ZANOTTI, Francesco Maria. — Philosopher and man of letters, born in Bologna on 6 January 1692, died there on 25 December 1777.
From 1718 he was professor of philosophy at the University of his native city, where he was among the first to graft Cartesian and Newtonian doctrines onto the old Aristotelian stock. Secretary from 1723 of the Institute of Sciences, of which he later became president (1766), he wrote its learned Latin commentaries. He worked and wrote, though always of delicate health, until his advanced years. Of keen and subtle intellect, he embodied the type of the 18th-century philosopher, understanding philosophy as an encyclopaedia or summa of knowledge. He was a writer of the purest Italian style, at once polished and lucid, though not entirely free from prolixity. His pupil Palcani collected his Works (9 vols., Bologna 1779–1802). Among these the following are still cited: Della forza attrattiva delle idee (1747), an application of Newtonian attraction to ideas; three dialogues Della forza dei corpi che chiamano viva (1752); the Filosofia morale (1754), which is the finest compendium of Aristotelian ethics; Dell’arte poetica (1768), a treatise that does not stray beyond the bounds of Aristotelian poetics; the last two works were reprinted several times even in the 19th century.