Ornithologia Manetti

Hand-coloured engravings from Vol. 4 of Saverio Manetti's 5-volume treatise on birds from 1776:

'Storia Naturale Degli Uccelli Trattata con Metodo e Adornata di Figure Intagliate in Rame e Miniate al Naturale. Ornithologia Methodice Digesta Atque Iconibus Aeneis ad Vivum Illuminatis Ornate'

[Natural History of the Birds Treated Systematically and Adorned with Copperplate Engraving Illustrations, in Miniature and Life-Size] {source}

A godwit (migratory wading bird; genus Limosa)

Pink-backed pelican [possibly] (Pelecanus rufescens)

Atlantic or common canaries - Serinus canaria

Heron (genus Ardea)

Red curlew (genus Numenius)

Long-tailed tit or Aegithalos caudatus (old name: Parus group)

Grey heron (Ardea cinerea)

Stork species (genus Ciconia)

The eurasian (or great) bittern (Botaurus stellaris);
a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae

Swallow species (genus Hirundo)

Crane (family Gruidae)

The collared inca hummingbird of Surinam (Coeligena torquata)
AND
a steamer-tail hummingbird (genus Trochilus), the national bird of Jamaica

Flycatchers from genus Muscicapa and Oenanthe

Skylark - Alauda arvensis - and the head of a related species

[click through to larger versions; all care etc taken with the captions,
but they may be a little questionable at times]

Saverio [Francis Xavier] Manetti (1723-1785) was a prominent Florentine physician and botanist and a member of some of the leading scientific societies in 18th century Europe.

Manetti's extraordinary Natural History of Birds was commissioned by Maria Luisa, the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and the engraving and hand painting was undertaken - over the course of seven years - by the artists, Violante Vanni and Lorenzo Lorenzi. The series features both Latin and Italian text and Manetti followed the (largely deprecated) nomenclature system proposed by MJ Brisson, despite corresponding with the father of modern taxonomy, Carl Linneaus.

"The production of its five massive folio volumes must have been one of the most remarkable publishing ventures ever undertaken in Florence. Begun in 1767, and [based on birds taken from the collection of Giovanni Gerini], it was completed ten years later. It was larger, better engraved and more vividly coloured than any previous work on birds, but these are not its only claim to fame.

The attitudes of the birds themselves give this book its unique character. Strutting, parading, posturing, and occasionally flying....are birds whose real-life counterparts would surely disown them, and not without reason, for Manetti seems in these pictures to be depicting the human comedy, the habits and mannerisms of contemporary Italian society. His book may still be rated among the very greatest bird books, if only for its magnificent comicality."
[S Peter Dance: 'The Art of Natural History'*]

I don't think Volume 4 - the illustrations above - was overtly comical. It may be a naïve modern observer's point of view, but I got the feeling, while I spot-cleaned the background of these images, that the artists had a noble intention in mind when they tried to depict each bird with an individual personality. They are utterly charming and catch the viewer's attention, irrespective of whether or not there is total scientific accuracy in the design.

I found out later that the funnier 'portraits' (if they can be so-described) appear in the other volumes. I only discovered a couple more volumes online at the last minute and I haven't had a good look through : doubtless they'll be mined for another post or two in the future. This is a great series and deserves a proper showing. Somewhere or other I saw that a full set had fetched well into the 6-figure mark at auction. Unsurprising really. Original individual engravings sell for $750 or more.

• Volume 4 of 'Storia Naturale Degli Uccelli' is available from the Houghton Library website at Harvard University.
• Another version of V. 4, plus two other volumes, are accessible from Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum.
• Biography in Italian. [W].
• George Glazer Gallery.
• Page search for 'Manetti' to see the funny owls. A bit mad.
• Follow along at Twitter; all posts tagged and described at Delicious.
• UPDATE: BHL advises that Harvard actually has 4 of the 5 volumes HERE.
  

Animated Nature

Hand-coloured engravings from the 1785, 2-volume set:
'A New Dictionary of Natural History; or, Compleat Universal Display of Animated Nature. With Accurate Representations of the Most Curious and Beautiful Animals, Elegantly Coloured. By William Frederic Martyn**, Esq'. Both volumes were reissued by Gale in 2010: Volume 1. and Volume 2. The illustrations below are courtesy of Brown U's JCB Library.





