DIGNITY FOR THE DEAD
COUPÉ, Jacques-Michel.
De la moralité des sépultures et de leur police ...
Paris, Calixte Vollant, an IX [1800–1801].
8vo, pp. 32; with folding copper-engraved plate at end; losses to blank upper margins of first 3 ff. (repaired), some creasing and toning to title, margins slightly dusty, else a good copy, uncut; stab-stitched without wrappers.
A scarce and most interesting pamphlet on dealing with the dead, written in the aftermath of the French Revolution by the cleric and politician Jacques-Michel Coupé (1737–1809), a member of the Club des Jacobins who had voted for the death of Louis XVI as a deputy of the National Convention.
The treatise discusses burial and cremation; cemeteries; the transport of cadavers; exhibiting the dead in churches; funeral ceremonies, religion, and public order; mourning; funeral processions; and tombs and epitaphs. It ends with a summary of his conclusions.
Coupé provides an interesting description of a model cemetery, with an accompanying illustrative plate. His recommendations include accommodation for those working at the cemetery, as well as sentry posts; surrounding gardens and orchards to provide tranquillity; a courtyard at the entrance with shade-providing trees, and a building to house bodies before burial and for receiving mourners; and providing different spaces for different faiths. The emphasis is very much on dignity for the dead and for their family and friends. In contrast, Coupé advocates (for the promotion of public order) the exposure and non-burial of the bodies of criminals.
Coupé also took a great interest in education, libraries, and agriculture.
OCLC finds only one copy in the UK (BL) and two in the US (Harvard, Newberry).
