As it turns out, the practice of using human skin to bind books was actually pretty popular during the 17th century. It's referred to as Anthropodermic bibliopegy and proved pretty common when it came to anatomical textbooks.
Harvard Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Resource Laboratory are "99% confident that the binding is of human origin." http://blogs.harvard.edu/houghton/2014/06/04/caveat-lecter/
FC8.H8177.879dc [Bound in human skin, taken from the back of the unclaimed body of a woman patient in a French mental hospital who died suddenly of apoplexy; laid into case with this book is typed memorandum by J.B. Stetson giving details of its provenance; in case, 18 cm. ]
Title:
Des destinées de l'ame ...
Author / Creator:
Houssaye, Arsène, 1815-1896.
Edition:
Nouvelle édition.
Published:Paris, Calmann Lévy, éditeur, 3, rue Auber, 3 [188-]
Description:3 p. ℓ., 315, [1] p. ; 17 cm.
Language:French
title: Arsène Houssaye.
Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212
Form / Genre:Human skin binding.
HOLLIS Number:005786452
Permalink: http://id.lib.harvard.edu/aleph/005786452/catalog
Source: HVD ALEPH
inscription:
"This book is bound in human skin parchment on which no ornament has been stamped to preserve its elegance. By looking carefully you easily distinguish the pores of the skin. A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering: I had kept this piece of human skin taken from the back of a woman. It is interesting to see the different aspects that change this skin according to the method of preparation to which it is subjected. Compare for example with the small volume I have in my library, Sever. Pinaeus de Virginitatis notiswhich is also bound in human skin but tanned with sumac."