An ant-eater fly, an orangutan, a pigmy ape, a tufted ape, an Arctic bird, an Argentine fish, an armadillo, a lizard ast, and a ten-rayed ast*. [Guianas; Brazil; Spanish America; Arctic]





Various birds, camels, and a whale including: 1) a blunt-headed cachalot, 2) a calandra (bird), 3) a calao (bird), 4) an Arabian camel, and 5) a Bactrian camel. [North America; Arctic]

Cachalot is another word for the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, whose range is the entire ocean except the north and south poles. It has not been possible to identify the calandra which the text states was found in Carolina, but it may be a lark bunting, eastern meadow lark with non-breeding plumage, a brown thrasher, or a song sparrow.





An alligator, a bird called amadavade, an anchovy fish, an angel fish, a common angler fish, a moth, and a seashell. [Brazil; Spanish America]





Various animals including: 1) the Brazilian weasel, 2) the wolverine, 3) the Indian spotted woodpecker, 4) the yellow spotted woodpecker, 5) the zebra, and 6) the zerda. [North America; Spanish America; Arctic]

The Brazilian weasel may be the crab-eating raccoon, Procyon cancrivorus, whose range is from Costa Rica to northern Argentina. The wolverine, Gulo gulo, is native to northern North America, Europe, and Siberia.





Various birds, fish, a snake, and a sloth including: 1) the skate, 2) the sloth, 3) the smelt, 4) the ringed snake, 5) the snipe, and 6) the snow bird. [Spanish America; Arctic]

The sloth, of the genus Bradypus, is native to Central and South America. The sloth shown here is three-toed. The snow bird is the snow bunting, Plectrophenax nivalis. It is a native of the Arctic; Martyn says this specimen came from Hudson Bay.





Various birds and an American bison including: 1) the golden-throated bird of paradise, 2) the king bird of paradise of Sonnerat, 3) the violet-throated bird of paradise, 4) the American bison, and 5) the small bittern. [North America]

The scientific name of the American bison is Bison bison; its range was the grasslands of North America.





Various birds, crabs, and a cougar including: 1) the cougar, 2) the coot, 3) the horrid crab, 4) the Indian land crab, 5) the Indian sea crab, 6) the long clawed crab, 7) the slender legged crab, 8) the spider crab, and 9) the crake. [Guianas; North America; Brazil; Spanish America]

Only the cougar or puma, Felis concolor, is an American animal. Its range is all of temperate and tropical America





Various kinds of buzzards and two buffalo including: 1) little Indian buffalo, 2) musk buffalo, 3) ash-colored buzzard, 4) common buzzard, and 5) moor buzzard. [North America]

Text states that the musk buffalo or muskox (Ovibos moschatus) and ash-colored buzzard are both found around Hudson Bay. The ash-colored buzzard may be the rough legged hawk, Buteo lagopus.





Various birds, shells, fish, and a bull including: 1) a highland bull, 2) two shells called bullae, 3) a greater bull-finch, 4) a little brown bull-finch, 5) a North American bull-finch, 6) a bull-head fish, and 7) an armed bull-head fish. [North America]

Text states that the greater bullfinch and North American bullfinch are both found in America. They are, perhaps, respectively the purple finch, Carpodacus purpureus, and the pine grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator. The true bullfinch is not native to the Americas.





A brown bear, a white bear, a beaver, an Indian bee-eater (bird), bees, and a bib (fish). [North America; Arctic]

Text describes the brown bear, Ursus arctos, as being commonly found in Canada. The white or polar bear, Ursus maritimus, is found throughout the Arctic Ocean. The beaver is the only member of the genus Castor; the text notes its intellectual and social sophistication. Although the honey bee is not native to the Americas, other bees, such as the mason and leaf-cutter bees discussed in the text, are. The bib fish is native to Europe.


Brown University's John Carter Brown Library hosts 70 (out of 100 in total) hand-coloured plates from the 1785, 2-volume publication by William Frederic Martyn**: 'A New Dictionary of Natural History; or, Compleat Universal Display of Animated Nature'.

