A grim read indeed! A 1852 copy of The Poetical Works of John Milton, which is bound in human skin, is about to go on display at a crime and punishment exhibition in Exeter, which is part of Devon’s annual Local History Day.
When Devon murderer George Cudmore was sentenced to hang at the Lent Assizes in 1830, he knew that part of his sentence was that his dead body would be taken to an Exeter hospital to be dissected.
What he probably was not aware of was that a chunk of his skin would eventually be flayed, tanned and used to cover an 1852 copy of The Poetical Works of John Milton.
The book is now housed at the Westcountry Studies Library in Exeter.
It will go on show to the public for the first time on 26 February as part of Devon’s annual Local History Day.
Source: Book bound in human skin goes on display in Devon (BBC).
Related: Book Covered in Human Skin?A book thought to be 300 years old and covered in human skin has be found lying in a street in Leeds (UK 2006).
