On Crimes and Punishments

Anonymous first edition of On Crimes and Punishments appears in Livorno

The edition that transformed penal debate did not put its author's name — or even its printer's name — on the title page.

July 1764, from a press in Livorno

In July 1764 the first edition of Cesare Beccaria's Dei delitti e delle pene was printed in Livorno without naming its author. He was twenty-six.

It came from Marco Coltellini's press, directed by Giuseppe Aubert, and the title page omitted both Beccaria's name and full publication details. A catalogued 1764 Coltellini copy runs to 104 pages.

That title page was almost bare: a title, a date, a small ornament and a motto from Francis Bacon.

What the treatise argued

The book attacked torture, disproportionate punishment, secret accusations and extensive use of capital punishment, arguing that penal law should be public, necessary and directed toward deterrence.

Beccaria was not an unconditional abolitionist in the modern sense. He retained an exceptional allowance for execution when a prisoner's continued existence endangered the state during extreme political crisis.

Sold out before Milan knew

Because the treatise challenged existing criminal procedure and punishment, Beccaria and his Milanese collaborators looked for a discreet printer outside Milan. The manuscript went to Aubert in Livorno on 12 April 1764.

An early biography reports that the entire first printing was gone by August, before the book was widely known in Beccaria's own Milan. Six editions are reported within eighteen months.

Pietro Verri had encouraged the project and helped revise and arrange the manuscript; his exact share in the final wording has been debated.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 8 sources not yet audited Date corrected

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date corrected. The research places this at 1764-07.

What the sources leave uncertain

The year and month are well supported, but the first edition itself prints only the year. A precise printing day is less securely established, so the sheet uses month-level dating.
Pietro Verri’s exact share in the final wording has been debated. Beccaria is the author, but Verri’s editorial and intellectual contribution should not be erased.