FILANGIERI, GAETANO (1752-1788), Italian lawyer, was born at Naples on Aug. 18, 1752, and died at Vico Equense on July 21, 1788. He wrote La Scienza della legislazione (vols. i. and ii., 1780; vol. iii., 1783; vols. iv.—vi., 1785), a book which had great influence throughout Europe. Filangieri was an ardent re f ormer, who desired to sweep away those mediaeval institutions which hampered production and national well-being. The third volume, relating to criminal jurisprudence, was placed on the Index.
The best edition of the Scienza is that by Villari (3 vols., 1864-76) ; the book was translated into most of the European languages (Eng. trans. by R. Clayton, The Science of Legislation, 1806) .