MAGALOTTI, Lorenzo. – Writer, born in Rome on 3 Dec. 1637, died in Florence on 2 Mar. 1712. He began his career as a mathematician and physician, and, as secretary of the Accademia del Cimento, published in 1666 the *Saggi di naturali esperienze*.
His varied human and cultural curiosity (he had been a pupil of the Jesuits at the Roman Seminary and, in 1691, for several months, in the Congregation of the Oratorians in Rome) is reflected in a copious output ranging from travel accounts to the *Lettere familiari contro l'ateismo*, from diplomatic reports (v. the selection by E. Falqui, *Scritti di corte e di mondo*, Rome 1945) to the so-called *Lettere sopra i buccheri* (cf. ed. by M. Praz, Florence 1945), from the canzoniere *La donna immaginaria* to scientific and scholarly letters (on flowers, scents, the venom of vipers, etc.).
A most refined writer, with a light and serene sensitivity that pervades all the things and people he sees and describes, Magalotti approaches the religious problem chiefly as an ethical and human impulse. Yet he strongly emphasizes the dignity of reason: “the senses wage greater war against faith than reason does” (*Delle lettere familiari contro l'ateismo*, II, Bologna 1821, p. 142), precisely because no logical contradiction is posited by Christian faith.
MAFFI, Pietro – Portrait.