Apparently, Sibylla was neither beautiful nor very cheerful; but she was stubborn and very talented. So much so that she became one of the most important insect and butterfly researchers and illustrators of all time.

What is most fascinating about her work is the way she moves between rigorous and detailed observation and her graphic capturing of every perceived detail (using pen, watercolour, and drypoint). A description that comes before the scientific conclusions that her later publications would attest to. There is no deeper way to know an object than to draw it after having observed it, and vice versa, only perfect knowledge of the object can create a perfect drawing.

Only a woman so determined and patient could cope in an era hostile to female work and intellectual development: the publishing ventures, the journey to South America, the frugal life in the Labadist sect, the writing of her precious illustrated volumes. At the same time, she was a mother, a homemaker, an entrepreneur, a scientist and an artist who, despite the fame she achieved, was always oppressed by financial difficulties that haunted her until her death.

Sibylla was born into a family of Calvinist painters, engravers, and chalcographers. Her father was the famous view engraver Matthaeus Merian the Elder, who died when Sibylla was three years old. Her mother remarried the flower painter Jakob Marrell.

In those years, Frankfurt was the heart of great commercial and cultural movements, the capital of publishing, and an important centre for the silk trade; this was a time full of enthusiasm for science and intense exchanges with the rest of the world. The Thirty Years War had just ended.

In her early youth, Sibylla had access to the most beautiful collections of flowers and butterflies, spending time in the lavish gardens that were the hobby of the upper middle class of her time and city. She lived with her half-brothers and stepfather, all artists, who soon realised her talent. She was still a child when she stole a tulip, a precious exotic rarity at the centre of mass hysteria, just to draw it.

Spending time in the studios of her engraver father and painter stepfather, together with her half-brothers and the apprentices, helped Sibylla to learn several graphic, engraving and painting techniques very early on. In addition, she attended a school, which was rare among her peers: the women in her family were not very cultured and none of her relatives knew Latin.

At thirteen, Sibylla obtained some silkworms and collected mulberry leaves to breed Bombyx mori, allowing her to witness its transformation from cocoon to butterfly. She continued to collect other caterpillars, feeding them and observing the birth of many butterflies, much more beautiful than the whitish silk caterpillar. According to the popular belief of that time (and shared by her mother), caterpillars and butterflies were abominable or even devilish beings and insects were signs of the wrath of God. The Catholic church recommended exorcisms against the insect plague, others believed that butterflies were transformed witches who ruined cream and butter (hence “butterfly”!).

Sibylla tried in vain to explain that caterpillars were born from eggs laid by butterflies, and butterflies from chrysalises. It was an absurd and dangerous thesis according to her mother and the people in her environment.

Sibylla's first book would not be dedicated to caterpillars but rather to flowers.

Following an apprenticeship with her beloved teacher-and-flower-painter, Mignon, in 1664 she married Johann Andreas Graff, and their first daughter, Johanna Helena, was born in 1668. They moved to Nuremberg, her husband’s hometown. Sibylla was finally living in her own house. But her husband earned a meager income and she had to support the whole family by herself. The second daughter, Dorothea Maria, was born in 1678, just as a new book was being published.

Sibylla opened a painting and embroidery school for rich ladies. She herself embroidered and painted precious fabrics for wealthy homes, began to learn Latin and continued to study and collect caterpillars. The first part of her book on flowers, illustrated with engravings of her own watercolours, was published by her husband when she was 28. This served as a sample book for lady embroiderers. Parts II and III followed in 1677 and 1680. In order to sustain herself, she engaged not only in teaching but also in the commerce of colours and implements for painting.

Her book on caterpillars, published in two parts (1679/83) in Nuremberg, also appeared in German. It begins with a description of the silkworm, perhaps a useful strategy to dispel some of the fears and superstitions surrounding caterpillars by discussing the origin of fine fabrics, admired by all. The title is The Flowering of Ecology.1

It is a small booklet, many specimens are in black and white so that it can have a lower cost, and therefore a lower price.

