Human skin and book binding - what do they have in common?

I’ve done a lot of cover posts in the past: good covers, bad covers, weird covers. Never before, however, have I posted anything quite as macabre as anthropodermic bibliopegy. The what? The practice of binding books in human skin.

I know… creepy.

Although hardly a common practice it dates back to at least the 17^th Century. The technique was used to bind things like anatomy books, last will and testaments, and judicial proceedings (one story tells how the skin of a convicted murderer was used to bind the pages of his trial notes.)

Not only does this practice cover the outside of fictional tombs, it also slithers its way inside, especially in horror stories.

·         In H.P. Lovecraft's horror story "The Hound", the narrator and his friend St John, who are graverobbers, have a collection of macabre artefacts. Amongst them, "A locked portfolio, bound in tanned human skin, held certain unknown and unnameable drawings which it was rumoured Goya had perpetrated but dared not acknowledge."

·         In the Evil Dead series of films and comic books originally created by Sam Raimi, a fictional Sumerian book called the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis is bound in human skin and inked with human blood.

What brought on this rather disturbing topic? A recent article in the Guardian revealed the results of analysis by Harvard scientists who discovered the binding of the 17-century book, Practicarum Quaestionum Circa Leges Regias Hispaniae, is actually sheepskin. (whew – on that one at any rate).

Two other Harvard library titles, however, are believed to be bound in human skin. A 1597 French translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses , which is annotated with the words "bound in human skin" on its inside cover, according to The Harvard Crimson, and Arsène Houssaye's mediations on the spirit, Des Destinées de L'Ame, which dates to the 1880s.

Is it just me – or does this one look like it’s got a face on the cover

Attitudes to romance novels

Last week's blog looked at Maya Rodale's video on where some of our attitudes to romance novels come from. This week is episode 2 on the same subject :)

This episode from a radio program shows attitudes about "career girls" in the 1950s. Female workforce participation rose dramatically during the 20th century.

Ms. Rodale: "I  nearly spit out my coffee when I watched this video from the 1950′s in which a woman is rated a bad businesswoman because she reads romance novels and likes the idea of romance. For what it’s worth I know plenty of talented women executives who also happen to read romance. And I must add: telling off the boss and good in an emergency? Sounds like a romance heroine to me!"


I'll add that in many cases that attitude hasn't changed. I don't tell people at the work what I do on the side (write romance), because even telling them that I read romance makes some of them treat me as less mentally capable afterwards. 

Lastly, I'll let Ms. Rodale field the comment frequently thrown at the romance genre: It's just porn for women.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that romance novels are naught but misleading fantasies that delude innocent young ladies, pornography for the feminine sex, and rescue fantasies for idle women, all of which end in marriages that snuff out the feisty, independent heroine.

Or so we are encouraged to believe.

We readers know instinctively these stories are GREAT and that none of the above statements are true.  But have you ever wondered where these stereotypes come from and why they persist? Have you ever wanted to utter a devastatingly witty and smart retort whenever someone questions your preference for “trashy bodice rippers”?...
 ...One revolutionary element that sets romance apart from “Serious” Fiction is that the heroines have sex and do not die in the end....
...Politically and culturally we are instructed that we should feel shame for our own sexual curiosity and arousal...
...What’s wrong with a woman enjoying consensual love making with a partner of her choosing...
...Romance is not porn for women. Porn is porn for women."

Read full here

Next week we'll take a step away from romance, my penchant for cringing at romance covers, & look at sci-fi & fantasy's embarrassing covers instead. Hey, if you're going ot pick on genre's, pick genre's you love :)

Prosthetics through the aes

After 3 posts on covers I thought we could use a pallet cleanser, but never fear I'll cover of the other categories next time. Today I thought we could look at something I personally found fascinating: prosthesis through the ages. If I thought of what people did before modern technology, guess I thought of cartoons of pirates and their wooden legs. Turns out things were more ingenious than I thought.

 Egyptian prosthetic toe, circa 950-710 BC

 Leg, 300BC from Italy.

 Metal arm 1500s

 1840-1940 metal hand

 Hand with fork attachment

 An arm for work with different hammer attachments - very steampunk.

 Leg, complete with joints at knee, ankle & toes

 A drawstring that closes the hand.

Gas powered arms made for a 12 yr old boy.





Not a happy topic, but certainly a fascinating one.
For better versions of the pictures and more info, go here.

Most desired invitation

It was the hottest A-list invitation sought after by Regency society
A Voucher to Almacks

A voucher (or ticket of admission) to a ball at Almack’s assembly rooms in London. Only society’s elite were granted these coveted passes. To be stricken from the list was social disaster. This voucher to Almack’s was issued in 1817 to Anna Elizabeth Grenville, Marchioness of Buckingham—who obviously cherished it enough to safeguard it for posterity.

A nice little snap shot of history for lovers of Regency romances and/or Regency period history :)

Sword-fighting for women

After last week's look a sword-fighting, I thought, why not a little bit more. We all know men throughout history were forever sticking deadly weapons into each other, but what about women? It's a favourite trope in historical romances to have the heroine know sword-fighting, or to have the hero teach her how to wield the blade, but did women actually ever pick up the sword? This picture would suggest they did...

More on the why and wherefores of topless female duelers here. And more here on women of action. And here.

A snippet from the WOA link:
     "Dubbed “petticoat duels,” affairs of honor between women appear to have originated in France during the mid-1600s. Historical evidence ... suggests that women crossed steel mostly in anger. ... The most intriguing duel fought between women, and the sole one that featured exposed breasts, took place in August 1892 in Verduz, the capitol of Liechtenstein, between Princess Pauline Metternich and the Countess Kielmannsegg.
     It has gone down in history as the first “emancipated duel” because all parties involved, including the principals and their seconds were female. Also, the confrontation was organized and presided over by the Baroness Lubinska, who had a degree in medicine (a rarity for a woman in those days) and was prepared to minister to any wounds incurred. Before the proceedings began, the baroness pointed out that many insignificant injuries in duels often became septic due to strips of clothing being driven into the wound by the point of a sword. To counter this danger she prudently suggested that both parties should fight stripped of any garments above the waist."


So next time you read about a woman duelist, it's more likely than you may have first thought :)