Maria Sibylla Merian in Surinam Von der ungewöhnlichen Forschungsreise einer außerordentlichen Frau an der Schwelle zum 18. Jahrhundert

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was an exceptional artist of her time, a master of drawing, painting, engraving, and etching. She was also passionate about studying biological phenomena, such as the food plants of caterpillars and the metamorphosis of butterflies. Her life took her from Frankfurt via Nuremberg and West Friesland to Amsterdam. In 1699, at age 52, she embarked on a research expedition to Suriname in South America. She published her findings on the metamorphosis of Surinam's insects in a richly illustrated copperplate engraving, self-published in Amsterdam in 1705. Katharina Schmidt-Loske, who heads the Biohistoricum, the archive of the history of biology at the LIB Museum Koenig in Bonn, uses many historical sources to describe the Surinam project of the extraordinary Mrs Merian and points that Merian's illustrations and texts make a valuable contribution to the natural history of South America.

Katharina Schmidt-Loske