The Flowering of Ecology presents an English translation of Maria Sibylla Merian’s 1679 ‘caterpillar’ book, Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumen–Nahrung. Her processes in making the book and an analysis of its scientific content are presented in a historical context. Merian raised insects for five decades, recording the food plants, behavior and ecology of roughly 300 species. Her most influential invention was an 'ecological' composition in which the metamorphic cycles of insects (usually moths and butterflies) were arrayed around plants that served as food for the caterpillars. Kay Etheridge analyzes the 1679 caterpillar book from the viewpoint of a biologist, arguing that Merian’s study of insect interactions with plants, the first of its kind, was a formative contribution to natural history.
...MoreReview Arthur Macgregor (2022) Review of "The Flowering of Ecology: Maria Sibylla Merian’s Caterpillar Book". Archives of Natural History (pp. 224-224).
Similar Citations
Article
Etheridge, Kay;
(2011)
Maria Sibylla Merian and the Metamorphosis of Natural History
(/isis/citation/CBB001210122/)
Chapter
Etheridge, Kay;
(2011)
Maria Sibylla Merian: The First Ecologist?
(/isis/citation/CBB001221547/)
Book
Todd, Kim;
(2007)
Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis
(/isis/citation/CBB000930388/)
Book
Neri, Janice;
(2011)
The Insect and the Image: Visualizing Nature in Early Modern Europe, 1500--1700
(/isis/citation/CBB001221160/)
Chapter
Hochstrasser, Julie Berger;
(2010)
The Butterfly Effect: Embodied Cognition and Perceptual Knowledge in Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium
(/isis/citation/CBB001000156/)
Article
Ogilvie, Brian W.;
(2008)
Nature's Bible: Insects in Seventeenth-Century European Art and Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001021790/)
Article
E. Charles Nelson;
(2023)
New identifications of natural history images on the “Bodleian Plate”, an early eighteenth-century engraved copperplate
(/isis/citation/CBB367812823/)
Chapter
Jorink, Eric;
(2011)
Beyond the Lines of Apelles: Johannes Swammerdam, Dutch Scientific Culture and the Representation of Insect Anatomy
(/isis/citation/CBB001201617/)
Book
Attenborough, David;
Owens, Susan;
Clayton, Martin;
Alexandratos, Rea;
(2007)
Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery
(/isis/citation/CBB000772794/)
Thesis
Kinukawa, Tomomi;
(2001)
Art Competes with Nature: Maria Sibylla Merian (1647--1717) and the Culture of Natural History
(/isis/citation/CBB001560512/)
Book
Fairman, Elisabeth R.;
Art, Yale Center for British;
(2014)
Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower: Artists' Books and the Natural World
(/isis/citation/CBB001500458/)
Article
Middleton, Karen;
(2012)
Renarrating a Biological Invasion: Historical Memory, Local Communities and Ecologists
(/isis/citation/CBB001231331/)
Chapter
Casado de Otaola, Santos;
(2011)
Viviendo con los insectos. La divulgación entomológica en la obra de Manuel Martínez de la Escalera
(/isis/citation/CBB001211557/)
Chapter
Eric Jorink;
(2018)
Insects, Philosophy and the Microscope
(/isis/citation/CBB719121215/)
Book
Bert Van De Roemer;
Florence Pieters;
Hans Mulder;
Kay Etheridge;
Marieke Van Delft;
(2022)
Maria Sibylla Merian
(/isis/citation/CBB825530463/)
Thesis
Neri, Janice L.;
(2003)
Fantastic Observations: Images of Insects in Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB001562251/)
Article
Valiant, Sharon D.;
(1992)
Questioning the caterpillar
(/isis/citation/CBB000032529/)
Chapter
Perru, Olivier;
(2008)
Symbiose et classification chez les insectes, l'école de Buchner (1886--1978)
(/isis/citation/CBB001221147/)
Article
Terrall, Mary;
(2010)
Following Insects Around: Tools and Techniques of Eighteenth-Century Natural History
(/isis/citation/CBB001023055/)
Chapter
Schneider, Christiane;
(1991)
“Sibylle à Surinam va chercher la nature ...”: Maria Sibylla Merians Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium
(/isis/citation/CBB000038966/)
Be the first to comment!