The - at times - humorous or eccentric A-to-Z configuration of species in the engravings, based on common names, makes a little more sense when it's discovered that William Frederic Martyn is a pseudonym** for William Fordyce Mavor. Mavor (1758-1837) was an educator and a prolific author and the main target of his books was children.

The illustrations are said to be by, or after, the English entomologist and engraver, Moses Harris. His designs were based on specimens from the intriguing Leicester Square museum, Holophusikon. Also known as the Leverian Museum, after its owner, Sir Ashton Lever, the Leicester House establishment was a veritable homage to the Wunderkammer aesthetic, operating as a Museum of Curiosities in London from 1775 to 1786.


William Fordyce Mavor: biography | Worldcat | Internet Archive | The Online Books Page | Amazon.

Wikipedia: Holophusikon | Cabinet of Curiosities | Moses Harris

'A New Dictionary of Natural History' at Amazon: Volume 1 | Volume 2.





Various butterflies including: 1) the brown hair-streak, 2) its underside, 3) the deiphobus, 4) the blue-fly, 5) its underside, 6) the broad green-barred swallow-tail, 7) the black-veined white, 8) the brimstone, 9) the lady of the woods, 10) female lady of the woods, and 11) copper. [Caribbean Islands; Brazil]

Only the broad green-barred swallow-tail butterfly (6) is stated as being from the Americas in the text. It was seen in Jamaica and Brazil. However, the butterfly named and described is not consistent with the image.

Wild boar [Caribbean; Spanish America]

Emblemata Nova

First developed in the 16th century, emblems consist of three parts: a symbolic picture (pictura) with a motto or title (inscriptio) and an explanatory poem or epigram (subscriptio). Emblem books proved popular for more than two hundred years and thousands were published across Europe.

The purpose of the emblem is to indirectly convey moral, political or religious values in forms that need to be decoded by the viewer. The pictura often juxtapose ordinary objects in an enigmatic way so as to offer a reader the intellectual challenge of attempting to divine all the allegorical meanings. In this way, emblem books typified the extraordinary Renaissance and Baroque aesthetic in which objects were thought to contain hidden meanings and concealed links between apparently dissimilar objects were believed to exist. [see The Odd Baroque]

"Emblem books exercised an enormous influence on literature and the visual arts, and therefore they have long attracted the attention of scholars interested in painting, decorative arts, literature, illustrated books, iconography, symbolism, theories of representation, social and cultural history." [source]

The esoteric pictura below (from 1617) hew much closer to the symbols of alchemy than they do to the typical visual language of moral or instructional emblems. These illustrations have been cropped and if you click through, you can see the full page image, including the (German) inscriptio and subscriptio. Or right click and 'view image' to see the cropped pictura in larger format.





































































[click on any picture to reveal the full page image with accompanying text; or, right click and 'view image' to see an enlarged cropped illustration]


'Emblemata Nova' by Andreas Friedrich (or Friedrichen) includes a subtitle that translates approximately as:

a picture book, in which our contemporary world and its essence is painted disguisedly and explained by matching rhymes, exhorting the pious to more devotion and virtue, the evil and reckless to acknowledge the true teachings of Christianity and as a warning to them.

The book was published in Frankfurt in 1617 and the engravings are thought to be by Jaques de Zettre and published by Lucas Jennis : see the second of my comments below (Thanks MrH!). attributed* to Theodor de Bry who was also responsible for another alchemy-emblem book in the same year with Michael Mair's amazing 'Atalanta Fugiens'. Friedrich was an artist and engraver himself, so it's likely that the illustrations for 'Emblemata Nova' were a collaborative effort.

'Emblemata Nova' was recently placed online by Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel.

Emblem Book Projects: Glasgow; Champaign-Urbana; Penn State; U Coruña; Wolfenbüttel; Utrecht & Munich.

Previously: emblemata & alchemy. [W]

Follow along on Twitter: @BibliOdyssey.

Australian Landscapes

1860s lithographs of Australian bush scenes by EV Guérard accompanied
by excerpts of turgid hyperbole served with saccharine verbiage.

Fern Tree Gully, Dandenong Ranges (Victoria)

"One of the most characteristic and beautiful features of the mountain scenery of Australia is what is known as a Fern Tree Gully. It combines the vivid verdure, the cool freshness, and the shadowy softness of an English woodland stream, with the luxuriant richness and graceful forms of tropical vegetation."

