Dei delitti e delle pene.

[Livorno: Tipografia Coltellini,], 1764. A milestone of criminal justice theory First edition, complete with the errata leaf, and very rare thus. The leaf "was bound in a scarce number of examples" (translated from Firpo, p. 389): only three copies such were known to Beccaria's bibliographer Firpo in 1984 (two in Italian institutions, one was his own), and only two can be traced at auction in over 60 years. Beccaria composed the work in Milan between March 1763 and January 1764, and the manuscript was sent to Livorno on 12 April to be printed by Coltellini. Published anonymously for fear of a negative reaction from the Austrian government in Milan, the book proved immediately popular, with more than 500 copies sold during the first month. Despite its inclusion in the papal index of forbidden books in 1766, the work maintained its popularity: it was reprinted in five subsequent editions within 18 months and eventually translated into 22 languages. It was read with enthusiasm by contemporary philosophers and political thinkers including Voltaire (who wrote a commentary on it), the encyclopaedists Diderot and D'Alembert, Hume, Hegel, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. "Beccaria maintained that the gravity of the crime should be measured by its injury to society and that the penalties should be related to this. The prevention of crime he held to be of greater importance than its punishment, and the certainty of punishment of greater effect than its severity. He denounced the use of torture and secret judicial proceedings. He opposed capital punishment, which should be replaced by life imprisonment; crimes against property should be in the first place punished by fines, political crimes by banishment; and the conditions in prisons should be radically improved. Beccaria believed that the publication of criminal proceedings, verdicts and sentences, as well as furthering general education, would help to prevent crime. These ideas have now become so commonplace that it is difficult to appreciate their revolutionary impact at the time" (PMM). This copy has an early legal provenance, from the library of the Milanese lawyer Antonio Bellani, with his Latin ownership inscription and a note in Italian indicating that he bought the book on 30 August 1814 on the rear endpapers. Bellani made some corrections to the text, following the indications on the errata leaf. Quarto (200 x 143 mm). Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with raised bands, compartments tooled in gilt, blind rules on covers, gilt roll on board edges, marbled endpapers, edges sprinkled blue, green silk bookmarker. Typographical ornaments on title and following leaf. Near-contemporary inscription "Da Firenze, G. L." on a rear blank. Binding a little rubbed and scuffed, couple of small patches of skinning, subtle cosmetic repairs at spine ends and corners, intermittent faint foxing or small marks to contents, otherwise clean. An excellent, well-margined copy. Firpo, vol. I, p. 539; Landry, p. 22; Melzi I, 281; PMM 209.