Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)

5″x 7″ blank card printed on 110 lb. paper with a 70 lb. white envelope, packaged in a clear view archival sleeve w/closure. Art identified.

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was a German-born Swiss naturalist, entomologist and scientific illustrator. She was first a botanical artist and published her first collection of engravings, Neues Blumenbuch, in three volumes between 1675 and 1680. She was one of the first naturalists to have studied insects and recorded and illustrated the life cycles of 186 insect species. She published a two volume series on caterpillars, The Caterpillars’ Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food, in 1679 and 1683. In 1699, Merian traveled to Dutch Surinam to study and record the tropical insects and produced her Metamorphosis Insecturam Surinamensium, published in 1705.