Count Francesco Algarotti (11 December 1712 – 3 May 1764) is an Italian polymath, philosopher, poet, essayist, anglophile, art critic and art collector.

He is "one of the first Esprits cavaliers of the age," a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and music and a friend of most of the leading authors of his times: Voltaire, Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis and the atheïst Julien Offray de La Mettrie.