An Essay on Crimes and Punishments.
"No Man Who Reads This Book Will Be a Tyrant" Beccaria, [Cesare Bonesana, Marchese di] [1738-1794]. Sharpe, Granville [1735-1813]. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques [1712-1778]. An Essay on Crimes and Punishments. Written by the Marquis Beccaria of Milan. With a Commentary Attributed to Monsieur De Voltaire. Philadelphia: Printed by R. Bell, 1778. [iv], 352, [4] pp. Includes one-page publisher list. Three works in one with continuous pagination. The second work, preceded by a half-title and title page, is Sharpe's Remarks on the Opinions of Some of the Most Celebrated Writers on Crown Law, Respecting the Due Distinction Between Manslaughter and Murder, the third, with a drop-head title, is J.J. Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva, His Opinion on Duelling. Octavo (7-1/2" x 4-1/4"). Recent period-style quarter calf over cloth, blind tooling to calf edge, gilt-edged raised bands, blind fillets, lettering piece and date to spine, endpapers and endleaves renewed. Moderate toning to interior, occasional light foxing, faint dampstaining in a few places, a few folded corners, small wormhole to gutter of first few leaves, light edgewear and chipping to half-title and title pages, small tear to top-edge of leaf E6 (pp. 43-44). Ownership signature of a Richard Randolph dated 1796 to half-title and title pages, early annotations (possibly Randolph's) throughout Crimes and Punishments. $3,500. * With a table of authorities and cases. Dei Delitti e Delle Pene (1764) was the first systematic study of the principles of crime and punishment. 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, which had changed little since the medieval era. It had a profound influence on the development of criminal law. It was especially influential among American thinkers, who saw Beccaria as a source of enlightened ideas to reform English common law. Though a matter of some debate, the first American edition was published in Charleston, SC, in 1777. (Earlier American imprints, including one printed in New York in 1773, are ghosts). The Randolphs were an elite Virginia family. Our copy likely eventually belonged to Richard Kidder Randolph [1781-1849], alth.
Price: $3,500.00
Book number 72779