Book covered with human skin remains a mystery in Kazakhstan

An ancient Latin manuscript covered by human skin still keeps it’s misystery continues to be a mystery.

The manuscript is exhibited at the Museum of Rare Editions at the National Academic Library in Astana, Turanews.kz reports.

The book in ancient Latin of 330 pages is supposedly dated around 1532 but today only 10 of them have been deciphered so far.

Moldir Tolepbay, an expert at the Science Department of the National Academic Library, said that the manuscript was donated to the library fund by one of the private collectors in 2014 and has been exhibited in the museum since then.

Tolepbay said that the method of binding a book was common many centuries ago but is no longer used.

“A large number of visitors came to see the exhibiton. In the making of the cover of the book a method had been used which is known as anthropodermic binding that allows binding to be made from human skin,” said Tolepbay.

Noting out that the cover of the manuscript was examined in the scientific laboratories of the country the expert, “Research was carried out in the laboratory of the National Center for Medical Sciences in Astana. It was concluded that skin from the back of a person was used for the cover of the manuscript,” she said.

Tolepbay said that the content of the manuscript is still a mystery .

“The manuscript, owned by a Northern Italian notary named Petrus Puardus, was written in 1532 in ancient Latin. In general, the book consists of 330 pages but at the moment the experts were able to read only the first 10 pages,” she said.

The expert said that the first pages of the book were transcribed by specialists from the French Institute.

“According to what was read, the first pages contain information about input and output payments, loans and mortgage payments, but the manuscript is not fully deciphered,” the Kazakh expert added.

Up to 13 thousand rare books are stored in the fund of the National Academic Library of Kazakhstan today.