Excerpt from the portfolio Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium

Excerpt from the portfolio Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium:

MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN, born in 1647 in Frankfurt on the Main, was a daughter of the renowned engraver and publisher, Matthaeus Merian. From childhood she showed a vivid interest in the world of plants and insects. In her engravings an eminent artistic talent meets with scientific accuracy. First she worked in Nuremberg, the birthplace of her husband, and at a later period in the Netherlands. From 1690 to 1701 she stayed, as a member of the Labadist congregation, in Surinam (Dutch Guiana), exploring the hitherto unknown beauties of tropical plants and butterflies; her most significant work, the METAMORPHOSIS INSECTORUM SURINAMENSIUM, was the result of this voyage. After her return to Europe, the artist died in 1717 in Amsterdam.

*FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN:

Leningrad Watercolours by Maria Sibylla Merian (Folio QH31.M4513 A34 1974 DeGolyer Library Closed Stacks, SMU )

Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Lives by Natalie Zemon Davis (CT3233 .D38 1995 Fondren Library Stacks, SMU)