The earliest Presepio or Nativity Scenes in Italy date to the 1300s although actually these were figures in marble, wood or terracotta permanently exposed all the year round in a side chapel and until the 16th century the Presepio remained as such. To mention a few, a Presepio carved in wood in 1330 for the Poor Clare Sisters at the Convent of Saint Clare in Naples; another famous Presepio in wood at Rivolta d'Adda (Cremona) dated 1480 of the school of Alemanno; a terracotta Presepio found in the Franciscan church at Busseto (Parma) the work of Guido Mazzoni.
Ambrogio della Robbia is said to be the author of a Nativity Scene in polychrome terracotta found at the church of the Holy Spirit in Sienna; no less important is a Adoration of the Child by Andrea della Robbia found at the Convent of Verna (Arezzo).
In Puglia and Lucania the Presepio had its greatest development in the 16th century, thanks to artists such as Stefano da Putignano to whom we owe, among other things, two Presepio in stone one at Cassano, the other at Polignano a mare (Bari), and Altobello Persio, author of the Presepio preserved in the Cathedral of Matera.