Forest, Cape Otway Ranges (Victoria)

"The journey is about as difficult as the physical features of the declivitous and thickly-wooded ranges are grand and romantic; and it is only at rare intervals that the tourist obtains such a glimpse of the mountain slopes, and wide-spreading forests as the artist has succeeded in doing at the spot which forms the foreground of the accompanying landscape. Lying about a hundred miles from Melbourne, as the crow flies, this tract of country is comparatively a terra incognita; so impenetrable is the jungle, and so vast the scope of the boundless forests, filled with battalions upon battalions of towering trees, the more eminent of which rise to an altitude of 300 feet."

Fall of the first Creek near Glen Osmond (South Australia)

"From the village of Glen Osmond, a bush track, winding over a succession of hills, sprinkled with she-oaks and grass-trees, conducts the visitor to this sequestered spot, where the eye is charmed by the infinitely diversified forms assumed by the mountain slopes, and by the beauty of the Cascade, falling like a silvery veil over the rugged face of the rock, a sheer descent of 100 feet, and breaking into foam and spray in the valley beneath, through which it glides away, 'in mazy error lost'."

Top of Mount Lofty, near Adelaide (South Australia)

"Southward the prospect is intercepted by lofty trees, through the chance breaks in which, you catch occasional glimpses of breadths of pasture land and swelling hills. There is a good carriage road to Mount Lofty, and some of the views of wood and waterfall attainable *en route*, are exquisite. Within 200 feet of the summit, a vineyard has been planted, and produces some choice varieties of wine. Mount Lofty is much resorted to in the summer months by picnic parties, and it would be difficult to imagine a more delightful spot for such a purpose."

Castle Rock, Cape Schank (Victoria)

"The bold and romantic headland which bears this title forms one of the most picturesque "bits" of scenery on the Victorian coast. The rocks have been worn into the most grotesque and fantastic shapes by the action of the waves, which rush in, with a majestic sweep, from the Southern Ocean, and the sides of the precipitous cliffs are perforated with caverns, of which the roof and walls appear to be covered with roughly sculptured images; and the illusion is heightened by the dim light which pervades these cool and moist recesses."

Cataracts near Launceston (Tasmania)

"The water has gradually worn its way through masses of basaltic rock, which assume the most fantastic forms, and present the appearance of a serpentine avenue lined with rude obelisks, clusters of massive pillars, large monoliths, and walls of natural masonry. Some are plumed with trees, others are tapestried with parasites, and all exhibit a prodigial diversity of form and position."

Hobart Town (Tasmania)

"The situation of the southern capital of Tasmania, is almost, if not altogether peerless. Genoa, Naples and Rio Janeiro may assert their claims to vie with it in this respect, but it is doubtful whether nature has done so much for the last three cities as for the former; and most impartial judges would concur in giving it the preference. Placed at the head of a noble estuary, and at the foot of a magnificent mountain, surrounded by foliage of English verdure, enveloped in an atmosphere of Ausonian blandness, and overarched by a sky of Australian brilliancy, Hobart Town fascinates the eye of the artist; and, excepting in regard some of its architectural details, combines all the elements of the picturesque, both as regards site and scenic accessories."

Crater of Mount Eccles (Victoria)

"The crater itself is one of the most picturesque in Victoria, owing to the irregularity of its structure, the fanciful disposition of the timber on it declivitous slopes, and to the circumstance that a beautiful fresh water lake occupies the concavity in the centre, and the waters are of a brilliant green harmonizing with the hue of the surrounding vegetation."

The Valley of the Ovens River (Victoria)

"The natural Amphitheatre, pourtrayed in the Illustration, lies between Morse's Creek and Harrietville, about two hundred miles north-west of Melbourne. Nothing can be more striking than the contrast between the amenity of the Scenery in the foreground and the austere grandeur of the lofty ranges by which it is enclosed. The mountains which, for the most part, assume a pyramidal form, are of slate formation, and their sides are clothed with forests of great density."

