Giovanni Botero

Giovanni Botero (c. 1544 – 1617) was an Italian thinker, priest, poet, and diplomat, author of Della ragion di Stato (The Reason of State), in ten chapters, printed in Venice in 1589, and of Universal Relations, (Rome, 1591), addressing the world geography and ethnography. With his emphasis that the wealth of cities was caused by adding value to raw materials, Botero may be considered the ancestor of both Mercantilism and Cameralism. Born around 1544 in Bene Vagienna, in the northern Italian principality of Piedmont, Botero was sent to the Jesuit college in Palermo at the age of 15. A year later, he moved to the Roman College, he was introduced to the teaching of some of the most influential Catholic thinkers of the sixteenth century, including Juan de Mariana, who, in his On the King and the Education of the King, would argue for the popular overthrow of tyrannical rulers In 1565, Botero was sent to teach philosophy and rhetoric at the Jesuit colleges in France, first in Billom, and then in Paris. The second half of the sixteenth century saw the kingdom dramatically, and often violently divided by the French Wars of Religion. Paris especially was heating up during Botero's stay there from 1567 to 1569, and he was recalled to Italy after getting too caught up in the excitement, apparently for his involvement in an anti-Spanish protest. Botero spent the 1570s drifting from one Jesuit college to another, Milan, Padua, Genoa, and then back in Milan. After a doctrinally incorrect sermon he gave questioning the Pope's temporal power, he was discharged from the Jesuit order in 1580. Botero's life took a major turn at this time when he was commissioned by Bishop Carlo Borromeo of Milan as a personal assistant. Borromeo introduced Botero to the practical side of Church administration, often socializing with the nobility of northern Italy, most notably Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy. When the Bishop died in 1584, Botero continued his service to the family as assistant to Carlo Borromeo's nephew, Federico.