Best Medical & Scientific Illustrators in History Series: Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian in 1679

In past years, I knew about the naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian as a botanical artist and scientific artist who cared about details and beauty in science art. But my understanding of her work was small, as I learned recently while watching the great PBS series “Civilizations” (she’s in Season 1, Episode 4).

Hailed the “co-founder of entomology“

Maria Sibylla Merian is renowned because of

her skills at close direct observation,

accurate documentation,

insights about insect life cycles, and

her ability to transport her viewers to this world

Contemporaries of her time, the naturalists Jan Swammerdam and Francis Willughby, and Georg Rumphius, all made great contributions to the understanding of insects and their life cycles. But Maria Sibylla Merian was the first to describe insect dependence on particular plants at different stages throughout the life cycle, to document location of eggs and larvae, and to comment on the environmental influences around an insect throughout its life.

Years before Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, Alexander von Humboldt, and John James Audubon were contributing to the field of natural science, Maria Sibylla Merian was bringing light to the world with details that would found their own practice: accurate, insightful visual, verbal, and conceptual observations of the behavior of new species; and helping to drive the Enlightenment contributions in drive to understand the world through reason.

Maria Sibylla Merian was among the first scientists to

Observe insects directly
Document their life cycle, foods, and habitats
Reveal the process of metamorphosis in different insect species
Confirm that insects do not spontaneously generate
Collect and document vast numbers of insects from around the world
Simply to show great interest in insects
Draw and paint with the skill to transport her viewer into her own world of reasoned understanding and imaginative expression
Fight social and gender norms of her time
Focus on the interaction of organisms with environment made her among the first voices in the emerging field of ecology
Illustrated in a fairly natural or realistic setting which set a new standard for scientific illustration objectives. Other scientific illustrators of her day had biases about the superiority of humans, or embellished nature to make it more visually appealing.

Maria Sibylla Merian was leading in all these areas at a time when insects were deeply detested by Europeans, and when women were not given respect or access to scientific and geographical exploration.

The Year 1647. BIRTH & CHILDHOOD

Maria Sibylla Merian (also known as Anna Maria Sibylla) was born April 2, 1647, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She was a descendent from a branch of the Merian family, prosperous publishers, merchants who were part of the growing and liberating bourgeoisie class, breaking from their old-world oppressions. Her childhood experience was the end of the tail end of the Thirty Years’ War that had destroyed many lands in Europe, the end of the Renaissance period, and at the beginning of the Baroque period. Her Swiss father was the well-known engraver Matthäus Merian der Ältere (the Elder). Sadly, Maria was 3 years old when her father died.

Her father Matthäus Merian, member of the Merian publishing family. He was also an artist and engraver.

From an early age she demonstrated endless fascination with flowers and insects, her fist love being silkworms. This interest made sense, as Frankfurt was then a center of European silk trade. She collected insects and by the age of thirteen she was raising silk worms. She bred her first caterpillar and became fascinated by the process of metamorphosis. People were already bringing her caterpillars to study. She had boxes filled with insects of all kinds, which she fed and raised. Her halfbrothers were encouraging to her and offered tools and instruments to inspire her curiosity and talents. There were artists around her who gave encouragement as a budding botanical artist; especially after 1651 when her mother married and she met her stepfather, Jacob Marrel, She had access to a wide variety of natural history books, too. Maria’s mother, concerned for her well-being as an adult, opposed the child’s pursuit of science. Society did not look favorably upon women in science, at that time.

In her forward to a later book, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Maris wrote about her childhood:

“I spent my time investigating insects. At the beginning, I started with silk worms in my home town of Frankfurt. I realized that other caterpillars produced beautiful butterflies or moths, and that silkworms did the same. This led me to collect all the caterpillars I could find in order to see how they changed”.^[1]

Maria’s stepfather had a student, the flower painter Abraham Mignon, who became a principal teacher in Maria’s art education.

