BOTERO, GIOVANNI. — Born in Bene Vagienna (province of Cuneo) in 1543 or 1544, he was admitted to the Society of Jesus in 1560 and assigned to work in colleges in France and Italy. In 1581 he left the Jesuits on good terms with his superiors, either for reasons of health or family matters, though not excluding a certain discomfort in living with them. It appears that he then joined the Congregation of the Oblates of St. Charles Borromeo and served as vice-curate and later as vicar forane of Luino. In 1582 he earned a doctorate in theology at the University of Pavia. Two years later, he was appointed by St. Charles as parish priest of Limito, near Milan. From 1581 or 1582 he served as secretary to St. Charles, who appreciated his worth and virtue; indeed, St. Charles had already employed him as a concavist in the conclave of Gregory XIII (1572). In the same year as the death of the great cardinal (1585), he received his first assignment from Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy, who sent him on an unknown mission to France. The following year he returned to Milan, serving Federico Borromeo, of whom he was both secretary and tutor, accompanying him to Rome. In 1599, having resigned from Cardinal Federico with a generous stipend and a canonry at Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, he accepted the position of tutor to the sons of the Duke of Savoy. He died in Turin in 1617.
He wrote on many and varied subjects, in prose and poetry. The *Assidua* lists no fewer than 33 works and groups of letters, both published and unpublished. To these must be added a previously unknown work, *De Rege*, which Botero mentions in an unpublished letter from the Vatican archives that is about to be published. Of all his works, however, particular attention should be given to the books *Della ragion di Stato* and the *Relationi universali*, the latter of which went through many more editions than the former. In *Ragion di Stato*, Botero marks one of the most significant moments in the attempt to reconcile politics and morality, raison d’état and ethics. Like Machiavelli, he too is concerned with how to conquer and maintain states: in the conquest of a state, opportunity, the disorders of enemies, and the actions of others play a part, «but maintaining what has been acquired is the fruit of excellent virtue. One acquires with force, one preserves with wisdom; force is common to many, wisdom to few» (*Della Ragion di Stato*, ed. C. Morandi, Bologna 1930, p. 13). Botero oscillates between the concept of a raison d’état understood as a method of acquiring and maintaining a state, and a more Machiavellian notion of raison d’état, equivalent to the self-interest and egoism of princes; at times he even grants the state the right, in certain cases, to resort to violence and deception. The *Relationi universali* is a treatise on political geography, in which it has been rightly observed that Botero, innovating and anticipating his time, strips geography of its empirical knowledge and considers various countries as the environment of man, studying man in relation to each of them. Particular value is placed on the *Relatione sul mare*, in which he skillfully summarizes and coordinates the oceanographic knowledge of his time.