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 When he got his doctorate in law at the beginning of the sixteenth century, it took more than 400 years for women to have access to higher education with a certain degree of normality. However, some females managed to excel in various specialties despite the impediments that the patriarchal society imposed. 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 the same creature.
Maria Sibylla Merian, naturalist and entomologist
The entomology It is the science that studies insects. Insects make up more than two thirds of all known species in 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's know its history!
Maria Sibylla Merian was born in 1647 in Germany of Swiss parents. Her father, Matthäus Merian, a well-known engraver, died when she was 3 years old and her mother remarried with Jacob Marrel, a renowned floral paintings painter who taught her how to draw, paint and record. At age 13 he began to demonstrate his interest in the world of insects by making his observations on plates. The passion for entomology came to him when he raised silkworms . Observing each of the steps of its evolution and asked about the process that led to the emergence of beautiful butterflies of the caterpillars. The study of metamorphosis with all its details it became one of the passions of his life. Maria Sibylla Merian married at 18 with a painter dedicated to architecture and at the age of two they had their first daughter, Johanna Helena.
The study of the caterpillars led to draw in detail each of the phases of the metamorphic process , the details of the chrysalises and especially the plants from which the caterpillars feed and their laying of eggs in that environment. His drawings were accompanied by intelligent and precise observations. All this contravened the beliefs of the time that, based on Aristotle, said that insects were produced spontaneously in dirty and rotten mud and therefore called them "beasts of the devil." When he was 28 years old he published his first book: "Nuevo libro de flores" and shortly after publishing the second "The caterpillar, wonderful transformation and strange floral feeding" his second daughter was born: Dorothea María.
In 1685, Maria Sibylla separated from her husband and went to live in a Lutheran pietist community that was installed in the castle of Waltha in Holland with his brother-in-law. As the count owner of the castle had interests in Surinam Maria Sibylla had the opportunity to get in touch with the flora and fauna of that area of the planet. Upon the death of his brother-in-law, he left the community and he settled in Amsterdam where he worked for several naturalists and associations as an illustrator of botanical prints.
In 1699, when he was 52 years old, He was able to carry out one of his dreams as a naturalist : travel to Suriname to study and draw the fauna and flora of the place directly. Her little daughter accompanied her. Unfortunately, in 1701 he contracted malaria and he had to return to Holland to recover and abandoned the interesting research he was carrying out. The observations made were reflected, after three years of hard work and a significant economic investment, in a new volume: "Metamorphosis of the insects of Suriname" . Maria Sibylla had to work on several things to maintain herself since her books were very expensive and few people bought them. Among other things, he gave drawing classes, sold utensils to paint and especially collaborated with Agnes Block , art collector and horticulturist, drawing pictures for his collection.
Maria Sibylla died in Amsterdam at the age of 68 after being in a wheelchair for two years due to a stroke. During her last years she was consulted for her great reputation as a naturalist and also as an artist by numerous scientists and nature scholars. If you want to see more pictures of their authorship you can see them in this link: Prints of María Sybilla Merian .
Maria Sibylla Merian is the first scientist who really studied insects based on direct observations and also drew with skill and beauty everything that could capture in their exams. His works contributed very important contributions to entomology. His two daughters, Johanna Helena and Dorothea María, were known painters and illustrators of botanical prints.
Did you know the first woman who can be called an entomologist of the story? Do you know anything else 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: María la Judía, the first alchemist in history.