Each of the 50 plates illustrates the insects’ various developmental stages and their dependence on the host plant they chose for sustenance. This book makes a significant contribution to the field of entomology, as it is grounded in firsthand observation and thus provides greater detail than other works on the topic, including those of Aldrovandi (1602) and Francesco Redi (1668), both of which Sibylla undoubtedly knew. Merian's descriptions and explanations in German are full of life, as she liked to use images and comparisons from everyday life.

Sibylla was working a lot. Husband and wife did not live in harmony. In addition, their religious beliefs were different: he was Lutheran and she was Calvinist. When Sibylla's stepfather died, according to the laws of that time, she could not control the inheritance except through her husband. Therefore, the whole family returned to Frankfurt. Not long after, Sibylla chose to move to the community of Labadists – a Pietist group – in Wieuwerd, in the Dutch Friesland, where her half-brother, Caspar Merian, was already living. Her husband accompanied her and their daughters, but returned home soon after. That austere life, inspired by the ideals of early Christians, did not appeal to him, and their relationship seemed to be beyond repair. And yet it was precisely the menial jobs, the simple clothing, the relinquishment of all worldly goods, and the equality of rights between man and woman that persuade and gratify Sibylla. While “artistic” pursuits – deemed frivolous and pleasurable – were forbidden, she was permitted to conduct research on insects and frogs due to its perceived scientific value. She studied the collections and books of the castle where she was living and continued to study Latin. In the meantime, her collection of drawings and insects, left in Frankfurt, received a visit from Leibniz, who had heard about it. In 1686, her half-brother died. Her husband tried one last reconciliation, but apparently, he was not even received. In 1692, he asked for and obtained a divorce from the city of Nuremberg, on the grounds that his “wife had eloped to the Labadists”.

From 1690 onwards, the sect began to dissolve after the death of its benefactor, Sommeldijk, the governor of Suriname, who had lent his castle of Walta (Wieuwerd) to the community. Sibylla distanced herself from it, also because she wanted to give her daughters a better education. She decided to move back to Amsterdam, a welcome return to a great city of high cultural, scientific and commercial importance.

As the author of the book on caterpillars, she had easy access to all collections of butterflies and insects, greenhouses, orangeries and gardens of high society. Amsterdam received a daily influx of exotic goods, brought by ships of the East and West India Companies. These included not only woods and spices, but also dyes, plants, and magnificent butterflies.

The connections with many scholars, including Caspar Commelin, director of the city's botanical garden, became useful for her studies and contacts. Sibylla met the inventor Leeuwenhoek who lent her his newly constructed microscope. Her knowledge of Latin also enabled her to read Swammerdam, who classified insects according to their various forms of metamorphosis. Mother and daughters were able to support themselves by producing drawings of flowers and insects from both European and exotic countries, which were highly appreciated by researchers and nature lovers. They also started a trade in colours, West Indian animals and preserved butterflies. This was also how her daughter Johanna Helena met her future husband, who was engaged in business with Suriname.

Sibylla planned a trip to Suriname, read texts and letters from travellers, studied the many private collections of butterflies to be found everywhere, even in Amsterdam's restaurants. Aware that the journey would be both arduous (three months at sea!) and expensive, she started saving money. It appears that her supporters could provide her with overseas contacts, but very limited financial aid.

Her scientific program is precise: despite the beauty of the exotic butterflies preserved in the collections, there is a dearth of information about their "host" plants, their eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalises. Many tried to discourage her from starting this adventure because of her “old age” (she was just 52!). Yet, she and the 21-year-old Dorothea left: first female explorers.

They arrived in a hot and humid country.

