Botero, Giovanni (1544-1617)

Italian political theorist. He was briefly secretary to cardinal (later saint) Charles Borromeo and later in the service of the dukes of Savoy. He came to prominence with his treatise Della ragion di stato (1589), in which, attacking Machiavelli, he argued that effective government could be based on Christian principles.

Botero was born in Cuneo, Piedmont, and was sent to a Jesuit seminary in Palermo, from which he joined the order. While a Jesuit he pursued his studies in a number of centres, including Paris, but in 1580 he left the order to work for cardinal Charles Borromeo.

After the latter's death in 1584, Botero was secretary to cardinal Federico Borromeo, but from 1599 he was tutor and adviser at the Turin court of Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy.

Botero's reputation as a political thinker was made by the publication of two works: Della ragion di stato, and Cause della grandezza e magnificenza delle città (1588), which broke new ground with its analysis of factors determining the growth and prosperity of cities. His Relazioni universali (1596) expands his views on population studies, a field in which he often anticipates Malthus.