Olina - UCCELLIERA- Gorgeous book on birds- richly lllustrated - 1622

(ORNITHOLOGY; HUNTING; ILLUSTRATED; FIRST EDITIONS) Giovanni Pietro OLINA (1585-1645 c.)
Uccelliera overo discorso della natura e proprietà di diversi uccelli e in particolare di que’ che cantano, con il modo di prendergli, conoscergli, allevargli, e mantenergli, E con le Figure cavate dal vero, e diligentemente intagliate in Rame dal Tempesta e dal Villamena. Opera di Gio. Pietro Olina novarese dottor di legge, dedicata al sig. cavalier Dal Pozzo. In Roma, appresso Andrea Fej, 1622
§ 4to (250x175); [4], 81, [6] leaves. Engraved printer’s device on title page. XIXth century brown morocco, gilt ornamental frame on front cover, gilt central ornament with a bird; back cover a simpler gilt frame and the same central ornament with the owner’s name “Burlamacchi”; gilt dentelles inside covers. Engraved armorial exlibris of Burlamacchi on paste down. Usual slight foxing due to the paper quality, but a good, well margined copy.
First edition of one of the most famous books about birds and how to recognize, capture, raise and breed them. The beautiful illustrations are engraved by two renowned artists of the time, Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630) and Francesco Villamena (1566-1624). Olina was an Italian naturalist, lawyer, and theologian; very little is known about him, but that he graduated in Siena in letters, theology and philosophy and was interested in hunting. Olina was befriend with the scholar and member of the Accademia dei Lincei Cassiano del Pozzo (1588-1657) and the Uccelliera was largely based on material collected by the latter. “When Cassiano was inducted into the Accademia de Lincei in 1622, he submitted a book about birds, Uccelliera, published the same year ... as proof of his scientific expertise. The author’s name is given as Giovanni Pietro Olina (?1585-?1645), a lawyer friend of Cassiano’s, but much of it is known to have been based on material written or assembled by Cassiano himself. Furthermore the etched illustrations of birds ... are taken from a series of beautiful watercolours drawings commissioned by Cassiano from Vincenzo Leonardi (fl. 1621 - c. 1646). one of the great masters of naturalistic illustration ...” (Freedberg, p. 150).
 DAVID A. FREEDBERG Cassiano and the Art of Natural History In: Olivetti (editor) The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo, London, The British Museum [Exhib. catalogue], Milan, 1993