Against the Death Penalty: Writings from the First Abolitionists—Giuseppe Pelli and Cesare Beccaria

Cesare Beccaria; Giuseppie Pelli; Cesare Beccaria

Published by Princeton University Press 2020

Against the Death Penalty

Writings from the First Abolitionists—Giuseppe Pelli and Cesare Beccaria

Cesare Beccaria , Giuseppie Pelli and Cesare Beccaria
Edited by: Peter Garnsey

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691211374

Overview
Contents

About this book

The first known abolitionist critique of the death penalty—here for the first time in English

In 1764, a Milanese aristocrat named Cesare Beccaria created a sensation when he published On Crimes and Punishments. At its centre is a rejection of the death penalty as excessive, unnecessary, and pointless. Beccaria is deservedly regarded as the founding father of modern criminal-law reform, yet he was not the first to argue for the abolition of the death penalty. Against the Death Penalty presents the first English translation of the Florentine aristocrat Giuseppe Pelli's critique of capital punishment, written three years before Beccaria's treatise, but lost for more than two centuries in the Pelli family archives.

Peter Garnsey examines the contrasting arguments of the two abolitionists, who drew from different intellectual traditions. Pelli was a devout Catholic influenced by the writings of natural jurists such as Hugo Grotius, whereas Beccaria was inspired by the French Enlightenment philosophers. While Beccaria attacked the criminal justice system as a whole, Pelli focussed on the death penalty, composing a critique of considerable depth and sophistication. Garnsey explores how Beccaria's alternative penalty of forced labour, and its conceptualization as servitude, were embraced in Britain and America, and delves into Pelli's voluminous diaries, shedding light on Pelli's intellectual development and painting a vivid portrait of an Enlightenment man of letters and of conscience.

With translations of letters exchanged by the two abolitionists and selections from Beccaria's writings, Against the Death Penalty provides new insights into eighteenth-century debates about capital punishment and offers vital historical perspectives on one of the most pressing questions of our own time.

Author / Editor information

Peter Garnsey is emeritus professor of the history of classical antiquity at the University of Cambridge and emeritus fellow of Jesus College. His recent books include Thinking about Property: From Antiquity to the Age of Revolution and, with Richard Saller, The Roman Empire: Economy, Society and Culture.

Reviews

"This is an important translation of a neglected but illuminating early manuscript by a decidedly under-studied Enlightenment scholar, and a succinct and timely introduction to early debates about the death penalty."—Sophus A. Reinert, author of The Academy of Fisticuffs: Political Economy and Commercial Society in Enlightenment Italy

"This English edition of Pelli's treatise—the first full-fledged abolitionist critique of the death penalty in modern times—is a welcome contribution to our understanding of the intellectual and cultural practices of the eighteenth century."—Renato Pasta, University of Florence

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
Giuseppe Bencivenni Pelli (1729–1808)
Texts
Giuseppe Pelli: Against the Death Penalty. Text and Fragments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Giuseppe Pelli and Cesare Beccaria: Correspondence (1766–67) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
Context
Tuscany Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
The Man Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
The Life-Cycle of Against the Death Penalty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
Milieu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
Career Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
Argument of Against the Death Penalty
Preliminaries Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
The Proofs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Lex talionis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
Cesare Beccaria Bonesana (1738–1794)
Texts
Beccaria against the Death Penalty and for Forced Labour Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Law of Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany, against the Death Penalty (1786; excerpts) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Opinion (‘Voto’) of Beccaria, Gallarati Scotti and Risi against the Death Penalty (1792) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Context
Lombardy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
On Crimes and Punishments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Career Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
Milieu, Authorship, Character Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Patronage and Publication Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Argument against the Death Penalty
Preliminaries Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
Chapter 28 in Outline Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Commentary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
Postscript: From Forced Labour to Penal Servitude
Preliminaries Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	150
Beccaria on Forced Labour Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Beccaria and Bentham Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
Beccaria and Jefferson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Select Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
General Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205