Birth and Education
Beccaria was born in Milan on March 11, 1738, and educated in the Jesuit college at Parma. Then he graduated in law from the University of Pavia in 1758.
At first, he showed a great aptitude for mathematics, but the study of Montesquieu redirected his attention towards economics. His first publication, in 1762, was a tract on the disorder of the currency in the Milanese states, with a proposal for its remedy.
During this time, Beccaria, with the brothers Pietro and Alessandro Verri and a number of other young men from the Milan aristocracy formed a literary society, which was named "L'Accademia dei pugni" (the Academy of Fists), a playful name that made fun of the stuffy academies that proliferated in Italy and also because relaxed conversations that were taking place in there sometimes ending in affrays.
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