Xaverio MANETTI

Falcons

11 x 13 inches

These engravings of birds come from Storia Naturale degli Uccelli Trattata con Metodo… Ornithologia Methodice Digesta, a monumental work in six huge volumes by Xaverio Manetti (1723-84), comprising in all some six hundred plates. Many carry a dedication to the luminaries of the day in Florence, and it has been suggested that in some cases there is more than a hint of caricature. As one commentator observed, the birds, strutting, posturing and parading, “seem to mirror the habits and mannerisms of contemporary Italian society”.
Manetti’s work has been called “perhaps the finest Bird Book issued to date, and one of the most sumptuous publications of the Italian eighteenth century… Ornithologically this book served only to create confusion. In spite of this Manetti’s Ornithologia [to give it its Latin title] is one of the half dozen or so Great Bird Books” (Fine Bird Books: see pp 10 & 92).