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1. #Destinies of the soul dr ludovic pdf how to#
2. #Destinies of the soul dr ludovic pdf skin#
3. #Destinies of the soul dr ludovic pdf professional#

#Destinies of the soul dr ludovic pdf skin#

“This curious little book on virginity, which seemed to me to deserve a binding in keeping with its subject matter, is bound with a piece of woman’s skin that I tanned myself with some sumac.”Īs far as Bouland was concerned, a book on the immortal soul and one on hymens were equally well-suited to be bound in the skin of a destitute mentally ill woman who had the misfortune to die of a stroke in the hospital where he was studying.

#Destinies of the soul dr ludovic pdf how to#

The note Bouland wrote on the flyleaf of De integritatis et corruptionis virginum notis, a 1663 edition of the influential book by Doctor Séverin Pineau that described the hymen in great anatomical detail (little of it accurate compared to the modern understanding of that intriguing membrane) and provided valuable instruction on how to tell if a virgin had been “corrupted,” is a creepier version of the Des destinées de l’ame explanation: He received his medical degree in 1865, which means he held on to that poor lady’s skin for decades before sectioning it for use in binding at least two books. The original is gone, but we know from notes that the skin came from “the back of the unclaimed body of a woman patient in a French mental hospital who died suddenly of apoplexy.” The second book Bouland refers to that uses the same skin is now in the Wellcome Library, and according to a 1910 article in a French magazine, Bouland got the piece of skin when he was a medical student at a hospital in Metz. There used to be a typed document with the book that elaborated on the source of the skin. Pinaeus de Virginitatis notis which is also bound in human skin but tanned with sumac.” Compare for example with the small volume I have in my library, Sever. It is interesting to see the different aspects that change this skin according to the method of preparation to which it is subjected. A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering: I had kept this piece of human skin taken from the back of a woman.

By looking carefully you easily distinguish the pores of the skin. “This book is bound in human skin parchment on which no ornament has been stamped to preserve its elegance. A handwritten letter signed by Bouland found inside the book describes the new binding: He gave the doctor a copy of his new book and Bouland had it rebound. Arsène Houssaye was a personal friend of his.

#Destinies of the soul dr ludovic pdf professional#

Ludovic Bouland, a doctor and book collector from Metz in the northeastern French province of Lorraine who combined his professional vocation with his interest in books and book binding in a rather macabre way. Scientists have confirmed that one book in Harvard’s Houghton Library - Des destinées de l’ame ( The Destinies of the Soul) by French poet and essayist Arsène Houssaye, first published in 1879 - is bound in human skin.