The Year 1665. NUREMBERG. MARRIAGE & CHILDREN

In 1665, 18 years old, Maria married one of the students of Abraham Mignon, the painter Johann Andreas Graff. Then she moved to her husband’s town, Nuremberg and gave birth to a daughter, Johanna Helena, in 1670. During this time she worked as a fabric painter, continued to research insects, sold home-made plant dyes, engrave on copperplate, and taught young women of the leisure classes to embroider and paint in a group known as, “Jungferncompaney” (virgin group). I could not find out anything more about this term or its use in history, so please comment if you are aware of any detials.

Due to her activity as a teacher, the elite of Nuremberg opened their gardens to Maria. She had access to flowers in beautiful gardens around the region, as well as those small ecosystems of insects to document. In 1675 Merian was invited to be part of Joachim von Sandrart‘s German Academy and to attend the Standrart school.

In 1678 Maria gave birth to a second daughter and named her Dorothea Maria.

Disappointingly, Maria’s personal life is not an easy one to grasp through research. Few of her letters survive, and those which do were written in a professional context. So we really don’t know what personal experiences made her happiest or saddest, how Maria felt about her husband or her children, about marriage or motherhood.

The Year 1675. FIRST BOOK, in THREE VOLUMES: FLOWERS

Blumenbuch. Volume 1. 1675
Blumenbuch. Volume 2. 1677
Neues Blumenbuch. Volume 3. 1680

When she was 28 years old, she published her first book of naturalist illustrations, called “Neues Blumenbuch” or, “New Flowers Book”. However beautiful and accurately represented these depictions were for a scientific community in need of visual reference (no photography at that time) for classification of references, the scientific community of the time largely ignored Maria’s work because it wasn’t published in Latin, the formal language of science.

Maria Sibylla Merian’s first book, “Neues Blumenbuch”, “New Flowers Book”

Illuminated Copper-engraving from Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung, Plate CLXIX

English: Illustration of Passiflora incarnata. German: Darstellung von Passiflora incarnata. Dated 1675

Book Plate. English: Tulip. German: Tulpen. Dated: 1677

Watercolour study of a Commons Pedigree with Rose by Maria Sibylla Merian, Nürnberg 1675. Source:Bamberg State Library (Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, I R 90), Wikimedia

Floral Wreath with Insects
Maria Sibylla Merian, 1700
Previous: Tulip, two Branches of Myrtle and two ShellsNext: Branch of West Indian Cherry with Achilles Morpho Butterfly
Floral Wreath with Insects, 1700 — Maria Sibylla Merian,
Dimentions: height: 17.5 cm, width: 13.8 cm
Movements:The Enlightenment
Mediums:Engraving
Collection:Rijksmuseum
Subjects:FlowersInsects
Image Rights:Public Domain

The book is a big success with its audience because it is an inspiration to embroiderers, and it develops into a three volume series by1679. Maria painted watercolor on vellum

It is still not understood at this time by most scientists

how the life cycle of the butterfly and moth worked.

Maria was driven

to observe and understand

the cycle for herself.

Because she is the first entomologist

to reveal this,

she is known as among

the greatest entomologists in history.

For an online copy of BlumenBuch with the plates from all three volumes, go here.

The Year 1679. DER RAUPEN WUNDERBARE VERWANDLUNG UND SONDERBARE BLUMENNAHRUNG. THE CATERPILLAR’S WONDROUS TRANSFORMATION AND NOURISHMENT BY FLOWERS

In 1679 Merian published in German a first volume of a two-volume series covering caterpillar metamorphoses. A second volume followed in 1683.

Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung. Volume 1, 1679

Title Page Statement (translated from German) by Maria – “…..wherein by means of an entirely new invention the origin, food and development of caterpillars, worms, butterflies, moths, flies and other such little animals, including times, places and characteristics, for naturalists, artists, and gardeners, are diligently examined, briefly described, painted from nature, engraved in copper and published independently.”

Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung. Volume 2, 1683

Each volume contained 50 plates engraved and etched by Maria. Along with the illustrations, Maria included a descriptions of life cycles for 186 European insects, based on her personal observations. The unique importance of these 2 volumes distinguishes her from Jan Goedart and others who were revealing the metamorophosis of caterpillars on a few points. She accomplished a great number of tasks in a superior way to other scientist’s offerings at this time:

She made detailed and careful observations of each insect. She collected and kept caterpillars and conducted experiments to confirm her observations.
She documented the stage and life cycle of the caterpillar to moth or butterfly
Maria’s offered descriptions of specific insect habitats, which led to greater overall understanding of insights and the ability to draw new insights of insect behavior
Her description of the specific small number of plants upon which each species depends at different stages of its life cycle. She noticed that the eggs were always laid near certain plants. She noted “caterpillars which fed on one flowering plant only, would feed on that one alone, and soon died if I did not provide it for them.” She noted special life cycle details that other naturalists did not observe. She found, for example, that some caterpillars would feed on more than one plant, but some only did so if they were deprived of their favorite host plant. The plant-host relationship is so critical, in fact, that later taxonomists named species of butterflies and moths after the plants and feeding sources on which the larvae were found.
Maria demonstrated the physical differences between male and female adults
Maria included thorough visual information, including the wing and underwing colorations of insects with wing orientations at different angles.
She also documented the extended proboscis of feeding insects.
She recognized that the size of insect larvae increase day by the day if the larvae have enough food. “Some then attain their full size in several weeks: others can require up to two months”, she noted.
Maria noted other life cycle detials, such as molting and exosckeletons, which she drew. She said, “many shed their skins completely three or four times”.
She noted the different ways in which larvae formed their cocoons.
She noted the environmental factors and the possible effects of climate on metamorphosis, nourishment, and numbers
She noted details of insect locomotion
She observed among caterpillars that if they, “have no food, they devour each other”.

Title page of The Caterpillars’ Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food, first volume, published 1679

Plate I of Caterpillars vol 1, entitled “Maulbeerbaum samt Frucht”, “Mullberry with Fruit”. It depicts the fruit and leave of a mulberry tree and the eggs and larvae of the silkworm moth. Colored stitch. Date 1679. Public Domain Image

The first plate of Caterpillars Volume 1 illustrates the life cycle of the silkworm moth. First the eggs are laid. Then the larva hatch through several molts. Merian’s made her own discovery while confirming the observations of Marcello Malpighim, Jan Swammerdam, and Francesco Redi.

Goedart, on the other hand, while a respected naturalist of the time, had not included eggs in his images of the life stages of European moths and butterflies. He believed that caterpillars were spontaneously created from water.

When Merian published her study of insects, it was still widely believed that insects spontaneously generated from dirt, mud, or water.

Plate 5 of Caterpillars vol 1, depicting the metamorphosis of the garden tiger moth, its plant host, and wasps. An illustration of the metamorphosis of the tiger moth. Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung. Nürnberg 1679. Engraving, coloured counterproof. Amsterdam, Artis Library, University of Amsterdam.

“Purple Tulip” (Tulipa Purpurea) 1679
Maria Sibylla Merian
Medium: Watercolor on Vellum
Image Rights: Public Domain

Metamorphosis of a Caterpillar to a Butterfly
Metamorphosis of a Caterpillar to a Butterfly, 1679 — Maria Sibylla Merian
Dimentions: height: 19.2 cm, width: 15.5 cm
Mediums: Watercolor on Vellum
Collection: Rijksmuseum
Image Rights:Public Domain

Indiaansche jasmynboom (Plumeria sp.) plate VIII. University of Amsterdam; see text at GDZ Göttingen Date 1705 Source Maria Sibylla Merian, 1705. Veranderingen der Surinaamsche Insecten. Author Maria Sibylla Merian ; engraved by Pieter Sluyter

This watercolour shows the life cycles of the Puss Moth (Cerura vinula) and Red Underwing Moth (Catocala nupta), both of which feed on willow. Merian understood the importance of individual plants to different insects, and the depiction of her subjects on the correct host plants was central to her work. Watercolour and bodycolour with gum arabic on vellum | 38.6 x 27.3 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 921222. From Der Rupsen begin, voedzel en wunderbare verandering (The Birth, Nourishment and Wonderful Transformation of Caterpillars). Here she paints a caterpillar. On the top it is in distress. On the bottom it is calm. Caterpillar displays red thorns when in defense.

