Saverio Manetti: Life, Bird Plates & Art Prints

Who Was Saverio Manetti?

Saverio Manetti was not an artist but the man who made a great picture book happen: a learned Florentine doctor who planned the book, wrote its text, chose the order of the birds and spent years finding the money to print it. The pictures were drawn and engraved by Violante Vanni and Lorenzo Lorenzi and coloured by hand. Collectors of bird art prints prize the result for its bold, large birds and its clear, bright colour.

How to spot a Manetti plate:

1. One big bird on a little mound: most plates show a single bird, often filling the page, standing on a small green or rocky hillock or a bare branch, with no landscape behind it, as with the scarlet macaw.
2. Two names across the top: an Italian name and a Latin name, joined by a long double-line dash, are engraved in flowing script above the bird: “Pavone maschio” and “Pavo cauda longa…” on the peacock.
3. A Roman numeral at top right: each plate carries its number in the book, from I to DC (600). Manetti’s engraver even wrote 442 as “CDXXXXII” on the scarlet ibis.
4. A dedication at the bottom: most plates end with a line in script naming a patron, “All’Ill.mo Sig.re…” (“To the most illustrious Signor…”).
5. Bright, flat watercolour: the outlines are etched and the colour was laid on by hand, so reds, blues and yellows sit strongly on the cream paper and differ slightly from copy to copy.

A Florentine Doctor, Botanist and Reformer

Francesco Saverio Manetti was born on 12 November 1723 at Brozzi, just west of Florence, the son of a Florentine official and of Maria Teresa Nesiscolt, from Prague. He studied with the Piarist fathers in Florence and then at the University of Pisa, where he became a favourite pupil of the botanist Pier Antonio Micheli, and graduated in philosophy and medicine on 7 June 1745. He practised at the great Florentine hospital of Santa Maria Nuova for the rest of his life, joined the city’s college of physicians in 1758 and learned much from the physician Antonio Cocchi, on whom he carried out the autopsy that year.

Botany made his name abroad. He ran the garden of the Florentine Botanical Society, the Giardino dei Semplici, from the late 1740s until 1782, catalogued it in his Viridarium Florentinum (1751) and from 1763 brought in the plant system of Carl Linnaeus, with whom he corresponded. Linnaeus named the plant genus Manettia in his honour. Manetti was elected to the Leopoldina academy in 1749 and to the Royal Society in London in 1756.

He was also a reformer in the spirit of the Tuscan Enlightenment. He was among the founders of the Accademia dei Georgofili, Europe’s first academy of agriculture, in 1753 and served for many years as its secretary. He wrote a large book urging smallpox inoculation (1761), a study of wheat and bread written during the famine years of the 1760s (1765), a treatise on Tuscan wines under the pen name Cosimo Villifranchi (1773), and from 1770 to 1777 he ran the journal Magazzino toscano. He married Arcangiola, with whom he had three daughters, and died in Florence on 12 November 1784, his sixty-first birthday. (Some sources, including English Wikipedia, give 1785; the Italian Dizionario Biografico and Wikidata give 1784.)

Storia Naturale degli Uccelli, 1767–1776

The full title explains the book: Storia naturale degli uccelli trattata con metodo e adornata di figure intagliate in rame e miniate al naturale, with the Latin Ornithologia methodice digesta atque iconibus aeneis ad vivum illuminatis ornata. In English: a natural history of birds, arranged by method and adorned with figures engraved in copper and coloured from life. (Our prints use the shorter Latin title.) The text runs in Italian and Latin, so it could reach readers across Europe.

It came out in Florence between 1767 and 1776 in five folio volumes with 600 hand-coloured plates. Booksellers’ descriptions of complete sets show the imprint changing as the years went on, from the heirs of the printer Moücke for the first volumes to Gaetano Cambiagi and Giuseppe Vanni for the last. The Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani calls it a kind of reasoned encyclopaedia of the world’s birds, nine years in the making and considered the most beautiful bird book published in Italy.

Many of the birds were exotic, and the plates show what a well-connected Florentine could see in the 1760s: macaws and parrots from Brazil and West Africa, a cassowary, birds of paradise from New Guinea, a golden pheasant from China. The blue-and-yellow macaw on Plate CIII, called “Arara turchina e gialla del Brasile”, sits beside the scarlet macaw on Plate CII, the image at the top of this guide.

