“Illustre collégue”. Durkheim invita Lombroso all’esposizione universale di Bordeaux

Abstract

In the spring of 1895 Emile Durkheim wrote to Cesare Lombroso inviting him to participate to the social sciences section ofBordeaux Exposition, sending documents suitable for presenting to public the scientific activity of Italian criminological school.Analyzing the brief correspondence - so far little known - between the two eminent scholars and a letter from George Sorelto Lombroso, the paper takes a new perspective on the relationship between the French sociologist and the founder of CriminalAnthropology, united by hostility towards a common enemy, Gabriel Tarde, and by affinity of political opinion. The Author alsohighlights presence of intersections between the theory of deviance formulated by Emile Durkheim and some arguments elaboratedby Cesare Lombroso at the end of the Nineteenth century, especially relating to social utility of crime.