A book bound in human skin has been found in a Harvard library, scientists confirmed on Thursday.
The 19th century tome - a collection of essays on the soul and life after death by French novelist and poet Arsène Houssaye - was created using skin taken from the back of a female mental patient who had died of a stroke, according to researchers.
It was presented as a gift by the author to his friend Ludovic Bouland, a medical doctor.
According to the university's blog, the technique of using tanned human skin was far from unusual in the 19th century.
However, it was more common for use skin from the bodies of executed criminals being donated to scientific research and training.
The book was verified as being of human origin following a series of tests by the university's scientists.
Microscopic samples were taken from the book's binding in order to run a process known as peptide mass fingerprinting, which aims to identify the source of a material by its distinctive proteins.