Human Skin Book Binding and Flammarion
I was just reading more about Flammarion (1842-1945), the French astronomer wood-cut picture guy. He wrote lots of books and was a Spiritualist (meaning he believed in other worlds of spirits and ghosts). He lived during the peak popularity of the Spiritualist movement.
I’m not going to name any names but some astronomers are pretty far out there. Like, REALLY far out there (remember all that Martian canal business? How about the lush gardens we’d find on Venus?).
Back in the day, some of the stranger ones managed to accomplish some really good science, and then counteract it with total rubbish. I guess back then you could better get away with things like that.
Flammarion did write some serious science books and good research. In fact, there are two craters, one on Mars and one on the Moon, and even an asteroid named after him. He published many popular books on astronomical including L’astronomie Populaire in 1879, which sold over 100,000 copies, but he also published many books on reincarnation and spiritualist topics. All in all, though, he was a very prolific writer for the times, who had some very interesting scientific ideas on evolution and life on other planets.
According to Wikipedia, he first suggested the names Triton and Amalthea for the moons of Neptune and Jupiter, respectively. . In 1877, he founded the Astronomical Society of France, and in 1882, he a private estate observatory was left to him in a will by a dead rich guy named M. Meret who admired his work.
Finally, it turns out that people really liked to leave him stuff when they died and he was popular with the ladies. In fact, he had many female admirers. One such lady, though she had never met him personally, had Flammarion’s portrait tattooed upon her body. When she died of tuberculosis, she specially requested a doctor remove her skin to make a special human-skin, tattoo leather book cover edition for his next book. It was a beautiful act of morbid love. Flammarion honored her wishes and made sure the first copy of his book Terres du Ciel was bound thus. And the inscription on the front cover said: ‘Pious fulfillment of an anonymous wish/ Binding in human skin (woman) 1882′.
I didn’t know human skin would make for a good leather binding.
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POSTED IN: astronomy education, general astronomy
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