Abstract

Over the seventy years from 1852 to 1922, the period spanning the twilight of the Papal States to the twilight of the liberal State, the Chair of Criminal Law at the University of Perugia’s Faculty of Law was held by three professors, all from Perugia and who were all lawyers: Emilio Barbanera (1799-1876), Vincenzo Sereni (1831-1914) and Francesco Innamorati (1853-1923). Divided over the death penalty, a hot topic at the time in Italy during the thirty years following unification, and differing in terms of culture and academic style, the three men’s careers help tell the story of the University of Perugia during these seventy years, when it was going through the not so glamorous «free university» phase.