Maria

observed insects directly,

and that alone placed her

above other sceintists of her age.

Practicing contrary to other scientists

allowed her to make

never-before noted

insights.

To see the entire book Volume 1, visit the Goethe University site here.

To see the entire book Volume 2, visit the Goethe University site here.

The Year 1681. THE LABADIST CONNECTION

Maria’s brother Caspar Merian

Maria’s stepfather had died. In 1681 Maria and her family, along with her mother, followed Maria’s half-brother Casper Merian, into the Labadist community in the village of Wieuwerd, Friesland (now in the Netherlands). Labadists were a separatist group of Pietists. They were founded and led by the theologian Jean de Labadie.The community was based in Walta Castle. Women worked in traditional roles as well as farming and milling, and managed a printing press, while men were sent as outreach into the community. The community had at one time 600 members. But discipline was strict and punitive. The years spent in Friesland allowed Maria time for naturalist and Latin studies, but she did not produce many illustrations during this time. Studying Latin allowed Maria more time to explore the scientific writings of the day. It also allowed her to publish her own works in the only language respected by scientists of the day. Dutch and German publications, while popular with a general audience, were not suitable for academics. Maria’s works in Dutch and German were ignored by the scientific community until her fame as a scientist had grown sufficiently. Maria also observed the life cycle of the frog and made dissections. The Labadists were apparently not very welcoming to Maria’s husband Johann, and sent him out into the community to work.

In 1682 the family returns to Frankfurt.

Maria’s mother died in 1690.

The Year 1691. AMSTERDAM

In 1691 Maria moved with her daughters to Amsterdam and continued to teach them. She met with Caspar Commelin, a bookseller, historian and publisher. and Steven Blankaart, a physician, iatrochemist, and entomologist. In 1692 her husband filed and divorced her. In Amsterdam the same year, her daughter Johanna married Jakob Hendrik Herolt, a successful merchant on Surinam, originally from Bacharach. The flower painter Rachel Ruysch became Merian’s pupil.^[4] Merian made a living selling her paintings and her insect collections.^[5] She and her daughter Johanna sold flower pictures to art collector Agnes Block. By 1698 Maria was managing her household well on her own, on Kerkstraat Street in Amsterdam.

The Year 1699. EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AMERICA

At this time, women rarely received royal or government funding to travel abroad for any kind of scientific exploration. Scientific expeditions at this period of time were not common, in fact, even for men. Maria continued to draw, paint, and research the natural world, while raising two daughters in Amsterdam. The Dutch governor Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck, who recognized the importance of her work and contribution potential, worked on her behalf to promote her interests. Then, in 1699, the governor of the Dutch colony Surinam on the northern coast of South America (presently the French, Dutch and British Guianas) offered Maria a grant to study and draw there in South America, with her daughter. This was a serious venture and not a pleasure trip for Maria. She sold 255 of her own drawings and paintings to secure all the needed funds for this five year adventure. About her purpose of exploration Maria wrote:

“I had found innumerable other insects, but finally if here their origin and their reproduction is unknown, it begs the question as to how they transform, starting from caterpillars and chrysalises and so on. All this has, at the same time, led me to undertake a long dreamed of journey to Suriname.” (from her letters)

When Maria was 52, she set sail for South America with her younger daughter Dorothea as her research assistant. They settled in at Paramaribo and worked together, wandering the tropical forests in search of new insects to document and draw in detail. There were so many interesting new species to document that they did not restrict themselves to insects but also documented birds, reptiles, fruits, flowers, plants, and fish. Maria also noted the habitat, ecology, the local names and medicinal uses for different species, which would prove invaluable to later scientists. Maria used Native American names to refer to the plants, which became used in Europe for taxonomies:

“I created the first classification for all the insects which had chrysalises, the daytime butterflies and the nighttime moths. The second classification is that of the maggots, worms, flies, and bees. I retained the indigenous names of the plants, because they were still in use in America by both the locals and the Indians.”

