Marco Lastri's L'Etruria pittrice (1791-1795), a history of Tuscan painting outlined through a series of translation prints derived from the works of the most representative masters, constitutes a unique achievement in the literary career of its author, a member of the Accademia dei Georgofili and a passionate agronomist. It is further distinguished by its novelty within the panorama of eighteenth century art historiography and illustration. This study examines Lastri's life and bibliography in order to reconstruct his intellectual profile and identify the reasons that led him to undertake a work focused on a discipline that did not feature among those with which he had been engaged in the decades before or after its publication. His relationships with scholars and art enthusiasts, his direction of the 'Novelle Letterarie', and his authorship of volumes of L'Osservatore Fiorentino were pivotal moments in the process through which Lastri developed an interest in the visual arts. More precisely, he became invested in the literature dedicated to them and in the history of Tuscan painting. Analyzing L'Etruria pittrice in relation to developments in the eighteenth century – on the one hand in art historiography and illustration, and on the other in Florentine publishing and engraving – reveals the stimuli and influences that led Lastri to conceive a work in which the narrative of Tuscan painting was entrusted to the very works reproduced in print, a medium he recognized as having the highest representational impact. A particularly important role can be ascribed to the assertions in the Lettere Sanesi in which Father Guglielmo Della Valle downplayed Cimabue's role as a restorer of painting. These statements stirred Lastri's patriotic feelings, convincing him to undertake a work that would restore Florence to the centre of the narrative of Florentine and Italian artistic history.