![[CRIMINOLOGY] BECCARIA, CESARE, Marquis of Milan. An Essay on Crimes and Punishments ... With a commentary, by M. de Voltaire.](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/406/1576406.jpg?itok=wsVItGUg)
Lot Details
Lot 36
[CRIMINOLOGY] BECCARIA, CESARE, Marquis of Milan. An Essay on Crimes and Punishments ... With a commentary, by M. de Voltaire.
Philadelphia: Printed by William Young, 1793. The third American edition. Contemporary calf, rebacked to style preserving the red morocco lettering label. 6 x 3 1/2 inches (15 x 9 cm); x, [13]-230 pp. (per Evans there is no sixth leaf in the first signature). A fine copy with clean text, there are some ink markings and old stains to endpapers and an ownership signature to title, the binding nicely refurbished.
First published in Charleston in 1777 and again in Philadelphia in 1778, the present work came to have a great impact on American criminal law, and all American editions including this later third edition appear scarce in commerce. "One of the most influential books in the whole history of criminology... Infused with the spirit of the Enlightenment, its advocacy of crime prevention and the abolition of torture and capital punishment marked a significant advance in criminological thought ... It was especially influential among American thinkers, such as Thomas Jefferson, who wished to use Beccaria to reform the system of criminal law Americans inherited from England." Printing and the Mind of Man, 209; Evans 25150
C Private Collection of Barbara and Ira Lipman
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