Merian, Maria Sibylla
1730
Amsterdam, Jean Frederic Bernard 
Auf Merkliste setzen
Over de Voortteling en Wonderbaerlyke Veranderingen der Surinaamsche Insecten, waar in de Surinaamsche Rupsen en Wormen, met alle derzelver veranderingen, naar het leeven afgebeeldt, en beschreeven worden; zijnde elk geplaatst op dezelfde gewassen, bloemen, en vruchten, daar ze op gevonden zijn: beneffens de beschryving dier gewassen. Waar in ook de wonderbare Padden, Hagedissen, Slangen, Spinnen, en andere zeltzaame Gediertens worden vertoont, en beschreeven. Alles in Amerika door den zelve M. S. Meriaen naar het leeven en leevensgrootte geschilderd, en nu in ‘t Koper overgebracht. Benevens een Aenhangsel van de veranderingen van Visschen in Kikvorschen, en van Kikvorschen in Visschen. Large folio: 50.3 x 34.7 cm. / 19.7 x 13,4 inch. Originally hand-coloured engraved frontispiece; title page with engraved, hand-coloured vignette. [vi], 51 pp.; 72 hand-coloured plates. 18th-century style Dutch mottled calf. Spine with five raised, gilt-rolled bands; compartments rich gilt with floral borders and floral vignettes; boards with decorative gilt-rolled lines, large, square gilt floral corner pieces, and large gilt embossed arabesque in the center of both panels. Gilt dentelles. Third Dutch edition of a work first published in 1705 (with only 60 plates), and then reissued in 1719, with twelve additional plates, and again in 1730 (this edition), with 72 plates too. The work was written and illustrated by the great early 18th-century naturalist, early entomologist, and artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), daughter of the famous Swiss-born Frankfurter printer and publisher Matthäus Merian. She was the first to document the life stages of the Surinamese toad (Pipa pipa), here figured, which carries its eggs on its back” (NHM site). Merian “had started to collect insects as an adolescent. At age 13, she raised silkworms. In 1679, Merian published the first volume of a two-volume series on caterpillars; the second volume followed in 1683. Each volume contained 50 plates that she engraved and etched. Merian documented evidence on the process of metamorphosis and the plant hosts of 186 European insect species. Along with the illustrations, Merian included descriptions of their life cycles. In 1699, Merian travelled to Suriname (then Dutch Guiana) to study and record the tropical insects native to the region. In 1705, she first published Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. Merian’s Metamorphosis has been credited with influencing a range of naturalist illustrators. Because of her careful observations and documentation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly, Merian is considered by David Attenborough to be among the more significant contributors to the field of entomology. She discovered many new facts about insect life through her studies. Until her careful, detailed work, it had been thought that insects were “born of mud” by spontaneous generation. Her pioneering research in illustrating and describing the various stages of development, from egg to larva to pupa and finally to adult, dispelled the notion of spontaneous generation and established the idea that insects undergo distinct and predictable life cycles. Plate and text numbered in an old hand, with, on the last blank verso an index to the plants illustrated with the insects; however, including those of Merian’s work on the European insects (Horn-Schenkling 14993), which is not included here. Frontispiece supplied from another edition, i.e., the [1768]-1771 Paris (Desnos) so-called “third” (= 4th) edition, edited by the French naturalist Pierre-Joseph Buc’hoz (1731-1807). It is essentially the same, except for a cartouche with a short title in French. The magnificent plates are remarkably clean and beautifully coloured. Impression and colouring both strong and accurate. The binding is extremely well done, with a convincing 18th-century Dutch look. A fine copy. Provenance: German private collection Cat. BM(NH) p. 1290; Hagen I, p. 536; Horn-Schenkling, 14992; Nissen BBI, 1341; Sitwell and Blunt, Great Flower Books p. 119. Neither in Nissen ZBI, nor in Pritzel.
125000,- EUR
Differenzbesteuert/Subject to margin taxation
Sachgebiete: Amerika, Botanik, Entomologie , Illustrierte Bücher, Zoologie
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