BOTTERO, GIOVAN BATTISTA. – Journalist, born in Nice on 6 Feb. 1822, died in Turin on 16 Nov. 1897.
He first founded *L'Opinione*, and then, in 1848, together with Felice Govean, the *Gazzetta del Popolo*, which he directed for fifty years. He recognized in Gioberti an initiator of the Risorgimento, but saw in Cavour the guiding mind and supported him even in the most critical moments.
In the controversies aroused by the Siccardi laws for the abolition of the right of asylum and of ecclesiastical privilege, he intervened with anticlerical spirit, and when *L'Armonia* promoted a subscription to offer a crosier to Archbishop Msgr. Franzoni, who in that occasion had suffered imprisonment, he took the initiative for a commemorative monument of the law itself, the obelisk in Piazza Savoia in Turin.
From 1855 to 1870 he carried out parliamentary activity. After that he did not return to the Chamber, and devoted himself once again entirely to journalism. In the *Gazzetta* he supported Crispi when the latter succeeded Depretis, and continued to support him during the African campaign.