The posting online this week of a 1719 edition of Dutch entomologist Maria Sybilla (Sibylla)* Merian's 'Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium' (1705) seemed like an appropriate reason to revisit this exquisite monograph. [see previous entry - Surinam Metamorphosis - for more links and the compelling background to this fifty five year old mother's art/research trip to the South American wilds]
"In Holland, I noted with much astonishment what beautiful animals came from the East and West Indies. I was blessed with having been able to look at both the expensive collection of Doctor Nicolaas Witsen, mayor of Amsterdam and director of the East Indies society, and that of Mr. Jonas Witsen, secretary of Amsterdam.
Moreover I also saw the collections of Mr. Fredericus Ruysch, doctor of medicine and professor of anatomy and botany, Mr. Livinus Vincent, and many other people. In these collections 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." [Foreword]
- 'Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium' is available - with huge image files - from the ever reliable Universities of Strasbourg Digital Library [link updated Feb 2013].
[click 'See digitalized document' and then click the folder icon top left in the page that loads for thumbnail views] - In my haste to download, crop and tweak the above engravings, I failed to note until later that another copy of this work - with handcoloured illustrations - had been uploaded to the servers at the Center for Retrospective Digitization, Göttingen (GDZ) since I last reviewed this classic natural history work. [I'm not sure which edition this is and I couldn't, for some reason, manage to load enlarged page images. The illustrations - a reasonable size anyway - are the unnumbered pages in the drop down menu]
- Update: The Smithsonian Institution have coloured plates from 'Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung', 1730 by Merian.
- Update 2: HAB have an earlier copy of 'Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung' with author billed as "Maria Sibylla GRAFF" (1679) {b&w plates}
- UPDATE 3: The Biodiversity Library now host a COLOUR copy of 'Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium' by MS Merian (contributed by The Smithsonian Institution).
