Cesare Beccaria

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Dates

Born 15 Mar 1738
Died 28 Nov 1794
Activity 1758-1794

Places

Born in Italy
Active in Italy

Activities

Primary

Jurist

Other

Economist
Essayist

Resources

Beccaria's Works

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Beccaria was born into the lesser aristocracy of Milan and educated in a repressive Jesuit academy which he detested. He then studied law at the University of Pavia, graduating in 1758. He became friends with Count Pietro Verri, with whom he set up a literary society which became a meeting point for Enlightenment intellectuals. In 1764 he published his widely-influential

Dei delitti e delle pene

[

Of Crimes and Punishments

] in which he advocated the abolition of torture, the death penalty and secret trials, and advocated penalties proportionate to the crime which would reform the individual and prepare them to resume a normal social life. His work was particularly taken up by the

philosophes

in France, notably Voltaire (1694-1778), who read

Dei delitti e delle pene

in 1765, just as his…

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224 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Cesare Beccaria". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=320, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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