LOMBROSO, Cesare (1836-1909). L'Uomo Delinquente, studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie. Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1876.

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LOMBROSO, Cesare (1836-1909). L'Uomo Delinquente, studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie. Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1876.

8o (229 x 156 mm). Mounted lithographed illustration on p. 65, some wood-engraved illustrations in text. (Title- and half-title reinforced along inner margin, some light foxing.) Modern quarter vellum.

FIRST EDITION. Lombroso derived the basis of his thesis from the work of Auguste Comte (1798-1857), and as the leader of an influential school of criminologists maintained that criminal behavior was the result of either inherited physical and mental abnormalitites, or from physical degeneration. Although it contained some fallacies, L'Uomo Delinquente ("Criminal Man") "was a revolutionary work which not only caused a considerable stir when it first came out but had a practical effect which was wholly beneficial. The division which it indicated between the congenital criminal and those who were tempted to crime by circumstances has had a lasting effect on penal theory. Again, by connecting the treatment of crime with the treatment of insanity, Lombroso initiated a branch of psychiatric research which has cast new light on problems, such as criminal responsibility, which lie at the root of human society" (PMM). Garrison-Morton 174 ("Lombroso inaugurated the doctrine of a 'criminal type'"); PMM 364; Norman 1384.