“Illustre collégue”. Durkheim invites Lombroso to the universal exhibition of Bordeaux

Abstract

In the spring of 1895 Émile Durkheim wrote to Cesare Lombroso inviting him to participate to the social sciences section of
Bordeaux 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 Sorel
to Lombroso, the paper takes a new perspective on the relationship between the French sociologist and the founder of Criminal
Anthropology, united by hostility towards a common enemy, Gabriel Tarde, and by affinity of political opinion. The Author also
highlights presence of intersections between the theory of deviance formulated by Emile Durkheim and some arguments elaborated
by Cesare Lombroso at the end of the Nineteenth century, especially relating to social utility of crime.