NEWSLETTER - STUDY GROUP ON EIGHTEENTH CENTURY RUSSIA
Abstract
This article is devoted to the first Russian translation of On Crimes and Punishments, made by Mikhail Mikhailovich Shcherbatov. Particular attention is focused on the genesis of the translation: on the basis of a detailed textual analysis the author identifies as source text the Italian edition of Beccaria’s work published by Masi in 1774, and as secondary sources Catherine’s Instruction (1767) and the Elizabethan Bible of 1751. In the second part the author emphasizes the struggle between “tradition” and “rationality”, clearly evidenced in Shcherbatov, which was to become a basic element in the social and political thought of the Russian elite.
