Delle uova e dei nidi degli uccelli libro primo del Conte Giuseppe Zinanni Ravennate. Aggiunte in fine alcune Osservazioni, con una Dissertazione sopra varie spezie di cavallette. A sua Altezza Serenissima il Principe Ferdinando Maria Duca di Baviera..

WITH 22 COPPERPLATE ENGRAVINGS OF BIRD EGGS AND 8 PLATES OF GRASSHOPPERS

Folio (mm. 290x208). Pp. [10, including the engraved frontispiece and title page], 130, [2], 55, [3] and [1: Classe prima delle uova degli uccelli terrestri non rapaci], XIII, [1: Classe seconda delle uova degli uccelli terrestri rapaci], XIV-XVI, [1: Classe terza delle uova degli uccelli aquatici], XVII-XXII, [1 blank], VIII leaves of plates. Collation: [A]4 B-Bb4. Leaf Bb4 is blank. Woodcut initials, headpieces, and tailpieces. The Dissertazione delle cavallette commences with its own title page on leaf Z1r. Contemporary cardboard binding with raised bands and manuscript title on the spine. On the front free endpaper, the ex-libris of the gastronomic collection of Jacques and Hélène Bon. The volume is slightly loose, yet a splendid copy, as new, uncut, and largely unopened.

This is the first edition of the first printed book entirely devoted to the eggs and nests of birds. These are categorized into three groups: terrestrial raptors, other terrestrial birds, and aquatic birds. Each plate depicts between one and nine eggs, encompassing a total of 111 species.

Giuseppe Ginanni (or Zinanni) was born in Ravenna in 1692. After completing his studies at the college of nobles in Ravenna, directed by the Jesuits, he traveled to Padua in 1715, where he met Antonio Vallisneri, who guided him towards naturalistic studies. In the garden of his own home, Ginanni established a veritable botanical garden, which he continuously expanded and enriched with exotic plants, obtained from Giulio Pontedera, the prefect of the botanical garden of Padua. In 1732, he established contact with the Florentine botanist Pier Antonio Micheli, to whom he supplied numerous plants from the Ravenna region. Besides Vallisneri and Micheli, Giovanni Bianchi (Janus Plancus), considered an authority in marine biology, also exerted significant influence on Ginanni. Between 1732 and 1737, he devoted himself to observations on grasshoppers and the collection of bird eggs and nests. He subsequently traveled to Venice to personally oversee the publication of the work in which he presented these studies. This work garnered him considerable fame as a naturalist and in 1737 led to his affiliation with the Academy of the Institute of Sciences of Bologna. Ginanni later focused on the study of mollusks, brachiopods, and other marine animals, as well as insects, fossils, and algae. These researches, left unpublished, were posthumously published in two volumes by his nephew Francesco Ginanni (Venice, 1757) (cf. G. Ongaro, Ginanni, Giuseppe, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 55, Rome, 2001, s.v.).