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A MASTERPIECE OF ITALIAN ENLIGHTENMENT, A REVOLUTIONARY BOOK AGAINST THE...

A MASTERPIECE OF ITALIAN ENLIGHTENMENT, A REVOLUTIONARY BOOK AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

Beccaria, Cesare. Dei delitti e delle pene: edizione rivista, corretta, e disposta secondo l'ordine della traduzione francese approuato dall'autore coll'aggiunta del commentario alla detta opera di Mr. de Voltaire tradotto da celebre autore. Londra [i.e. Venice?]: Presso la Società dei Filosofi, 1774.

8vo, contemporary half calf on marbled paper; pp. [2], xv, [1], 167, [1].
Engraved frontispiece containing an allegory against the death penalty, engraved title-page.

Very scarce edition, published with a false place of imprint, of the major text of Italian Enlightenment.

Beccaria argues that Punishment should be swift since this has the greatest deterrence value. He defends his view about the swiftness of punishment by appealing to the theory of the association of ideas (developed most notably by David Hume and David Hartley). According to associationists, if we know the rules by which the mind connects together two different ideas (such as the ideas of crime and punishment), then we can strengthen their association.

For Beccaria when a punishment quickly follows a crime, then the two ideas of "crime" and "punishment" will be more quickly associated in a person's mind. Also, the link between a crime and a punishment is stronger if the punishment is somehow related to the crime. Given the fact that the swiftness of punishment has the greatest impact on deterring others, Beccaria argues that there is no justification for severe punishments. In time we will naturally grow accustomed to increases in severity of punishment, and, thus, the initial increase in severity will lose its effect. There are limits both to how much torment we can endure, and also how much we can inflict.

Cesare Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio (1738-1794) was an Italian criminologist, jurist, philosopher, politician and one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thinkers. He is best known for his treatise "On Crimes and Punishments" (1764), which condemned torture and the death penalty, and was a founding work in the field of penology and the Classical School of criminology. He promoted criminal justice. Cesare Beccaria's book, "On Crimes and Punishments", had a profound influence on the Founding Fathers of the United States, including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Wilson, Dr. Benjamin Rush, and others.

Provenance: A blue stamp of a ring of an ancient (monogram not identified) owner at title-page.

References: OCLC 173651625.