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MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN (1647-1717)
Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium...Dissertation sur la Generation et les Transformations des Insectes de Surinam. French translation by Rousset. The Hague: Pieter Gosse, 1726. 2 (510 x 350mm). parallel titles and text in French and Latin, titles in red and black with hand-coloured engraved vignettes heightened with gold, dedication leaf from Rousset to Diego de Mendoca, with his engraved arms as headpiece, both the arms and initial hand-coloured and heightened with gold, two other initials hand-coloured and heightened with gold. 72 engraved plates by J. Mulder, P. Sluyter and D. Stopendaal, with contemporary hand-colouring and occasional heightening in gold. (Plate numbered 34 cut to just outside the image plate area and mounted to size at the time of binding, seven plates with very slight smudging to the colouring.) Contemporary French red morocco gilt, covers with wide decorative borders of a band of classically-inspired foliage, flanked on either side by double fillets and small decorative roll incorporating a fleur-de-lys, central gartered arms of the Duke of Newcastle added later, spine in seven sections with raised bands, citron morocco lettering-piece in the second, the sixth with blue/green morocco label bearing the Newcastle crest, the others with repeat decoration made up from various small tools around a central lozenge, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Provenance: Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne (1720-1794, binding); Major J.R. Abbey (collection number 'JA 1608' and date '26:11:37' on rear free endpaper).
THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE-ABBEY COPY. ONE OF THE FINEST EXAMPLES OF THE FRENCH EDITION OF MARIA MERIAN'S MASTERPIECE, MAGNIFICENTLY COLOURED AND FINELY BOUND. The present work marks the first appearance of the work in French; the reason given by Rousset in the dedication for its publication that a French edition would allow the work to "passer dans les mains d'un plus grand nombre des Curieux" is still valid today. The first edition, with 60 plates, was published in Latin and Dutch in 1705. Merian entered into negotiations to publish both an English and a German translation, but these plans came to nought, and the Latin/Dutch text remained the only one available during her lifetime.
Maria Sibylla Merian was the daughter of the well-known Swiss engraver/publisher Matthaeus Merian. On Matthaeus's early death, her Dutch mother married the flower painter Jacob Marrell. It was one of his pupils, Johann Graff of Nuremberg, who first taught Maria to paint, and later they married. Maria was primarily interested in entomology, and her first book, on the insects of Europe, with fine coloured plates of insects and flowers, was first published in 1679. Some years later, she was shown a collection of tropical insects which had been brought back from Surinam. This inspired her, and together with her daughter Dorothea, she embarked on a remarkably enterprising journey to South America, arriving in September 1699.
They stayed for nearly two years studying and recording the plants and insects, the results of their labours being the magnificent Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium with 60 plates, published in 1705. Later editions, including the present copy, were extended to include an additional 12 plates by Maria's eldest daughter Johanna. The work was not the first colour plate book to appear in the 18th century, but "her artistic groupings of the insects amidst the tropical flora makes this book one of the most beautiful and unusual in the whole range of natural history" (Landwehr, Studies in Dutch Books with Coloured Plates p.28). Peter Dance writes of the work, that it "was easily the most magnificent work on insects so far produced ... [combining] science and art in unequal proportions, meeting the demands of art at the expense, when necessary, of science. Her portrayals of living insects and other animals were imbued with a charm, a minuteness of observation and an artistic sensibility that had not previously been seen in a natural history book". He adds that if Gould and Audubon have "a spiritual ancestor, then it is difficult to think of a more worthy claimant to the title than Maria Sibylla Merian" (S. Peter Dance, The Art of Natural History pp. 50-51). Blunt (1994) pp. 142-145; cf. Dunthorne 205; cf. Great Flower Books (1990) p. 119; cf. Hunt 467 (with additional inserted dedication); Landwehr 132; Catalogue of the Library of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society p. 210; Nissen BBI 1342.
Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium...Dissertation sur la Generation et les Transformations des Insectes de Surinam. French translation by Rousset. The Hague: Pieter Gosse, 1726. 2 (510 x 350mm). parallel titles and text in French and Latin, titles in red and black with hand-coloured engraved vignettes heightened with gold, dedication leaf from Rousset to Diego de Mendoca, with his engraved arms as headpiece, both the arms and initial hand-coloured and heightened with gold, two other initials hand-coloured and heightened with gold. 72 engraved plates by J. Mulder, P. Sluyter and D. Stopendaal, with contemporary hand-colouring and occasional heightening in gold. (Plate numbered 34 cut to just outside the image plate area and mounted to size at the time of binding, seven plates with very slight smudging to the colouring.) Contemporary French red morocco gilt, covers with wide decorative borders of a band of classically-inspired foliage, flanked on either side by double fillets and small decorative roll incorporating a fleur-de-lys, central gartered arms of the Duke of Newcastle added later, spine in seven sections with raised bands, citron morocco lettering-piece in the second, the sixth with blue/green morocco label bearing the Newcastle crest, the others with repeat decoration made up from various small tools around a central lozenge, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Provenance: Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne (1720-1794, binding); Major J.R. Abbey (collection number 'JA 1608' and date '26:11:37' on rear free endpaper).
THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE-ABBEY COPY. ONE OF THE FINEST EXAMPLES OF THE FRENCH EDITION OF MARIA MERIAN'S MASTERPIECE, MAGNIFICENTLY COLOURED AND FINELY BOUND. The present work marks the first appearance of the work in French; the reason given by Rousset in the dedication for its publication that a French edition would allow the work to "passer dans les mains d'un plus grand nombre des Curieux" is still valid today. The first edition, with 60 plates, was published in Latin and Dutch in 1705. Merian entered into negotiations to publish both an English and a German translation, but these plans came to nought, and the Latin/Dutch text remained the only one available during her lifetime.
Maria Sibylla Merian was the daughter of the well-known Swiss engraver/publisher Matthaeus Merian. On Matthaeus's early death, her Dutch mother married the flower painter Jacob Marrell. It was one of his pupils, Johann Graff of Nuremberg, who first taught Maria to paint, and later they married. Maria was primarily interested in entomology, and her first book, on the insects of Europe, with fine coloured plates of insects and flowers, was first published in 1679. Some years later, she was shown a collection of tropical insects which had been brought back from Surinam. This inspired her, and together with her daughter Dorothea, she embarked on a remarkably enterprising journey to South America, arriving in September 1699.
They stayed for nearly two years studying and recording the plants and insects, the results of their labours being the magnificent Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium with 60 plates, published in 1705. Later editions, including the present copy, were extended to include an additional 12 plates by Maria's eldest daughter Johanna. The work was not the first colour plate book to appear in the 18th century, but "her artistic groupings of the insects amidst the tropical flora makes this book one of the most beautiful and unusual in the whole range of natural history" (Landwehr, Studies in Dutch Books with Coloured Plates p.28). Peter Dance writes of the work, that it "was easily the most magnificent work on insects so far produced ... [combining] science and art in unequal proportions, meeting the demands of art at the expense, when necessary, of science. Her portrayals of living insects and other animals were imbued with a charm, a minuteness of observation and an artistic sensibility that had not previously been seen in a natural history book". He adds that if Gould and Audubon have "a spiritual ancestor, then it is difficult to think of a more worthy claimant to the title than Maria Sibylla Merian" (S. Peter Dance, The Art of Natural History pp. 50-51). Blunt (1994) pp. 142-145; cf. Dunthorne 205; cf. Great Flower Books (1990) p. 119; cf. Hunt 467 (with additional inserted dedication); Landwehr 132; Catalogue of the Library of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society p. 210; Nissen BBI 1342.