Ratings UK Explores | Series 1 - Women of Science | Maria Sibylla Merian

As part of my 2022 run, I'm going to take a few new steps to keep my account 100% about ratings, but with some little educational bits and bobs alongside. I thought, if I'm researching this myself for enjoyment and work, I may as well share it with anyone that could potentially be interested! I think it's great to learn about the familiar and not-so-familiar faces of history and show how they've helped shape the world, or certain aspects of it, to the way it is. 

First of all, I introduce you to the workings of Maria Sibylla Merian. Let's give her a little rundown.

Merian is known for being a Scientific Illustrator & Entomologist born in the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt in 1647. Merian was fascinated by bugs in a time where most saw them with disgust. She looked at them with intrigue and she began collecting them at a young age, but her deepest fascination lied with butterflies. This lead to the publication of her first book on the metamorphosis of Caterpillars in 1679, just after her book of illustrations in 1675. She developed her artistic skills from her step-father, Jacob Marrel.

After this, her husband divorced her whilst she lived in Amsterdam, so left her husband and took off with her two daughters to live within a Dutch colony in Suriname, after her daughter married a man with a trade there. Here she’d go on to explore the rainforests to document new insects. It is here where she’d contract an illness, likely being malaria, and conclude her exploration, meaning she returned to the Dutch Republic. 

This still left enough time to publish her greatest book in 1705 – The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname. Her illustrations and findings amaze people to this day. She also opened a shop selling the etchings and designs she made during her stay!

"I spent my time investigating insects. At the beginning, I started with silkworms in my hometown of Frankfurt. I realized that other caterpillars produced beautiful butterflies or moths, and that silkworms did the same. This led me to collect all the caterpillars I could find in order to see how they changed."

- Maria Sibylla Merian from her publication "Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium."

Because of her work, she is recognised by David Attenborough as one of the significant contributors to the field of etymology. She discovered many new facts and ideas through her studies.