Along the rivers near Paramaribo there are large sugar plantations, worked by slaves, which produce immense wealth for Europeans. Immediately behind the plantations begins the humid, tropical forest, with flowers that change colour during the day, and monkeys, jaguars, crocodiles, spiders and beetles. To work effectively, the two women had to adapt their techniques: at first, everything they collected went mouldy, rotted, or was eaten by other insects. Only a small part of that rich nature can be observed and classified. They discovered that even in the tropics, caterpillars live on a single host plant. Many disguise themselves, take on the form and colour of dead things. With the help of black and indigenous slave women, mother and daughter began to collect, classify, and move with difficulty through the forest. Research in the following centuries will reveal some mistakes, but for that period, the classifications were new and valuable. All sketches and drawings will be finalised after returning to Amsterdam.

Sibylla could only endure the climate for two years. In addition to an attack of malaria or yellow fever, she was troubled by the physical difficulties of the work and the threat of conflicts between European countries. Together with her daughter and an indigenous assistant, she decided to return home. She boarded a ship full of sugar and wood, with hundreds of jars of live caterpillars, eggs, snakes and other animals under spirits, flower bulbs, drawings and diaries.

For her arrival, the city of Amsterdam organised an exhibition of her entire collection in her honour.

The final chapter of Sibylla's life centred on the put in writing of Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. The book contains 60 large plates (approx. 27x39 cm) all based upon her original designs. She herself engraved three plates, commissioning the other to three talented, but expensive, Dutch engravers. Some of the drawings will be coloured, first by herself then, it is thought, by her daughters and assistants. She wrote the text in both Dutch and Latin, aiming to reach a broad international readership. Negotiations for an English version failed, despite the interest of London pharmacist Petiver. Published in 1705, the book garnered widespread interest and acclaim, establishing itself as one of the era's most beautiful and scientifically rigorous publications. Despite this success, sales were insufficient to alleviate Sibylla's financial hardship.

A heart attack weakened her. Her reputation as a leading figure in her field continued to draw scholars and collectors from far and wide, with visitors such as the mayor of Frankfurt and the Tsar's own doctor (sent on the Tsar's personal orders).

Sibylla passed away in Amsterdam in 1717, in poverty, but comforted by one of her daughters.

Let’s take a detailed look at her books.

First of all, the language. Sybilla’s first books were published in German, because she did not know latin yet: Neues Blumenbuch, Nürnberg, Graff, 1675/1680 – the book on flowers – and Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung, Nürnberg, Frankfurt, Leipzig, I 1679, II 1683 – the book about caterpillars. Metamorphosi insectorum Surinamensium is written in Latin and Dutch. Later, they will all be translated to Dutch, French, German, English: languages of the countries where her books were most popular.

How they are made:

Burin engraving, combined with dry pointing according to original drawings, requires time and patience as well as artistic sensibility; it is hard work. Each of the thousands of caterpillars depicted had to be observed, fed, drawn, then the drawing coloured, turned into an engraving, then the engraving printed (sometimes an autography is added), and the print coloured.

Paper:

In the 17th century, people used French, Dutch and German paper made from white linen, cotton or hemp rags or from recycled paper. The medium of Sibylla's watercolours is in most cases parchment, rarely paper.

Where they are today:

The complete volumes of her three main works and miscellaneous watercolours can be found in major libraries, museums and print cabinets in the Netherlands, England, France, and Germany, in St. Petersburg, partly in the United States (especially further editions).

A meticulous bibliography, although somewhat centred on the English and German language libraries, can be found in E. Reitsma.

I assume that there might also be a lot of material in the most important Italian libraries and scientific collections, born of the almost irrational passion for flowers and insects that raged in Europe at the time. But it is difficult to know for sure, because some libraries, due to a lack of resources and staff, are unable to catalogue their material and therefore to know everything they have.

Some publishers in the 20th century printed facsimile editions, which lack the aura of the original, but which allow immediate access to a wider public.


Translated by Alessia Tavaroli.
1 English translation of Maria Sibylla Merian’s 1679 ‘caterpillar’ book, Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumen–Nahrung.