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The Book Bound With The Human Face of A Guy Fawkes Conspirator

“The skin of Father Henry Garnet, a part of the in the 1605 gunpowder plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament (made popular by Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta), binds a 1606 record of this offenses against him, entitled A True and Perfect Relation of the Whole Proceedings Against the Late Most Barbarous Traitors, Garnet a Jesuit and His Confederates. The conspiracy still holds a special place for those in Great Britain, with the fifth of November celebrated as Guy Fawkes Day.

Garnet regularly listened to the confessions from the collaborators, and while not an active in the plot to blow up the House of Lords and kill King James I, Garnet received a punishment of death by hanging due to his knowledge of the plan, with his body later drawn and quartered prior to the removal of skin for binding.

One copy of of A True and Perfect Relation bound with Garnet’s skin is particularly unusual, as an impression from the face of Garnet is seen on the front cover (there is an image of it above, but the face is actually fairly hard to see). This copy is not very large, approximately 4 by 6 inches, and sold at auction for $11,000 in 2007.”

via iO9.com