Cesare Beccaria
Milanese reformer whose On Crimes and Punishments (1764) argued for proportionate punishment and against torture and the death penalty.
Ask Cesare Beccaria a question
Answers come only from his own recorded words, with every quotation checked against its source.
Who he was
Cesare Beccaria was a Milanese reformer. His On Crimes and Punishments (1764) argued that punishments should be proportioned to crimes, and opposed torture and the death penalty.
Why he is at the Seat
Beccaria is on the Lutz-based roster. He is the Seat's voice on crime and punishment, including cruel punishment and the death penalty.
What we hold
- Editions
- An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (Online Library of Liberty), with Voltaire's Commentary
- Size
- About 40,000 words: the whole Essay. Word counts are whole files, so they include editors' headnotes and footnotes.
- Translation
- Anonymous English translation (1767), in an 1872 Albany reprint.
Known limits
- Only the Essay; his economic lectures are absent. The corpus is small (140 passages).
- Voltaire's Commentary is printed with the Essay; it is indexed as Voltaire's words, never as Beccaria's.
Questions he answers well
The questions his engine was tested on before it opened.
- Should punishments be proportioned to crimes, and is the death penalty justified?
Published answers
- What is the origin of the right to punish?
- Is a harsh punishment more effective than a mild one?
- What should be the rules for secret accusations?
- Should laws be written clearly and published?
- How can crimes best be prevented?
- Why must punishment be certain and prompt?
- Should torture ever be used to obtain confessions?
- Should punishments be proportioned to crimes, and is the death penalty justified?
More in Prior Questions.