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First Italian edition of Bentham's Theory of Legislation, originally published in French, edited by Etienne Dumont from Bentham's original manuscripts. This work did more than any other to establish Bentham's reputation. It consists partly of Bentham's own papers, some of which were originally composed in French, and partly of Dumont's summary of Bentham's ideas. "Romilly tells an amusing story of Bentham's impatience to see the volumes because of a great curiosity to know what his views were on the subjects Dumont discusses. The success was immediate, and translations into Russian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese soon followed, and Bentham's influence became particularly marked in the South American republics, where 40,000 copies of various works were sold." (Muirhead)

Edition with additions and changes compared to the first one in Naples in 1780 of one of the major works that served Benjamin Franklin in drafting the Constitution of the United States of America.

"The Science, opposed by Neapolitan ruling circles and condemned in 1784 by the Congregation of the Index, immediately enjoyed enormous success in Italy, with testimonials of esteem from eminent contemporaries such as Bianchi and Pietro Verri (who wrote: 'I heard the voice of Hercules in the pages of the Science of Legislation'), and equally significant success in Europe, with praise from the Economic Society of Bern (a renowned center of Physiocratic culture) and translations into German in 1784, French in 1786, Spanish, and—partial—Russian and Swedish. Franklin repeatedly received copies of the various volumes of the Science thanks to Luigi Pio, secretary of the embassy of the Kingdom of Naples in France.

Franklin's interest also had operational implications: he considered Filangieri's work a model to inspire both the drafting of criminal legislation in Pennsylvania and the more challenging task of drafting the Constitution of the new federal state. A correspondence was established between the two, and Franklin sent Filangieri the text Constitutions des treize États-Unis de l'Amérique (The New World and the Civil Virtues, 1999; Embassy of Italy 2011). The copy annotated by Filangieri (like the initial drafts of two other projects: Nuova scienza delle scienze and Istoria civile e universale perenne) was lost, perhaps destroyed in the sacking and burning of his palace that followed the fall of the Neapolitan Republic in 1799.” (Adriano Giannola, in Enciclopedia Treccani sv Filangeri).

Gaetano Filangeri (1752-1788) can be counted among the most important Italian thinkers of the eighteenth century. Particularly attentive to the changes taking place in Europe and beyond, he developed a political and cultural position that was undoubtedly progressive, yet in stark contrast to the court and a large segment of the Neapolitan nobility. A keen listener to the French and Lombard Enlightenment thinkers, a friend and correspondent of B. Franklin, he always maintained his own independent thinking, which he rigorously presented in this work.

Called the "London edition," it was probably edited by the young Gaetano Poggiali. The allegorical plate on the frontispiece is very beautiful, "it was newly engraved, faithfully following Lapi's original model; the entire frontispiece was engraved on a copperplate of the same size, and at the bottom it bears a vaguely allusive vignette depicting a bearded, half-naked prisoner bound in chains at the base of a column" (See Firpo, Le Edizioni dei Delitti e delle Pene, 16 and pp. 508ff.).