Botero, Giovanni, born 1549 at Bene in Piedmont, died 1617 at Turin. A powerful thinker, he opposed energetically the mercantilist theories, and enuciated the law of increase of population later know as Malthus's law. He occupied some of the highest official positions in his country.

His work, Della ragione di Stato, published for the first time in Venice in 1589, again there in 1619, and in Turin in 1596, has been translated into all the principal modern languages, and also into Latin. It was translated twice into French, once in 1589 by Choppius, Raison et Gouvernement d'État, and once in 1606 by Piere de Deymier, Maximes d'État militaires et politiques. Not less remarkable is his book on the causes of the greatness of cities, Delle cause della grandezza delle citté, published in 1598 in Rome. Botero was an opponent of Macchiavelli. Having travelled a great deal, he published his so-called Universal Reports, a treatise on "The Strength of all the Powers of Europe and Asia" Rome, 1592, and 1595.

M.P.

Matteo Pantaleoni