Criminal Sociology

D. Appleton, 1897. First Edition. Hardcover. viii, 284 pages. 'A translation of that portion of Professor Ferri's volume on Criminal Sociology which is immediately concerned with the practical problems of criminality.' Ferri offered 'scientific' criteria to ascertain guilt or at least criminal tendencies. Among his criteria were tattooing, physical and mental conditions, vaso-motor reactions, and the range of sight (p. 166). Ferri's work was widely translated and many of his conclusions influenced policing and justice systems around the world. A very good copy in half-leather over marbled paper-covered boards. This copy is from the Harvard office library of the paleontologist and leading advocate for evolution, Stephen Jay Gould, with a posthumous tipped in bookplate indicating the provenance. Gould cites this work and quotes several long passages from it in his National Book Critics Circle Award winning book, The Mismeasure of Man. *** Intellectually, Gould understood the true nature of these bookplates, but the book collector in him appreciated them. In his essay 'A Seahorse for All Races' Gould writes about one of his prized possessions, a book from Charles Dickens' library: 'Dickens made no annotations, but a bookplate on the cover, presumably inserted as a come-on for a sale after Dickens' death in 1870, does prove that [he] kept and shelved the book.' *** We offer our Gould bookplates, printed letterpress in two colors, in the same spirit.