Gross, Hans: Handbuch für Untersuchungsrichter, Polizeibeamte, Gendarmen u. s. w.
 
Graz, Leuchner & Lubensky, 1893. 8vo. viii + 620 pp. Text illustrated with drawings and diagrams. With index.
 
Contemporary half morocco, lightly rubbed. Very faint small stains to a few leaves. Printed oval label (bookplate?) on title. Fine.
 
”Handbook for Magistrates, police officials, military policemen” - First edition of the first book of criminalistics. It combines in one system fields of knowledge that had not been previously integrated, such as psychology and science, and which could be successfully used against crime.
 
Hans Gustav Adolf Gross (1847-1915) was an Austrian criminal jurist and an examining magistrate, and also taught as a professor at the Chernivtsi University, Prague University and the University of Graz. With the present volume he became the creator of criminalistics and is to this day seen as the father of criminal investigation. Gross adapted some fields to the needs of criminal investigation, such as crime scene photography. In 1912, he founded the Institute of Criminalistics (later: Institute of Criminology), as part of the University of Graz' Law School, which was to be followed by many similar institutes all over the world.