[5] Dogs of this type have often been represented in sculpture – including a second-century Roman statue now in the Vatican Museums – and paintings, notably by Giotto, Sassetta and Tiepolo.

[3][6] Dogs of this kind were taken in the first half of the nineteenth century to the United Kingdom, where they were known as Italian Greyhounds;[7]: 44  the first volume of The Kennel Club Calendar and Stud Book, published in 1874, lists forty of them.

Numbers began to increase only after the First World War, partly as a result of the work of two individual breeders, Emilio Cavallini and Giulia Ajò Montecuccoli degli Erri.

[11][6] The breed was definitively accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale in October 1956,[2] and in November of that year a breed society, the Circolo del Levriero Italiano, was formed under the auspices of the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana; it was later renamed the Circolo del Piccolo Levriero Italiano.

[12] In the United States, the Ortheopedic Foundation for Animals has found the Italian Greyhound to be the least affected by hip dysplasia of 157 breeds studied, with an incidence of 0.