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Francesco Maria Zanotti
Italian philosopher and writer (1692–1777) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Francesco Maria Zanotti Cavazzoni (Bologna, 6 January 1692 – Bologna, 25 December 1777) was an Italian philosopher and writer.[1] Besides being a writer, he was also a commentator on works of art. He was considered an authoritative source on many topics.[by whom?]

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Life
He was the son of Giampietro Zanotti, and a pupil of Eustachio Manfredi. In 1718 he became professor of philosophy at the University of Bologna, and in 1723 he was appointed as secretary of Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli. Initially a Cartesian, he became a follower of Newton.[1] In 1728 Francesco Algarotti experimented with light in his lab, replicating the prism and spectrum experiments of Isaac Newton.[2][3] In 1741 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society.[4]
Zanotti's 1741 essay on the 'attractive force of ideas' defended a view of the association of ideas influenced by Newtonian physics. In 1754 Zanotti criticised Pierre-Louis Maupertuis for his views on Stoicism and Christianity, and was drawn into controversy about Stoicism with the Dominican professor Casto Innocenzio Ansaldi.[1]
In 1766 he became president of Institute of Science in Bologna.[5] In 1775 Benjamin Wilson began a correspondence with Zanotti on phosphor.[6]
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Family
His brother, Giampietro Cavazzoni Zanotti was a writer, painter, and art historian; Eustachio Zanotti was a famous astronomer and hydraulic engineer.[7][8] His nephew was the philosopher and writer Manuel Lassala.[9]
Works

- La forza attrattiva delle idee (1747)
- La filosofia morale secondo i peripatetici (1754)
- Dell'arte poetica (1758)
- Lettere famigliari in difesa della Felsina Pittrice
- Delle lodi delle belle arti
- Dialogo in difesa di G. Reni
- De viribus centralibus (in Latin). Bologna: Lelio Dalla Volpe. 1762.

References
External links
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