Malaria took a hard toll on Maria’s health, and she was forced to leave Latin America to return early to the Netherlands after only 21 months of the 5 year expedition.

But even in that short time, Maria had discovered a whole range of previously unknown animals and plants in Surinam. Her classification of butterflies and moths is still relevant today. Back at home, she classified her findings. She brought rare species home in her trunks: a large number of prepared exotic insects, plants, reptiles, and amphibians. She brought her scientific illustrations, research notes, and sketches of tropical beetles, plants, frogs, snakes, spiders, and iguanas. She sold specimens she had collected as a business. She criticized the Dutch planters’ treatment of natives and black slaves, back in Suriname. The excited adventure became interesting news among the scholars in Amsterdam. Visitors came from all around to view her paintings of exotic insects and plants. She wrote,

“Now that I had returned to Holland and several nature-lovers had seen my drawings, they pressured me eagerly to have them printed. They were of the opinion that this was the first and most unusual work ever painted in America.”

Maria Sybilla Merian. Line engraving. Wellcome V0003987ER.jpg

Line engraving of Maria Sibylla Merian. Iconographic Collections.

Maria Sibylla Merian made

many unique observations

which contributed to the fields of

entymology, botany, and zoology.

The Year 1705. METAMORPHOSIS INSECTORUM SURINAMENSIUM (Metamorphoses of Surinamese Insects)

Merian and her daughters Johanna and Dorothea put collected the Surinam drawings into a series of plates, and the notes into text for publication. The new book was to be called, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (Metamorphoses of Surinamese Insects). Maria did not make the printing plates herself this time, but hired and carefully supervised 3 printmakers to do the engraving. She had to advertise for subscribers to fund this publication in advance. But her popularity was high enough that this succeeded in finding 12 subscribers. She offered subscribers a hand painted deluxe edition of her forthcoming book on Suriname.

Deep sea fish, crabs and sea snails. Watercolor. Gouache on cardboard. 27 x 40 cm. Public Domain Image. Wikimedia.

A less expensive black and white printed edition was also prepared. Maria expressed interest in an English version to present to the Queen Anne of England, saying, “It is reasonable for a woman to make such a gift to a person of the same sex”. But this never came to be.

The book included 60 engravings demonstrating the different stages of Suriname insect development. In keeping with her close observation style, Maria’s drawings in Metamorphosis reveal insects on and around their host plants. Her accompanying text and included text describing each stage of development. The book was one of the first illustrated accounts of Suriname natural history.

After her death the book was reprinted in 1719, 1726 and 1730, as her notoriety expanded. It was published in German, Dutch, Latin and French.

Upon its publication her book was received with great respect and acclaim. It was noted for several accomplishments in particular:

It was the first book with color illustrations of plants, animals, or insects from The New World, as well as natural medicines. And it would have profound influence over future naturalists. It was known not just for the documentation of metamorphoses. But also for the fire ants, which were subsequently cited and copied by other artists. The scientists Mark Catesby, René Antoine, August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof, and George Edwards all noted her accomplishments.

2. Maria writes about the struggles for life among organisms, in a manner that predates Charles Darwin and Lord Tennyson.

