Recently, three strange books were discovered hidden within Harvard’s enormous library. The tomes covered the topics ofRoman poetry, French philosophy and a treatise on medieval Spanish law. But that wasn’t the weird part.

最近，一些研究人员在哈佛大学图书馆里发现了三本奇怪的书。这三本书分别写的是《罗马诗歌主题》，《法国哲学》和《西班牙律师手册》。书内容并不是怪异的地方，这几本书怪异的地方是会让人有种毛骨悚然的感觉。翻开书会有薄皮革脆皮的响声，面料是看起来很熟悉的有光泽的材料，感觉也奇怪的。当研究人员发现这三本书是用什么装订成后，他们连续几个晚上都要开着灯睡觉。

Theweirdpart is that thebooks give off a distinctly creepy vibe. They’re covered in thin, crackling leather. It’s a shiny material that looks familiar and strange at the same time. When researchers discovered what material the books were bound in, they probably had to sleep with the lights on for a few nights.

The strange, leathery covers of the books already had an air of creepiness to them.

奇怪，皮革封面的书已经有了一种恐怖的气氛。

直到他们更仔细检查，研究人员才意识到书是用人皮装订的……这就是令人毛骨悚然的原因。

But it wasn’t until they were more closely inspected that researchers realized they were bound in human flesh… locking in the creepy factor.

人皮书，利用人体皮肤装订书籍，曾经是一种很常见的做法。

Anthropodermic bibliopegy, using human skin to bind books, was once a fairly common practice.

在17世纪，专业人士会研究使用尸体的皮肉。

In the 17th century, professionals would make use of the flesh of cadavers they used in their research.

这些用人皮装订的书因为引起了很多人的关注。大学方面研究一下书的真实性，结果发现其中一本书只是一些可怕的动物皮毛混合 做成的，而其余两本是人皮。

The books made out of flayed skin garnered so much attention, the university had themtestedfor authenticity. It seems one of the books was just a horrifying hybrid of animal skins… but the others were legitimately human.