BECCAFICO BECERRA 437 BECCAFICO (ltd., fig-pecker), the gyhia Jior- tensis, a singing bird which feeds upon insects, figa, currants, and other fruits. It belongs to the order of syhiadce (warblers), and is found in some English and even Scotch counties, but chiefly in southern Europe. It has a voice like a nightingale, lurks shyly in the thickest Beccaflco (Silvia hortcnsis). foliage, and flies with singular grace. It was eaten with much delight by the ancient Ro- mans, and still is one of the most delectable morceaux on Italian, Grecian, and French ta- bles, especially in Venice. An annual feast made on beccaficos is called beccqficata. The term beccafico is applied in continental Eu- rope, rather indiscriminately, to different kinds of sylvan warblers, when they are fat and in condition for the table. BECCAFU9II, or Meeherlno, Domenieo, an Italian artist, born at Siena in 1484, died in Genoa, March 18, 1549, or according to Lanzi after 1551. He began life as a shepherd, amusing himself in drawing figures of his flock upon the sand. Beccafumi, a patron of art, was struck by his talent, and attended to his education ; and he adopted the name of his benefactor, though he occasionally used his real name of Mecherino. He studied in Venice and Rome, and on his return to Siena he executed bronze statues and bass reliefs. His most celebrated work is the mosaic pavement of the Siena cathedral. BECCARIA, Cesar* Bonesana, marquis of, an Italian jurist and economist, born in Milan, March 15, 1738, died there, Nov. 28, 1794. He attended the Jesuits' college in Parma and afterward studied philosophy and mathematics. Under the patronage of Count Firmian, gov- ernor of Lombardy, he established a literary society in Milan and a periodical, II Gaffe (1764-'o), in which he published (1764) his Dei delitti e delle pene, which was revised by him and by Pietro Verri (2 vols., Venice, 1781), and translated into English (" Crimes and Pun- ishments," Edinburgh, 1798), German, French, and other languages. This essay, which urged the abolition of capital punishment and the torture, established his fame as the originator of a more humane system of penal jurispru- dence, and wrought important reforms al- most everywhere, though in his own coun- try he was at first depreciated. Voltaire wrote a commentary on it under the title of Un avocat de Besancon, and subsequently Bec- caria visited him and D'Alembert. The cor- respondence of Baron Grimm attests the great popularity of Beccaria's views in France. Kant commended them, but the most learned disquisition on the subject is by Cesare Cantu (Florence, 1862). Catharine II. adopted Bec- caria's suggestions in the Russian code, and offered him an office, which he declined in order to accept the professorship of political and ad- ministrative sciences especially created for him at Milan in November, 1768. His opening dis- course, "On Commerce and Public Adminis- tration," was translated into French by An- toine Comparet (1769). In 1771 he became a member of the supreme economic council, and on the abrogation of this body he was transferred to the magistracy, and placed in 1791 on the committee for the reform of the civil and criminal code. He promoted reforms in trade, currency, and statistics, and urged the adoption of uniformity in weights and measures. His lectures on political economy have been published under the title of Elementi di eco- nomist pubblica, in the collection of the Scrittori elnssici italiani di eeonomia politica. The best complete edition of his works, including his Jiieerehe intorno alia natura dello stile, is by Villari (Florence, 1854). BECCARIA, Glambattista, or Giovanni Battlsta, an Italian electrician, born at Mondovi, Oct. 3, 1716, died in Turin, May 27, 1781. He entered the religious order of the Piarists in 1732, and always remained a member of it. He became professor of experimental physics at Palermo and afterward at Rome, and in 1748 at Turin. Subsequently he was tutor of the prin- ces de Chablais and de Carignan, and spent the rest of his life in Turin. His fame rests upon his treatise DelP elettricismo naturale e artificiele (Turin 1753), which was translated into Eng- lish by Franklin (London, 1771). His most remarkable experiments and theories relate to the limited conducting power of water, to the electrification of the air and smoke, to the ve- locity of electricity, to its influence in reducing metals, and to various phenomena connected with storms and atmospherical magnetism. The " Philosophical Transactions " of the royal society of London, of which he was made a fellow in 1755, contain his letter to Franklin (1760) entitled "Experiments in Electricity," and other -papers in Latin. At the sugges- tion of Boscovich, he was commissioned in 1759 to measure the length of a degree of the meridian in the immediate vicinity of Turin. This work, which was not regarded as very accurate, he completed in 1768, and published an account of it in 1774 (Oradus Taurinensis). BECERRA, Caspar, a Spanish sculptor and fresco painter, born at Baeza in 1520, died in 1570. He studied under Michel Angelo at