3. Maria documented medicinal uses of plants; among others that palm sap could be used to treat worm infections.

4. Maria made popular the pineapple, which already had growing interest in Europe, with her fantastic drawings. The pineappe featured in Hortus Malabaricus by Hendrik van Rheede, The Historia Naturalis Brasilae by Willem Piso and Georg Marggraf, and Medici Amstelodamensis by Caspar Commelin all described the pineapple. But Maria’s drawings became the most well known. She called the pineapple, “annanas”, by its local name, and described the influence of butterflies and cockroaches on pineapple crops. She wrote that the pineapple is the “most outstanding of all edible fruits,” and it is the first plate on her new book, pictured with cockroaches. One insect that Maaria did not argue for was the cockroach. Because cockroaches enjoy to eat sweet fruit, Maria complained they are devasting to all creatures around them by, “spoiling their wool, linen, food and drinks.” Merian’s drawing shows two types of cockroaches that lay their eggs in distinctly different manners.

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) with Australian cockroaches (Periplaneta australasiae) and German cockroaches (Blattella germanica), hand-coloured transfer engraving by Maria Sibylla Merian (Joseph Mulder, printmaker), 1719.J. Paul Getty Museum (object no. 89-B10750); digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program

5. There is a German spider called, “Vogelspinne”, which translates as “bird spider”. The name seems to have its origins in Maria’s engraving (below). The connection was not known until recently.

6. Maria’s Surinam butterfly drawings were so accurate that entomologists who analysed her sketches could identify 73 percent of the lepidopterans by their genus and 66 percent as exact species. Carl Linnaeus and other naturalists used her illustrations to identify over 100 new species. In naming the species Maria had discovered, Linnaeus abbreviated her name into Mer.sruin for animals from Surinam, and Mer.eur for European insects.

Painting by Maria Sybilla Merian (1705) that led to the popular name ‘bird-eating’ spider.

Other plates from Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (Metamorphoses of Surinamese Insects):

Black Tegu Lizard
Maria Sibylla Merian, 1700. height: 32.9 cm, width: 43 cm
Medium:Watercolor Ink Pen
Collection:The Morgan Library and Museum

**Surinam caiman; Merian, Maria Sibylla**Surinam caiman (probably *Paleosuchus palpebrosus*) biting a South American false coral snake (*Anilius scytale*), hand-coloured transfer engraving by Maria Sibylla Merian (Peter Sluyter, printmaker), 1719.J. Paul Getty Museum (object no. 89-B10750); digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program

“Tulip, two Branches of Myrtle and two Shells”
Maria Sibylla Merian, 1700
Dimentions: height: 33.6 cm, width: 24 cm
Medium: Watercolor and Gouache
Collection: Rijksmuseum
Image Rights: Public Domain

**Surinam caiman; Merian, Maria Sibylla**Surinam caiman (probably *Paleosuchus palpebrosus*) biting a South American false coral snake (*Anilius scytale*), hand-coloured transfer engraving by Maria Sibylla Merian (Peter Sluyter, printmaker), 1719.J. Paul Getty Museum (object no. 89-B10750); digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program

“Tulip, two Branches of Myrtle and two Shells”
Maria Sibylla Merian, 1700
Dimentions: height: 33.6 cm, width: 24 cm
Medium: Watercolor and Gouache
Collection: Rijksmuseum
Image Rights: Public Domain

Branch of West Indian Cherry with Achilles Morpho Butterfly
Maria Sibylla Merian, 1702—1703
Dimensions: height: 39 cm, width: 30.4 cm
Medium: Watercolor
Collection: Royal Collection
Image Rights: Public Domain

Branch of Genipapo with Long-Horned Beetle
Maria Sibylla Merian, 1702—1703
Dimensions: height: 38.4 cm, width: 27.7 cm
Medium: Watercolor
Collection: Royal Collection
Image Rights: Public Domain

Citron with Monkey Slug Moth and Harlequin Beetle
Maria Sibylla Merian, 1702—1703
Dimensions: height: 36.1 cm, width: 27.8 cm
Medium: Watercolor
Collection: Royal Collection
Image Rights: Public Domain

Tropical White Morning Glory with two beetles
Maria Sibylla Merian, 1702—1703
Tropical White Morning Glory with two beetles, 1703 — Maria Sibylla Merian,
Dimensions: height: 37.1 cm, width: 27.5 cm
Medium: Watercolor
Collection: Royal Collection
Image Rights: Public Domain

Turk’s Cap Lily
Maria Sibylla Merian, 1705
Dimensions: height: 44.0 cm, width: 28.7 cm
Medium: Watercolor
Collection: Royal Collection
Image Rights: Public Domain

Maris is the first entomologist to reveal

the life cycle of the butterfly and moth.

