FARINACCI, PROSPERO. - Italian jurist specializing in criminal law, b. in Rome on 30 Oct. 1554, d. there on 30 Oct. 1616. He studied law at the University of Padua, where he also took his doctorate, revealing from his student days a keen sense of law and particular skill in forensic dialectic. The new science of criminal law, which, from the first attempts of the post-glossators, became an independent discipline on the basis of Roman and canon law and with the contribution of the principal statutory provisions, is chiefly associated with his name and that of Tiberio Deciani.
In the field of criminal doctrine F. stood out for the great individuality of his views, together with their marked practicality. In his writings he shows himself familiar with the theories developed before his time, to which he regularly opposes, in conclusion, his own opinion.
His Praxis et theorica criminalis (Lyons, 1616), which exercised considerable influence on foreign criminal legislation until the end of the 18th century, belongs principally to the systematic study of the science of criminal law and procedure. His other minor writings are De haeresi, De immunitate ecclesiae, and De testibus; the substantial collection of Decisiones Rotas romanas; the treatises De contractibus and De ultimis voluntatibus; and the collections of Consilia and Decisiones. As an advocate he acquired particular renown for the defense he undertook in celebrated trials such as that of Beatrice Cenci.