Violante Vanni and Lorenzo Lorenzi

Manetti wrote the text; the pictures were made by two Florentine printmakers. Violante Vanni (1732–1776), also recorded as Violante Lampredi Vanni, is described in the Dizionario Biografico as a celebrated engraver, and English Wikipedia notes that she had studied under the Scottish engraver Robert Strange. A woman working as a professional engraver was unusual in eighteenth-century Florence. Her partner on the plates was the abbot Lorenzo Lorenzi, a priest and engraver.

Most of their models came from the bird collection of Marchese Giovanni Gerini, a Florentine senator. Some plates have the stiff pose of a mounted specimen, while others, like the parrots and owls, look alert and alive. The team drew each bird, etched the outline and shading on copper, printed the plates in black and then coloured every copy by hand.

The birds of paradise show both the reach and the limits of that method. These birds reached Europe as dried trade skins, often without feet, and myths grew up around them. On Plate LXIII a “Manucodiata” trails golden plumes; Plate LXVI shows the scarlet king bird of paradise; and Plate LXV is titled “other supposed varieties of Manucodiata”, a sign that Manetti was sorting real species from doubtful ones.

A Patron on Every Plate

Printing 600 hand-coloured plates was hugely expensive, and the Italian sources agree that finding the money took much of Manetti’s effort. His solution is written on the plates themselves: most carry a dedication at the foot to the person who sponsored that bird. Reading them is like reading a who’s who of Florence in the 1770s.

• The scarlet macaw (Plate CII) is dedicated to a surgeon to the King of Poland.
• The blue-and-yellow macaw (Plate CIII) is dedicated to Giuseppe Dini, a Florentine patrician.
• The bird of paradise (Plate LXIII) is dedicated to Monsignor Bernardino Honorati, Archbishop of Sida and apostolic nuncio to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
• The eagle owl (Plate LXXXI) is dedicated to Baron Leone Ricasoli, a Florentine patrician.
• The peacock (Plate CCXVII) is dedicated to Marchese Giovanni Corsi, knight of the Order of Santo Stefano, chamberlain and Master of the Hunt to the Grand Duke.
• The golden pheasant (Plate CCLX) is dedicated to Pompeo Baldasseroni, a secretary of the royal council in Siena.
• The white-headed eagle (Plate VIII) is dedicated to Michelangiolo Targioni, a physician of the Florentine college and, the inscription says, the owner of a museum of natural things, “especially birds, marvellously preserved”.

Manetti even dedicated one plate to himself, listing his titles: professor of botany, physician of the Florentine college, member of the Leopoldina and honorary fellow of the learned societies of London, Göttingen and Montpellier.

A Book Arranged by Method

“Trattata con metodo”, arranged by method, was a promise. The birds are not in random order: the book opens with eagles and vultures, moves through owls, parrots, the big flightless birds, crows and jays, then fowl, pheasants and pigeons, then the songbirds, and ends with cranes, herons, storks and the wading birds. You can see the plan in the plate numbers of our prints.

The Latin names are older than the ones in field guides today. Most are descriptive phrases in the pre-Linnaean style, such as “Psittacus Ara Brasiliensis rubra dictus” for the scarlet macaw, and many credit earlier authors such as the Renaissance naturalists Gesner and Aldrovandi. A few cite Linnaeus directly, like “Corvus Caryocatactes Linn.” on the roller. The book stands between the old encyclopaedic natural history and the new Linnaean system Manetti was bringing into his botanic garden.

Exotic Wonders and Tuscan Birds

Manetti’s book mixes the rare with the familiar. Beside the macaws and birds of paradise are a cassowary (“Emeu, o Casuario”), a grey ostrich and even a white ostrich, a crowned crane “of Africa or the Balearic Islands”, a grey parrot from Guinea with a red tail and hummingbirds, one labelled “of Surinam”.

But many plates show birds a Tuscan reader knew: a magpie, a tawny owl, a European roller, swallows (including pale colour varieties), a white stork and a night heron. Two charming plates show tits with their nests: a long-tailed tit beside its domed nest and a penduline tit with its hanging nest.

There are farmyard and fancy breeds too, the kind kept on Florentine estates: a feather-footed cockerel, a crested turkey, a frilled pigeon with feathered feet and a white peacock. For a man who wrote on wheat, wine and farming, domestic birds belonged in a natural history as much as wild ones.

Legacy: Florence’s Great Bird Book

Manetti’s bird book was a costly luxury, printed in small numbers and coloured by hand, so complete sets are rare and its single plates have long been sold to collectors. Historians of natural history illustration, such as S. Peter Dance in The Art of Natural History, rank it among the great eighteenth-century bird books, and its plates remain the best-known work of Violante Vanni and Lorenzo Lorenzi. Manetti’s other legacies are still around him in Florence: the Accademia dei Georgofili he helped found is still active, and the plant genus Manettia still carries his name.

