MELCHIORRE

DELFICO (1744-1835)  , Italian economist, was born at Teramo in the Abruzzi on the 1st of August 1744, and was educated at Naples . He devoted himself specially to the study of jurisprudence and political economy, and his numerous publications exercised great practical influence in the correction and extinction of many abuses . Under Joseph Bonaparte Delfico was made a councillor of state, an office which he held until the restoration of Ferdinand IV., when he was appointed president of the commission of archives, from which he retired in 1825 . He died at Teramo on the 21St of June 1835 . His more important works were: Saggio filosofico sul matrimonio (1774) Memoria sul Tribunale della Grascia e sulle leggi economiche nelle provincie confcnanti del regno (1786), which led to the abolition in Naples of the most vexatious and absurd restrictions on the sale and exportation of agricultural produce; Rifiessioni su la vendita dei feudi (1790) and Leltera a Sua Ecc. it sig . Duca di Cantalupo (1795), which brought about the abolition of feudal rights over landed property and their sale; Ricerche sul vero carattere della giurisprudenza Romana e dei suoi cultori (1791); Pensieri su la storia e su l' incertezza ed inutilitd delta medesima (18o6), both on the early history of Rome . See F . Mozzetti, Degli studii, delle opere e delle virtal di Melchiorre Delfico; Tipaldo's Biographia degli Italiani illustri (vol. ii.) .