Giovanni Gaetano Bottari

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.

He is the author of several treatises about art and artists. 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 was also principal editor of the new edition of the Vocabulario della Crusca and of the celebrated Vatican edition of Virgil (1741).

Many original copies of his publications are held in the library of the Accademia dei Lincei in the Palazzo Corsini, Rome in Rome.

Bottari was acquainted to Piranesi. 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.

• Raccolta di Lettere sulla Pittura, Scultura, ed Architettura Scritte da' Piu Celebri Personaggi
  • Volume 1
  • Volume 2
  • Volume 3
  • Volume 4
  • Volume 5
  • Volume 6
  • Volume 7
  • Volume 8

• Dialoghi sopra le tre arti del disegno (Dialogues on the Three Arts of Drawing)

• Storia de' ss (History of the Saints)

• Teyssot, Georges. (1974). Città e utopia nell' illuminismo inglese: George Dance il Giovane. Rome: Officina Edizioni.
• Ripley, George; Dana, Charles A., eds. (1879). "Bottari, Giovanni Gaetano" . The American Cyclopædia.
• Dialoghi sopra le tre arti del disegno. Benedini, Lucca 1754 digital