Moroka River Falls (foot of Mount Kent, Gipps Land) (Victoria)

"In the very heart of the Gipps Land Mountains, in one of the most secluded districts of the colony, though little more than sixty miles from Melbourne, well forth the springs which unite to form the torrent of the Moroka. The artist has reason to believe that he and Mr Alfred Howitt were the first to discover these falls, while descending from the summit of Mount Kent. Guided by the roar of a cataract, and penetrating, which great difficulty, the woody fastnesses in which it was hidden, they at length reached this romantic spot, and experienced all the gratification which attends the first sight of a magnificent object hitherto unrevealed to human eye."

Goulburn River, near Shepparton (Victoria)

"As there is considerable uniformity, not to say monotony, in the river scenery of Victoria, the accompanying view, taken at a spot near the junction of the Goulburn with the Broken River, may be taken as fairly representative of the general character of Victorian rivers. Affluent streams in the rainy season, their volume is diminished and circumscribed within a narrow channel during the summer time; and while they are liable to inundation at one period of the year, they are also apt, in some instances at least, to disappear altogether at another."

North East view from the top of Mt Kosciusko (NSW)

"This is the grandest, the loftiest, and the most imposing of all the Mountain Crags which constitute the Australian Alps. It is situated about 300 miles from Sydney, and among its western slopes lie some of the numerous sources for the Murry, while on the opposite side of the range is the gathering ground of the waters which feed the rivers of Gipps Land."

Weatherboard Fall (NSW)
{now known as Wentworth Falls*}

"This noble cataract derives its homely name from a small public house, entitled the Weatherborad Hut, and is situated on the road from Sydney to Bathurst, which runs at a distance of about two miles and a half from the romantic scene, depicted in the accompanying engraving. [..] Speaking of this majestic scene, Darwin says: - 'If we imagine a winding harbor with its deep water surrounded by bold cliff-like shores, to be laid dry, and a forest to spring up upon its sandy bottom, we should then have the appearance and structure here exhibited'."

Lake Illawarra (NSW)

"The abundance of wild fowl on the Lake renders it a favorite haunt of sportsmen; while the forests which clothe the sides of the Illawarra, or Merryong Range, likewise teem with game. Few scenes combine so many picturesque elements as this, in which the placid beauty of the Lake, sprinkled with islands, and set in a zone of smiling pastures and umbrageous woods, is contrasted so effectively with the rugged grandeur of the predominating mountains, and the noble expanse of the neighbouring ocean."

Sydney Heads (NSW)

"The road to the South Head is deservedly a favourite drive with the inhabitants of Sydney, and the stranger passing over it for the first time experiences a succession of demands upon his admiration, as each bend in the road discloses to him some new combination of sea and shore and sky, each lovlier than the last."

See: Statement of Significance - 1865 Sydney Heads, Eugene Von Guérard at the Migration Heritage Centre of NSW.



'Australian Landscapes: a Series of 24 Tinted Lithographs Illustrative of the Most Striking and Picturesque Features of the Landscape Scenery of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania' - Drawn from Nature and Lithographed by the Artist, with Letter Press Descriptivee of each View' (1860) features artwork by the German Romantic landscape painter, Eugene von Guérard and is available online via the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen.
[click anything below 'Inhalt' and then 'Voschau' for thumbs]

"Eugene von Guérard, painter and teacher, was born in November 1811 in Vienna. From 1826, he toured Italy with his artist father and between 1830 and 1832 resided in Rome. From around 1839 to 1844, he studied landscape painting at the Dusseldorf Academy, and travelled widely.

In 1852, he moved to London, and in August that year decided to travel to Victoria, Australia to try his luck on the goldfields. He arrived at Geelong on 24 December 1852, and made many sketches of the mining districts around Ballarat until 1854.

He moved to Melbourne, and in 1870 was appointed the first Master of the School of Painting, National Gallery of Victoria. He retired from this position at the end of 1881, and in 1882 departed for Europe. In 1891, he moved to London, and died in London on 17 April 1901. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, Chelsea, England." [source]

Ironically enough, there is an exhibition on the paintings of von Guérard touring Australia, currently at the National Gallery of Victoria [also] (the exhibition is moving to Brisbane in a couple of weeks).

The exhibition and published monograph are reviewed by Caroline Jordan for Melbourne Art Network (also).

Previously: Australia (particularly).