Giovanni Botero (c. 1544 – 23 June 1617) was an Italian thinker, priest, poet, and diplomat, author of Della Ragion di Stato (The Reason of State),[1] in ten chapters, printed in Venice in 1589, and of Universal Relations, (Rome, 1591), addressing the world geography and ethnography.

[2] With his emphasis that the wealth of cities was caused by adding value to raw materials, Botero may be considered the ancestor of both Mercantilism[3] and Cameralism.

[4] Born around 1544 in Bene Vagienna, in the northern Italian principality of Piedmont, Botero was sent to the Jesuit college in Palermo at the age of 15.

Borromeo introduced Botero to the practical side of Church administration, often socializing with the nobility of northern Italy, most notably Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy.

Thomas Aquinas had argued that God infused each individual with certain natural rights, and by the use of reason, human beings could come together to create just societies.

[13] Finishing his employment with Federico Borromeo in 1599, Botero returned to the House of Savoy, to be tutor to three sons of Charles Emmanuel.

Olivares seems to have used Botero's Reason of State to outline the strategy for preserving the Spanish Empire in his famous Memorial on the Union of Arms.

There is also evidence that Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, one of the staunchest political supporters of Catholic reform and a leading figure of the Thirty Years' War, had discussed the Reason of State with his advisors.

[16] In the 18th century, in his honour, a monument was built in Bene Vagienna in the so-called Piazza Botero,[17] a central square located in front of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta (Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta) and surrounded by historic buildings, such as the town hall Comune di Bene Vagienna.