This work is devoted to the Russian translation of Cesare Beccaria’s essay «On crimes and punishments» («Dei delitti e delle pene») carried out by prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Shcherbatov; the manuscript of the translation, still unpublished, is kept in the Russian National Library of St. Petersburg.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’s work. Particular attention is given to Mikhail Isaev’s translation of Beccaria’s essay, published in 1939 on the occasion of the second centenary of Cesare Beccaria’s birth. In the introduction to his translation Isaev explains all the philological reasons that made him decide to translate «On crimes and punishments» from the fifth Italian edition of 1766.
The second chapter is focused on Shcherbatov’s translation of Beccaria’s 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 «On crimes and punishments» from the Italian edition of 1774, and that he used also two secondary sources, Catherine’s Instruction (1767) and the Elizabethan Bible of 1751.
