INTRODUCING CREMATION TO THE MODERN WESTERN WORLD

GRIMM, JACOB.

Über das Verbrennen der Leichen. Eine in der Academie der Wissenschaften am 29 November 1849.

Berlin, Fred. Dümmler's, 1850. 4to. In contemporary marbled paper covered boards. Spine loose and light wear to extremties, internally fine and clean. 86 pp.

First edition of Grimm's important work which he considered one of the very earliest to introduce cremation to the modern western world.

Here Grimm traces cremation through the history of Western civilization and illustrated its aesthetic and ennobling benefits with a host of examples from various cultures, which to him, represented "stages in the refinement of humankind".
"While he described cremation as "progress in the mental education of the people". He dedicated the bulk of his speech to funerary rituals among ancient Greeks and Romans, whom he revered. Grimm focused on ethnological descriptions of cremation practices, but he also mentioned practical advantages, like improvising hygiene, saving space, and making the transport of remains easier. To preempt potential objections about the Christian belief in resurrection, he assured his audience that the physical product of incineration and decomposition were identical." (Ameskamp, On Fire - Cremation in Germany).

Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (1785 - 1863), German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, his Deutsche Mythologie and more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy Tales

Order-nr.: 52226