Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti (24 January 1685 – 14 January 1764) was a Roman Catholic cardinal, an antiquarian and philologist, and a collector of antiquities whose ambitious excavations at the site of Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli rewarded him with the Furietti Centaurs and other Roman sculpture.

In spite of his distinguished service to the Apostolic Camera,[4] and Furietti's dedication of a book on mosaics to him, the cardinal's hat was withheld by Pope Benedict XIV partly in pique for Furietti's refusal to part with the famous marble centaurs for the Museo Capitolino,[5] which had opened in 1734.

For a sum, Furietti obtained rights to excavate the section of Hadrian's Villa that belonged to Simplicio Bulgarini.

Furietti then devotes a chapter each to mosaics from the Roman Republic, from the Empire, from the age of Constantine to the 10th century, and from then until his own time.

He edited and published the works of two of his compatriots, Gasparino and Guiniforte Barzizza,[11] and the poems of Publio Fontana, prefacing the volumes with brief vite.