“Caterpillar and butterfly”. A branch of sweet cherry and the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, drawing on parchment with watercolor and gouache, 1679. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, object no. RP-T-1946-73. Image Rights: Public Domain

Heron Encircled by a Snake Maria Sibylla Merian, 1700. Image Rights: Public Domain

To see the entire Suriname book, go here.

The Year 1710. FLOURISING

At this point Maria began to focus her interest in live insects. When she received a specimen from James Petiver she wrote that she only cared about “the formation, propagation, and metamorphosis of creatures, how one emerges from the other, and the nature of their diet.”

Occupational portrait of Maria Sibylla Merian in 1700. Engraving by Jacobus Houbraken from a portrait by Georg Gsell. Note the engraving needles, the globe and prints, and the pile of books all to emphasize her scholarly accomplishments.

Merian continued to collect and observe insects, adding plates to her Caterpillars books and updating the prexisting plates. She republished the two volumes in Dutch in 1713 and 1714 with the name, Der Rupsen. She also studied flies and rewrote the preface of her books to explain that flies emerged from a caterpillar pupa.

Maria accepted contract work to earn extra income. In 1705 she helped to illustrate the book The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet written by Georg Eberhard Rumpf. She also earned income as a teacher, paint seller, and by preparing butterflies for commercial sale. It was just enough income to get by.

Maria’s first daughter Johanna Helena became a well-known illustrator and moved with her husband to Suriname in 1711.

The Year 1717. DEATH

A stroke in 1715 left Maria partially paralyzed. She continued her work for two more years, but her illness probably affected her abilities, and she became a pauper. Maria died in Amsterdam on January 13, 1717, almost age 70, and was buried four days later.

Memorial for Maria Sibylla Merian. Nuremberg. Germany.

The Year 1718. ERUCARUM ORTUS

‘Erucarum Ortus, Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis’ 1717 by Maria Sibylla Merian is available online Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum

‘Erucarum Ortus’ features some 150 plates of butterflies, caterpillars, moths and other insects together with their associated plants. The book is divided into three sections and about half of the first section of illustrations – in thisparticular copy – has been enhanced with hand-colouring. The balance of engravings below were sampled from throughout the book. The opium poppy plate was cropped back to the engraving plate margin; all others were chopped off at the page edge. I haven’t checked whether all the hand written species names on the book pages are correct or not.

In the next year, 1718, her daughter Dorothea published the third volume of Maria’s caterpillar book, Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis (The Metamorphosis and Nourishment o the Caterpillar). This important Latin text helped lay the foundation for Charles Linnaeus’s later work of botanical and zoological classifications and organization.

There are a number of versions of how the entire works of this extraordinary woman ended up in Russia. the most reliable record is that the works were purchased by Tsar Peter the Great, personally, during a visit to western Europe, only days before Merian’s death in 1717. Upon the Tsar’s death in 1725, the works were presented to the Academy of Sciences [in Germany] where they reside today.” [source]

In 1717, the same year Maria died, her paintings were purchased for Tsar Peter the Great (Peter 1) of Russia. Dorothea Maria was then invited to St. Petersburg, where she worked as a scientific illustrator for the tsar and became the first woman to be employed by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

MARIA’S LEGACY

Maria’s name and contributions to the body of science have been acclaimed in recent years. From 1982-2003 Maria’s “New Flower Book”, “The Caterpillar’s Wonderful Transfiguration”, and the “Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensis” are all reprinted, which results in renewed fame.

1990-2002 The 500 DM banknote bears Maria Sibylla Merian’s portrait.