Dei delitti e delle pene nella traduzione di Michail M. \u160\u10derbatov

This work is devoted to the Russian translation of Cesare Beccaria\u2019s essay \uabOn crimes and punishments\ubb (\uabDei delitti e delle pene\ubb) carried out by prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Shcherbatov; the manuscript of the translation, still unpublished, is kept in the Russian National Library of St. Petersburg. The first chapter deals with the interest aroused in Russian culture by Beccaria\u2019s work. Particular attention is given to Mikhail Isaev\u2019s translation of Beccaria\u2019s essay, published in 1939 on the occasion of the second centenary of Cesare Beccaria\u2019s birth. In the introduction to his translation Isaev explains all the philological reasons that made him decide to translate \uabOn crimes and punishments\ubb from the fifth Italian edition of 1766. The second chapter is focused on Shcherbatov\u2019s translation of Beccaria\u2019s work, published in appendix, that, at the present time, can be considered the first complete Russian translation. On the grounds of incontestable textual arguments we can doubtless state that Shcherbatov translated \uabOn crimes and punishments\ubb from the Italian edition of 1774, and that he used also two secondary sources, Catherine\u2019s Instruction (1767) and the Elizabethan Bible of 1751