File:Book Bound In Human Skin By Paul Kersten.jpg
The front cover inset a plaque modeled and engraved in silver by the Weimar sculptor Gottlieb Elster, displaying the head of a Black man and an example of a skull. Above is the name of the sculptor (Elster) and below the name of the owner (Hans Friedenthal), the whole represented as an ex-libris.
The volume contains six medical pamphlets :
- Bernhard Siegrfried Albinus (1697-1770). Dissertatio de arteries et venis intestinorum hominis. Adjecta icon coloribus distincta. (1736).
- Bernhard Siegrfried Albinus. "Dissertatio secunda. De sede et caussa coloris Aethiopum et caetorum hominum". (1737).
- Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731). Icon durae matris in concava superficie visae. (1738).
- Ruysch. Icon durae matris in convexa superficie visae. (1738).
- Ruysch. Icon membranae vasculosae. (1738).
- Jan Ladmiral (1698-1773). Effigies penis humani. (1741).
- inscription: " Dieses Buch wurde von mir in Menschenhaut gebunden, Berlin, i. Juni, 1910, Paul Kersten."
- Silver repousse bookplate mounted on front cover consists of cutaway overlapping head and skull in relief, signed Elster, with text: "Ladmiral ex libris Hans Friedenthal."
The volume was purchased by Lane Library of Stanford University from the London booksellers, Maggs Bros., in 1932.
See also :
- Stanford Libraries Catalog entry (Medical History Center, E21H .A325 1736)
- J. Norman, Bernhard Siegrfried Albinus, Frederik Ruysch, & Jan Ladmiral Six pamphlets 1736-1741, on Lane Medical Library, Stanford University, 2006 (archived link)
- binder : Paul Kersten (1865-1943)
- bookplate designer : Gottlieb Elster (1867-1917)
- photographer : Paul Kersten (?)