Gaetano Savi

Flora Italiana ossia raccolta delle piante più belle che, si coltivano nei Giardini d’Italia. Pisa: Niccolò Capurro, 1818-1824

FIRST EDITION, 3 volumes in one, folio (440 x 305mm.), 120 stipple-engraved plates, printed in colours and finished by hand, contemporary half calf, spine gilt, some spotting, mainly around edges, upper cover scratched

An attra♔ctive copy of this rare Italian flora, devoted🥀 to plants native and exotic, in cultivation in Italy, with plates drawn and engraved by Antonio Serantoni. The work was an early Italian attempt to rival the stipple-engraved plates of Redouté.

Gaetano Savi (1769-1844) was an Italian naturalist who specialised in Italian botany: he published many investigations into the flora of various Italian regions. In addition to this, he taught both physics and botany at the University of Pisa, and directed the Pisa botanical gardens. For his contribution to the field of botany, his surname was used to name the Amphicarpaea genus, and a genus of the Phyllanthaceae family, Savia and Heterosavia respectively. 

LITERATURE:

Dunthorne 271; Great Flower Books, p. 75; Nissen BBI 1732; Stafleu TL2 10.391