Giovanni Gaetano Bottari

Giovanni Gaetano Bottari (15 January 1689, Florence – 5 June 1775, Rome) was Vatican librarian and counsellor to Pope Clement XII.

[1] Before he became Vatican librarian, he was director of the grand-ducal press of Tuscany and professor of ecclesiastical history and controversy in the Sapienza.

Amongst his works is Dialoghi sopra le tre Arti del Disegno, published in Lucca, 1754.

In these dialogues he criticizes the role of patrons, who "understand little of art" (Dialoghi II & III).

He probably collaborated on Piranesi's answers to the letters of Pierre-Jean Mariette, and Piranesi dedicated his Antichità Romane de' Tempi della Repubblic to Bottari.