Pietro Paolo Montagnani aka Pietro Paolo Montagnani-Mirabili (Rome, 1740[1][2] - date of death unknown) is a late 18th C. - early 19th C. Italian engraver (burin) and publisher of books and prints who lived presumably in Florence, Italy, around 1800 - 1820.[3]
Around 1790 Pietro Paolo Montagnani published a series of engravings picturing the Sibyls (Latin: Sibylla, s.; -ae, pl.) by talented Italian engravers such as Girolamo Carattoni (ca.1760 – ca. 1809), Domenico Cunego, Giovanni Folo and Giovanni Petrini (active 1800–1812) after paintings by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (il Guercino), Domenico Zampieri (il Domenichino) and Sebastiano Conca.[4]
In 1805, Pietro Paolo Montagnani-Mirabili published a book on "ancient monuments, news on the antiquities and fine arts of Rome", Vol. VIII (or, more likely, VII, according to some scholars, attributing it to a typographical error in transcribing the Roman numeral in later imprints or facsimile editions). This book contained multiple engravings of ancient statues and bas-reliefs by Gio(vanni) Pietrini inc. (incisore, i.e. engraver) after drawings by (Aloysius) L(uigi) Agricola [5] dis. (disegnatore, i.e. draughtsman) and F(ilip.) Salari [6] dis.; by P(ietro) Ghigi inc. after F. Salari dis.; by Ant(onio) Ricciani [7] inc. & G(irolamo) Carattoni [8][9] inc. after drawings by L. Agricola dis.and F. Salari dis.; by L(uigi) Cunego (1750[10] – 1823[11]) inc. It also contains architectural drawings engraved by Gio(vanni) Bruni [12] inc., after drawings by Piet. Holl [13] dis. and Micinelli [14] dis.[15]
Pietro Ducros (1745 or 1748-1810), a talented Swiss-born painter and engraver, joined forces with a Paolo Montagnari,[16] who is possibly the same man as Paolo Montagnani,[2] [see Talk tab] to publish 24 vedute of Sicily and Malta, with a certain success. The series published probably around 1789[17] by Montagnari included vedute of "Palermo, near Monreale"; of the "Theater of Taormina"; of the "Etna volcano"; of the "Amphitheater of Siracusa", of the "Interior of the city of Messina after the earthquake of 1783", and of the "Port of the galleys of the Arsenal of Malta".[18]