If you like Manetti, look at George Edwards and Mark Catesby, the English naturalist-illustrators whose bird books came just before his; John James Audubon and John Gould, who took life-size bird painting further in the nineteenth century; and Pieter Cramer, whose Amsterdam butterfly plates of the 1770s were made at the same moment. Our Frederick DuCane Godman guide tells the story of the Biologia Centrali-Americana, with its plates of the birds and other animals of Mexico and Central America.

Famous Plates from Storia Naturale degli Uccelli

Eight plates to start with, all in our collection:

The Scarlet Macaw

The image at the top of this guide is the most famous Manetti plate: “Pappagallo detto Arara rossa del Brasile”, the red macaw of Brazil, turning to look back over its shoulder from a bare branch, its red, yellow, green and blue feathers flowing into a long tail. The print comes in every size from 4×6 to 30×40 inches and makes a natural pair with the blue-and-yellow macaw on the next plate.

The Scarlet Ibis

Plate CDXXXXII is pure colour: a crimson wading bird with a long curved bill, standing on a green mound. Manetti called it “Chiurlo cremisi della China”, the crimson curlew of China, though the scarlet ibis comes from South America, a reminder of how confused the origins of trade specimens could be.

The Golden Pheasant

On Plate CCLX the “Fagiano della China” shows off a golden crest, an orange cape, a scarlet breast and a long speckled tail. It is one of the most decorative plates in the book and suits warm, rich rooms.

The Eagle Owl

Plate LXXXI, “Gufo reale” (the royal owl), faces you with orange eyes and tall ear tufts, its tawny feathers drawn feather by feather. Our collection has more owls, among them a white owl and a tawny owl, which make a strong group for a study or library.

The Peacock

Plate CCXVII shows the male peacock with its long train swept down the page, and the next plate, Plate CCXVIII, shows a white peacock. Hung side by side they make an elegant pair for a hallway or a dining room.

The Crowned Crane

On Plate CCCCXIV a crowned crane stands tall with its bristly golden crown. Nearby in the book are a common crane and a roseate spoonbill, for a run of elegant, long-legged birds that work well in tall, narrow frames.

The Birds of Paradise

The golden-plumed bird of paradise and the king bird of paradise show what amazed European collectors about these birds. Shown together with the “supposed varieties” plate, they also show a naturalist at work, checking which specimens were real.

The Tit Nests

For something gentle, the long-tailed tit beside its domed nest and the penduline tit with its hanging, purse-like nest are two of the most charming plates in the book, lovely in a child’s room or a kitchen.

What Our Saverio Manetti Prints Show

Our Saverio Manetti collection holds 462 prints, listed under the Latin title Ornithologia methodice digesta, Pl.001 to Pl.462. They come from one hand-coloured copy of the book, so the colour is consistent across the set.

So our 462 prints cover roughly the first four-fifths of the 600-plate book, from the eagles and vultures to the cranes, storks and ibises. Every print is made from a high-resolution scan and printed on archival paper in sizes from 4×6 inches to 30×40 inches (and 70×100 cm), with fit, crop or stretch options so you can keep the whole page with its captions or zoom in on the bird. For more birds by other artists, see our bird art prints, or our Italian art collection.

How to Decorate with Saverio Manetti Prints

Manetti plates are made for walls: one strong bird, cream paper, elegant script and clear colour. A few ways to use them:

• Pair the macaws: the scarlet macaw and blue-and-yellow macaw face each other beautifully either side of a sofa, bed or fireplace.
• Build an owl or parrot wall: group the eagle owl, white owl and tawny owl, or the macaws with the grey parrot, in identical frames for a cabinet-of-curiosities look.
• Go big with one bird: the peacock, golden pheasant or scarlet ibis at 24×36 or 30×40 inches makes a bold focal point in a living room or hallway.
• Use tall birds in tall spaces: cranes, herons and storks such as the crowned crane or white stork suit narrow walls, stairways and spaces between windows.
• Choose the frame for the paper: gilt or dark wood frames suit the eighteenth-century feel; thin black frames sharpen the engraved lines. A cream mount lets the captions breathe.
• Mix with botanicals: Manetti was a botanist as well, and his birds sit happily beside flower prints by Pierre-Joseph Redouté or the plants and insects of Maria Sibylla Merian in a garden room, kitchen or study.

Frequently Asked Questions