Cesare Lombroso (1835 - 1909) was born in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia from a wealthy Jewish family. A professor of forensic medicine, he rejected the view of the Classical School, whereby crime was a choice made by man as a calculating animal with free will; instead, he posited that the criminal was born and could be identified through congenital traits. Thereby turning the focus onto the criminal, he sought to understand his subject anthropologically, earning him the sobriquet of 'the father of criminology'. His writings left a lasting literary impression, with the likes of Émile Zola, Leo Tolstoy, Joseph Conrad, and Bram Stoker drawing from his work. He also wrote about genius and insanity, and, having served as director of the insane asylum at Pesaro, conducted pioneering examinations of the art of the insane.
