Giovanni Botero (Benevagienna, Cuneo, 1544 - Savona, 1617). Le Relationi Universali . Vicenza: Giorgio Greco, 1595.
In 1591 Botero began publishing his work on political geography and the state of religion throughout the known world, under the title Relazioni Universali. He also wrote poetry in Latin hexameters dedicated to the king of Poland; a counterreformist treatise, De Regio Sapientia libri tres (Milan, 1583); Della Ragion di Stato (Venezia, 1589) and Le cause della grandezza e magnificenza della città (Rome 1588), translated into English in 1635. In his writings Botero shows a critical interest in politics, economics and history.
The Relazioni Universali, Botero's best known work, had a first edition in 3 parts (Rome, 1591-93); a second edition in 4 parts (Rome, 1595); and an expanded edition, in 4 parts (Venice 1596). The fifth part was not published until 1895,in Turin by C. Gioda. The Relazioni had 17 editions in 10 years, 3 translations in Latin and many other translations in various European languages.
The Durand Collection also contains the two volumes of the Spanish version of the first and second parts, translated by the Licenciado Diego de Aguiar and printed in Valladolid (Diego Fernández de Córdova y Oviedo, 1599). Garcilaso Inca de la Vega in his Royal Commentaries quotes Botero's description of the Inca roads (Garcilaso IX, 13, fol. 239; Botero, Relacion, Primera parte, fol. 154).
The English translation was printed in London for John Iaggard in 1603, bearing the title An Historical description of the most famous kingdomes and Common-weales in the Worlde.
Ref: Palau 2, 356; Sabin II, 337-339.
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