This drawing of an Italian sparrow belongs to a group of bird drawings commissioned from the artist Vincenzo Leonardi by the seventeenth-century Roman patron and collector Cassiano dal Pozzo to illustrate a 1622 treatise on birds by Giovanni Pietro Olina titled L'Uccelliera, ovvero discorso della natura e proprietà di diversi uccelli ('The Aviary, or Discourse on the Nature and Characteristics of Diverse Birds').

There are many more drawings than were actually used in either the standard or the extra-illustrated copies of the book however, and the date of 1629 found on the verso of this drawing (together with the artist's name) shows that Cassiano was continuing to commission drawings of the same species (or variations of species, such as juvenile, male or female individuals, or individuals with plumage variations), for several years after the publication of the book.

See Birds, Other Animals and Natural Curiosities, Part B.IV/V of The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo: A Catalogue Raisonné (2 vols, Royal Collection Trust 2017), vol. 1, cat. 29.