The formal naming of birds started with Linnaeus (1758) who described 5 weavers in 1758, followed by 4 more in 1766. Linnaeus did not see all the specimens himself - he compiled descriptions based on earlier works. The first 9 weavers to be described are relatively common, widespread species, and a key characteristic is that they occur near the coast and on the trading route of the early ships from the far East to Europe. Read more about the Weavers described by Linnaeus here.
The weavers were described by 49 authors (counting first authors only, where more than one was involved; Table 1). Most weavers were described by Reichenow (n=10), followed by Linnaeus (n=9) and Hartlaub (n=8). Reichenow also co-authored the descriptions of 2 more weavers. Most authors were British (16), followed by German (n=13) and American (n=5).
List of authors that published 2 or more new weaver species (full list in a Biodiversity Observations paper - see below):
Red-billed Quelea type, figure from Brisson 1760 used by Linnaeus to name this species
n
First author
Wikipedia summary
10
Reichenow
German ornithologist and herpetologist
9
Linnaeus
Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist
8
Hartlaub
German physician and ornithologist
7
Sharpe
English zoologist
6
Smith
Scottish surgeon and naturalist
6
Vieillot
French ornithologist
5
Cassin
American ornithologist
5
Shelley
English geologist and ornithologist
4
Bocage
Portuguese zoologist and politician
4
Gmelin
German naturalist
4
Ruppell
German naturalist and explorer
3
Bonaparte
French biologist and ornithologist
3
Cabanis
German ornithologist
3
Daudin
French zoologist
2
Boddaert
Dutch physician and naturalist
2
Chapin
American ornithologist
2
Fischer
German African explorer
2
Gray
English zoologist and author
2
Lichtenstein
German physician etc
Illustrations
Smith's type description of the Spectacled Weaver (1828)
This is one of the earliest type descriptions published wholly in English. Most authors used Latin to describe new species.
Portraits of authors that published most new weaver species descriptions (figures from wikipedia):