15 March 1738 28 November 1794 Cesare Beccaria was born on 15 March 1738 in Milan, the son of Mary Visconti di Saliceto e Giovanni Francesco Saverio. After having studied at Parma, he graduated in Pavia in 1758; two years later the bride Teresa Blasco, Rho, despite the opposition of 16-year-old father (who makes him lose, so the rights of primogeniture). Kicked out of the House after the wedding, is hosted by his friend Pietro Verri, that for some time he also offers economic support. Meanwhile reads "Persian letters" by Montesquieu, which bring it closer to the enlightenment. After having been a member of the upper room of the brothers Verri (there is also Alexander, besides Peter), writes for the magazine "coffee" and is among the creators, in 1761, the Accademia dei Pugni. In 1762 he becomes father of Giulia; Meanwhile in this period is the desire to write a book aimed at giving life to a reform in support of humanity more suffering, also because of the insistence of Alessandro Verri, the protector of people in prison: that's how Cesare Beccaria in 1764 publishes (at first anonymously), the Treaty "on crimes and punishments", as opposed to torture and the death penalty. In particular, according to Beccaria, the death penalty can be considered an entire State's war against a single individual, and cannot be accepted since the good of life cannot be available to the will of the State itself. It also has a deterrent effect sufficient to justify the action, because-according to the milanese philosopher-felon tends to be afraid of life imprisonment or of slavery more than death: the first are a suffering repeated, while the second represents a bad final, unique. Not only: to Cesare Beccaria who thinks the death penalty can make a less trust in institutions or make even more disposed toward the crime. In "on crimes and punishments", therefore, the Milanese lawyer proposes replacing the death penalty with forced labor, which are useful to demonstrate the efficacy of the law through an extended example and useful to the community, which is then compensated the damage caused; forced labor, at the same time, help preserve the value of human existence, and intimidating effect: the death of the body is replaced by the death of the soul. In the work, also, Beccaria speaks of crimes as violations of a contract, by adopting a point of view obviously enlightenment and utilitarian, which led him to believe that the death penalty and torture, unjust or little more than humanly acceptable, are simply and pragmatically not very useful. I'm not religious reasons but practical reasons to move the pen of the jurist milanese, which incidentally shows that the crime should not be identified as an offense against the divine law, which instead is part of the public sphere but not of individual consciousness of a person. It is also for this reason that, as early as 1766, "on crimes and punishments" was put on the index of forbidden books by the distinction that it sanctioned between crime and sin. Also in 1766 Cesare Beccaria becomes father of Maria, her second daughter, born with severe neurological problems, and the following year the first male, John Hannibal, but dies shortly after. Later travels to Paris, albeit reluctantly (to the point of having a panic when leaving his wife and leaving), to meet the French philosophers want to know him. For some time it is hosted in the circle of Baron d'holbach, but soon after returned to Milan, jealous of his wife. In Italy, Beccaria-in spite of a character aloof and brittle, indolent and disinclined to social life-become a Certified science teacher. In 1771 he joined the Austrian administration before being appointed a member of the Supreme Council of the economy; He holds this position for more than twenty years (despite criticism of Pietro Verri and other friends, who point to as bureaucrat) and contributes, among other things, the establishment of Habsburg instituted reforms under Maria Theresa and Joseph II. Margaret was born in 1772, his fourth child, but does not survive more than a few days. Two years later, on 14 March of 1774, Teresa died, probably due to tuberculosis or syphilis. After a little more than a month of widowhood, Caesar signs the contract of marriage with Anne dei Conti Barnaba Barbò: less than three months after the death of his first wife, 4 June 1774, Beccaria remarries the arousing considerable uproar. Meanwhile Julia, her first daughter, is put into boarding school (although in the past, Caesar had been shown to despise the religious colleges) and stays there for a little less than six years: during this time Beccaria ignores it completely, if not know nothing and don't consider it more and even his daughter. He is convinced that Giulia is the result of one of the many relationships that Teresa had had with other men outside of marriage. Easter Tuesday denying maternal inheritance, Giulia in 1780 leaves the boarding school, approaching turn to enlightenment: Beccaria gives it two years later to marry the count Pietro Manzoni, who is twenty years her senior. In 1785 Cesare Beccaria dividend of Alessandro Manzoni (officially the son of Peter, but more likely the son of Giovanni Verri, brother of Alessandro and Pietro, lover of Julia), the future author of the Betrothed. Cesare Beccaria dies in Milan on 28 November 1794, at the age of fifty-six years, due to a stroke. His body is buried in the cemetery of Mojazza, outside Porta Comasina, rather than in the family plot. At the funeral there is also the small Alessandro Manzoni.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.