Nowadays women fill the classrooms of the universities and they are not prevented from demonstrating their worth by absurd social prejudices.However, the struggle to achieve this milestone has taken centuries.Since Juliana Morell got her doctorate in law at the beginning of the 16th century, more than 400 years had to pass before women could access higher education with some normality; however, some women managed to stand out in various specialties despite the impediments that the Imposing patriarchal society.One of them was Maria Sibylla Merian, one of the first naturalists in history and the first entomologist .Thanks to her the world knew that caterpillar and butterfly were two life cycles of it creature.
Maria Sibylla Merian, naturalist and entomologist
entomology is the science that studies insects.Insects constitute more than two thirds of all known species of the world and more than 1.2 million of them have been described. Maria Sibylla was a naturalist, scientific illustrator and explorer .But how did a seventeenth-century woman become interested in that branch of science? ? Let us know its history!
Maria Sibylla Merian was born in 1647 in Germany of Swiss parents.Her father, Matthaus Merian, well-known engraver, He died when she was 3 years old and her mother remarried Jacob Marrel, a renowned painter of floral paintings who taught her to draw, paint and engrave.At the age of 13 she began to show her interest in the world of insects by expressing her observations in laminae.The passion for entomology came when he raised some silkworms .Observing each step of his evolution and wondered about the process that led to the emergence of beautiful caterpillar butterflies. The study of metamorphosis with all its details became one of the passions of his life. Maria Sibylla Merian married at age 18 with a painter dedicated to architecture and two years later they had their first daughter, Johanna Helena.
The study of the caterpillars led her to draw in detail each of the phases of the metamorphic process , the details of the chrysalis and especially the plants on which the caterpillars feed and their laying of eggs in that environment.Their drawings were accompanied by intelligent and precise observations.All this contravenes the beliefs of the At that time, based on Aristotle, they said that the insects were produced by spontaneous generation in the dirty and rotten mud and for that reason they called them "beasts of the devil". When he was 28 years old he published his first book: «New book of flowers » and soon after publishing the second « The caterpillar, wonderful transformation and strange floral feeding « was also born his second daughter: Dorothea Maria.
In 1685, Maria Sibylla separated from her husband and left to live in a Lutheran Pietist community that was installed in Waltha Castle in Holland with his crib.As the owner of the castle had interests in Suriname , Maria Sibylla had occasion to get in touch with the flora and the fauna of that area of the planet.On the death of his crib, he left the community and settled in Amsterdam where he worked for several naturalists and associations as an illustrator of botanical plates.
In 1699, when he was 52 years old, he was able to fulfill one of his dreams as a naturalist : travel to Suriname to study and draw wildlife and Flora directly from the place.Her little daughter accompanied her.Unfortunately, in 1701 she contracted malaria and had to return to Holland to recover and abandon the interesting investigations she was carrying out.The observations made were reflected, after three years of hard work and an important economic investment, in a new volume: «Metamorphosis of the insects of the Suriname» .Maria Sibylla had to work on several things to stay longer that his books were very expensive and bought few people.Among other things, he taught drawing, sold painting utensils and especially collaborated with Agnes Block, art collector and horticulturist, drawing sheets for his collection.
Maria Sibylla died in Amsterdam at age 68 after staying in a wheelchair for two years due to a stroke.During his last years he was consulted for his great reputation as a naturalist and also an artist for numerous scientists and nature scholars.If you want to see more sheets of his authorship You can see them in this link: Maria Sybilla Merian sheets.
Maria Sibylla Merian is the first scientist to really study insects based on direct observations and also drawing with success and beauty all what he was able to capture in his exams.His works made important contributions to entomology.His two daughters, Johanna Helena and Dorothea Maria were well-known painter and illustrator of botanical sheets.
Do you know the first woman who can be called entomologist of history? Do you know anything more about Maria Sibylla Merian ? Share it with us! And if you want to meet another fantastic scientific woman of antiquity, we invite you to read the post: Maria la Judia, the first alchemist in history.
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