4to. 220 leaves including the last blank.
Lowndes II, 791.
Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit. II, 955.
Palgrave II, 53.
Rebound in calf. Initialled by Jefferson at sig. I and T.
Adam Ferguson, 1723-1816, Scottish social philosopher, was professor of natural philosophy and later of moral philosophy at Edinburgh University,
where he was succeeded on his resignation by Dugald Stewart. In 1757 he succeeded David Hume as Librarian of the Advocates
Library.
An Essay on the History of Civil Society, first published in 1759, was frequently reprinted and was translated into several European languages.
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23
Beccaria dei delitti e delle pene.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 94. no. 14, Beccaria, on crimes and punishments, 12mo
[BECCARIA,
Cesare Bonesana, Marchesi di.]
An Essay on crimes & punishments, translated from the
Italian. With a commentary, attributed to M. de Voltaire. Translated from the
French . . .
New-York: published by
Stephen Gould, [
Gould & Van Winkle, printers]
1809.
Law
12mo. 97 leaves.
Halkett and Laing II, 191 (without the name of the translator).
This edition not in Lowndes and not in the Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit.
Seligman II, 488 (not this edition).
Palgrave I, 127.
Jefferson’s copy of
Dei delitti e delle pene was missing at the time of the sale to Congress in 1815 and on March 28, 1815, he wrote to Milligan to supply a replacement copy either in Italian or English. Milligan sent a copy on April 7, 1815, price
one dollar. This copy has also disappeared.
In his autobiography, begun on January 6, 1821, Jefferson wrote:
On the subject of the Criminal law, all were agreed that the punishment of death should be abolished, except for treason and
murder, and that, for other felonies should be substituted hard labor in the public works, and in some cases, the Lex talionis
. . .
Beccaria, and other writers on crimes and punishments had satisfied the reasonable world of the unrightfulness and inefficacy
of the punishment of crimes by death; and hard labor on roads, canals and other public works, had been suggested as a proper
substitute . . .
Beccaria is also mentioned in Jefferson’s letter, June 11, 1807, to John Norvell, who had written for advice on books on political
economy. After mentioning Locke, Sidney, Priestley and Chipman, Jefferson wrote: “
. . . adding perhaps Beccaria on crimes & punishments because of the demonstrative manner in which he has treated that branch
of the subject . . .
”
Cesare Bonesana, Marchesi di Beccaria, c. 1738-1794, Italian criminologist and economist.
Dei delitti de delle pene was first published in Leghorn in 1764, and the first English translation in London in 1767.
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J. 24
Voltaire sur Beccaria.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 106, no. 101, as above,
8vo.
[VOLTAIRE,
François Marie Arouet de.]
Commentaire sur le livre des délits et des peines, par un avocat de Province. Without name of place of printer [
Geneva],
1766.
HV8661 .B5 V7
First Edition. Sm. 8vo. 64 leaves.
Barbier I, 645.
Quérard,
Bibliographie Voltairienne, page 17, no. 59.
Bengescu 1724.
Original tree calf. Not initialled by Jefferson. The author’s name is written in ink on the title-page, and a number of contemporary manuscript notes occur, none by Jefferson. With the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate.
See the previous entry. This work was condemned by decree of the Court of Rome on July 19, 1768.
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