VOLTAIRE. Commentaire sur le livre des Délits et des Peines, par un Avocat de Province. Genoa: Cramer, 1766. Anonymous first edition of Voltaire's commentary on Beccaria's celebrated treatise, offered here together with the Italian translation of Sonnenfels' work'one of the most influential texts of Austrian legal Enlightenment, which helped to bring about penal reform and the abolition of torture in the Habsburg territories. The lot also includes Voltaire's famous sceptical piece in which he cleverly and ironically dismantles the absolutist claims of scholastic and metaphysical philosophy, while recognising the limits of human knowledge in contrast to religious and rationalist dogmatism. 8vo (195 x 120mm). Typographical ornaments to title-page, uncut. Contemporary wrappers [IN LOT WITH:] SONNENFELS, Joseph von (1732-1817). On the abolition of torture. Milan, Giuseppe Galeazzi, 1776. 8vo (195 x 125mm). Engraved vignette to title-page; bound in contemporary calf, spine and covers decorated in gilt, red edges (slightly worn) [WITH:] VOLTAIRE. Le Philosophe ignorant. [Geneva, Cramer], 1766. 8vo (213 x 130mm). Woodcut vignette to title-page, text within engraved borders, uncut (some waterstaining to final leaves, lightly browned). Contemporary rustic paper. (3)