Harlem: 1766. “Fifth Edition”
Small 8vo, eng. frontis., [-]2, A-V8, [ii], 318pp, cont. mottled calf, fully gilt spine, morocco label, edges stained red, some wear to joints but still firm. On the front fly leaf is a 17-line ms. note in ink discussing Beccaria’s authorship and “Dr. Parr’s” doubt as to that ascription being correct.
Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio is widely regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment and the father of classical criminology. He laid out his ideas about legal reform including how and why to create effective punishments. He advocated that punishments should fit the crime and be proportional to the harm done. His great work, Dei Delitti delle Pene, first published anonymously in 1764, was so successful that pirated editions appeared almost immediately, and soon after counterfeit editions of the pirated. The present copy appears to be identical with OCLC: 66257658 located in four copies, 3 in the Netherlands and one in Germany, but there are doubtless others in this complicated printing history.