This book examines the way On Crimes and Punishments (1764) gave birth to modern criminal law and paved the long road towards the abolition of the death penalty and torture in Europe. Shedding light on the sources and circulation of Beccaria’s book across Enlightenment Europe, the authors of this study analyse the prevalent reaction at the time : how and why was On Crimes and Punishments considered a milestone and a turning point as soon as it was published ? The seventeen chapters in this volume provide interdisciplinary perspectives on a seminal work in European Enlightenment. Written by prominent Beccaria scholars across Europe, it furthers our understanding of the ideas and debates at the origins of the legal, political and economic culture of today’s world.