Cosimo Alessandro Collini

Cosimo Alessandro Collini (Florence, 14 October 1727-Mannheim, 21 March 1806) was an Italian historian and Voltaire's secretary from 1752 to 1756.

[3] In 1755 the young Jean-Louis Wagnière was made his assistant and, just over a year later, took his place when Collini was dismissed from Voltaire's service for insulting Madame Denis.

[4][5] Collini then entered the service of Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria as his private secretary and historiographer.

[7] In 1763 he became a member of the Palatine Academy of Sciences and director of the Mannheim Cabinet of Natural History.

In 1784 he was the first person to describe the pterosaur that Georges Cuvier went on the identify, seventeen years later, as a flying reptile.