BECCARIA, Cesare; AROUET, Francois-Marie [VOLTAIRE]., An Essay on Crimes and Punishments, Translated from the Italian; with a Commentary, Attributed to Mons. De Voltaire, Translated from the French. The second edition., Printed for F. Newberry, 1769

8vo., contemporary full leather binding with gilt and gilt-lettered red leather label to spine, xii, 179, lxxix. Binding bumped and chipped, head and heel bands missing, front joint splitting, rear joint tender, mild browning to pages; otherwise very good. Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio (1738-1794), was an Italian criminologist, jurist, philosopher and politician. He is widely considered the most talented jurist and one of the greatest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment. On Crimes and Punishments (Dei delitti e delle pene), first published in Livorno 1764, is the book he is best remembered for today. It is notable for being an early example of a legal treatise condemning the death penalty and use of torture and being a founding work in the field of penology and Classical School of criminology. Before it appeared in English, the book was translated into French 1766 with a commentary by Voltaire, which was then translated into English and included in the first English edition which was published in 1767. This is the second English edition and still a very rare book in remarkably good condition. Text in English.