Tuesday 2 April 2013

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717): Entomologist Honoured with Google Doodle

Maria Sibylla Merian ((1647-1717) was a German naturalist and scientific illustrator who studied plants and insects and made detailed paintings about them. While her contribution to entomology is not widely known, it at least has the distinction of being recognised with a Google Doodle.


She has also been honoured on old German banknotes - before they took what many must now regard as the ill-fated decision to scrap it all in favour of the Euro.

Anna Maria Sibylla Merian auf der 500 DM Banknote

Here's a picture of her looking less old and wrinkled:

Portrait of Maria Sibylla Merian

Examples of her artwork and engravings might serve to illustrate why she is deserving of recnet (albeit belated) honours:

Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium

Plate LXXXV. from Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis (1679-1717

Illuminated Copper-engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate VI. 1705

Illuminated Copper-engraving from Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung, Plate CLXIX

Illuminated Copper-engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate XXIII. Solanum mammosum 1705

Illuminated Copper-engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate XLVIII. 1705

Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus) and a False Coral Snake (Anilius scytale)

Illuminated Copper-engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate XXVII. Musa paradisiaca, 1705

Colored copper engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate XLIII. "Spiders, ants and hummingbird on a branch of a guava" (Tarantula: Avicularia avicularia)

Illuminated Copper engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate IX. Maria Sibylla Merian, 1705

Source: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons


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