1145 - Parrot from the island of Luzon, coloured engraving, Manetti's Ornithologia, 18th c.

Parrot from the island of Luzon, coloured engraving, Manetti's Ornithologia, 18th c. Hand-coloured copper engraving on paper, lettered in the plate above the image „Pappagallo minore, o sia Parrucchetto dell'Isola di Luçon – Psittacus minor, sive Psittacula, Luçonensis“ and with the plate number CXXX upper right, below the image the dedication „All'Ill.mo Sig.re Francesco Bonvisi Senatore, e Patrizio Lucchese“. Depicted is a green parakeet with a blue crown, blue-edged wing coverts, a yellow-green breast, a long green tail and a red beak, perched upright on a vertical branch; at the foot of the branch tufts of green leaves on pale brown ground, above it a bare twig. From Saverio Manetti's Ornithologia. Age-appropriate good condition, foxed. Image 25 x 22 cm (HxW), mount, behind glass, framed, frame slightly bumped, overall size 56.5 x 48 cm (HxW) Manetti's „Storia naturale degli uccelli“ appeared between 1767 and 1776 in Florence at the Stamperia Moückiana and, with 600 hand-coloured engraved plates, counts among the most lavish bird books of the 18th c. The plates were engraved by Lorenzo Lorenzi and Violante Vanni, a pupil of the British engraver Robert Strange; every plate was coloured by hand. The stock of images goes back in part to the bird collection of the Marchese Giovanni Gerini. The place of origin named on this plate, Luçon, refers to the Philippine island of Luzon; parrots of Far Eastern and South American origin take up a broad space in the work and remain among the most sought-after subjects from it.