A noted Venetian historian, Antonio Maria Zanetti distinguished himself as a scholar of antiquities, architecture and sculpture, as well as music and the Greek language. He became a protege of his homonymous older cousin Antonio Maria Zanetti, and later became the custodian of the Marciana Library in Venice, Italy.
Beginning in the early 1720s, Zanetti collaborated with his elder cousin on the edition of a two-volume work illustrating the classical sculpture conserved in the Venetian public collections. For this work, Zanetti provided many of the drawings of the statues himself, the engraved plates then produced by a number of leading Italian engravers. The result inspired the creation and publication of further catalogues of important collections and manuscripts in Venice at the time.
Originally published in 1740 and 1743 in two volumes, these original engravings date from a slightly later edition c.1780-1800 and depict many of the most recognisable sculptural subjects from antiquity.
