FRANCESCO ALGAROTTI. — Polymathic man of letters, born in Venice on 11 Dec. 1712, died in Pisa in 1764. He possessed an encyclopaedic but superficial culture. Before he was twenty he wrote the book that brought him fame: *Il Newtonianismo per le dame*, first composed in French and placed on the Index (1738) for its excessive licence of expression and jesting. He travelled through the principal countries of Europe, winning the friendship, among others, of Voltaire, Benedict XIV and Frederick the Great of Prussia, who greatly protected him and created him a count. In 1753, owing to his delicate health, he was obliged to return to Italy in search of a better climate. By common consent his *Travels in Russia* is his finest work; in it he was able to display to better advantage his gifts as a publicist and his worldly, inquisitive temperament. A facile writer, sometimes even graceful, he was one of the chief representatives in Italy of the Enlightenment and possessed real talent as a populariser.
ALGAROTTI, FRANCESCO
BIBL.: For his works see the complete edition in 17 vols. by Palese, Venice 1701–04. — C. Berardi, *Studi critici*, Bozzolo 1914; A. Ambrogio, *L’estetica di F. A.*, Siracusa 1924; C. Masi, *F. A. e l’Europa nordica e orientale del sec. XVIII*, Rome 1940; *Italiani nel mondo*, ed. J. De Blasi, Florence 1942, pp. 339–58. Giambattista Salinari