieffer, who protected the worthy doctor by calling him Dr.
V . . . in his communications to the Mercure de France on
the matter. 95 Physicians are not the only professional men
who must maintain professional secrecy.
According to De Crauzat, Kieffer was the dean of anthropodermic
bibliopegists in Paris, and this in a comprehensive
sense. For R. Messimy he bound a copy of Fête foraines with
an inlaid piece of human skin tattooed with the likeness of a