La Pena de Muerte Considerada Segun las Investigaciones de la Ciencia, los Progresos de la Legislacion y los Resultos de la Experiencia

Mexico City, 1879. About very good.. xxxii,278,2pp. Contemporary quarter sheep and red pebbled cloth, spine gilt. Boards rubbed, moderate wear to corners and spine ends. Minor staining at fore-edge of initial leaves, otherwise light toning and an occasional small fox mark. Second edition of this Spanish-language translation of a significant German legal criticism of the death penalty. The author, Carl Mittermaier, was a prominent Bavarian jurist who authored numerous influential works during the mid-19th century; he was also elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1845. The translator, Manuel Rivera y Rio, states in his introduction that he took up this work because of the number of executions that were taking place in Mexico despite an abolition of the death penalty in the country's first constitution. OCLC locates four copies of the 1873 first edition and none of the present, second edition. (Inventory #: 4737)