DOCSLIB.ORG

Dutch Colonies

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Dutch Colonies EARLY ENCOUNTERS, 1492-1734 Dutch Colonies Resource: Life Story: Maria Sibylla Merian Maria Sibylla Merian was born in 1647 in Frankfort am Main, a city in what is now Germany. She was raised in a family of famous publishers and artists that had connections all over Europe. Maria Sibylla enjoyed a very privileged childhood. Along with the traditional girl’s education of reading, writing, and household tasks, she learned to paint and print books and pictures alongside her brothers. But when her brothers were allowed to travel around Europe to finish their artistic education, Maria Sibylla was held back because girls of her social standing were not allowed that kind of freedom. Instead, Maria Sybilla found inspiration in her own backyard. At the age of 13, she began to collect and study insects. She was fascinated by the metamorphosis, or changes, that insects underwent over the course of their lives. Her first serious study was a collection of drawings and descriptions of the life cycle of silk worms. She was able to collect many silk worm samples because her uncle was a silk manufacturer. Her family was a bit confused by her love of insects, but they were impressed by her artwork and encouraged her studies. In 1665, when Maria Sibylla was 18 years old, she married John Andreas Graff, her stepfather’s apprentice. Three years later, she gave birth to their first daughter, Johanna. In 1670, the small family moved to the city of Nuremberg, John’s hometown. Maria Sibylla’s reputation as an artist spread quickly in her new city, and she started teaching other young women how to paint and draw. She also studied the plant and insect life of Nuremberg, and continued to create her art. In 1675, her husband published Maria Sibylla’s first book, a collection of flower and plant illustrations intended to be used as models and patterns for works of art and embroidery. A woman © Women and the American Story 2021 Page 1 of 4 EARLY ENCOUNTERS, 1492-1734 Dutch Colonies publishing a book was a very big deal, but Maria Sibylla was already hard at work preparing something much more ambitious. In 1679, just a year after the birth of her second daughter, Dorothea, Maria Sibylla published her first scientific book, The Wonderful Transformation and Singular Flower Food of Caterpillars … Painted from Life and Engraved in Copper. In each illustration, Maria Sibylla painted the entire life cycle of her subject, from egg to larva (caterpillar), to pupa (chrysalis), to butterfly or moth. She painted all of these different stages around the plant that was the subject’s main source of food, and wrote a short text describing her observations. This was not just a book of illustrations, but a book intended to share what she had learned with others. Her work impressed male scientists and established Maria Sibylla as an important new voice in the growing field of entomology, the study of insects. In 1685, Maria Sibylla left her husband and took her daughters to join a radical Christian community. Her husband chose to divorce her rather than join them. Maria Sibylla and her daughters lived with the community for six years, but eventually she grew frustrated that the community did not value education and scientific exploration. She moved to Amsterdam, and began the process of building a new life. Amsterdam in the 1690s was one of the intellectual capitals of Europe, and Maria Sibylla quickly re-established herself as an important artist and entomologist. She made money to support her family by teaching and selling her works of art. When her eldest daughter married a merchant, she used his trade connections to collect insect specimens from the Americas. Maria Sibylla grew tired of studying the long-dead New World specimens that she could obtain in Amsterdam. She wanted to observe the entire life cycle of her subjects, to understand how they interacted with the world around them. So in 1699, she sold her entire stock of art and specimens and used the funds to buy passage to the Dutch colony of Suriname on the northeast coast of South © Women and the American Story 2021 Page 2 of 4 EARLY ENCOUNTERS, 1492-1734 Dutch Colonies America. This decision was remarkable for two reasons: it was unheard of for a woman to take such a journey without the support of male family, and it was also unprecedented for a scientist to fund their own excursion. In Suriname, Maria Sibylla and her youngest daughter took daily trips into the nearby jungle to observe and collect insect specimens for study. News of her work spread quickly, and the enslaved Native people in the city began to bring her interesting plants and insects and share with her what they knew about them. Maria Sibylla said she learned more from them than she ever learned from the white colonists. Maria Sibylla is remembered today as one of the most important woman scientists of the Enlightenment. After two years in Suriname, Maria Sibylla returned to Amsterdam, where she began work on a new book about her findings. For the next four years, she wrote in her spare time and worked hard as a teacher and specimen dealer to make the money to publish her book. In 1705, her hard work paid off. Using the skills she had learned from her stepfather and her husband, Maria Sibylla self-published her most important work, The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam. Her book allowed European scientists to learn about an entirely different ecosystem without having to travel across the Atlantic Ocean, and solidified Maria Sibylla’s status as one of the most important scientists in Amsterdam. For the rest of Maria Sibylla’s life, people came from all over Europe to buy her art and learn her techniques. When she passed away in 1715, her daughters took up her work and continued her legacy. She is remembered today as one of the most important woman scientists of the Enlightenment. © Women and the American Story 2021 Page 3 of 4 EARLY ENCOUNTERS, 1492-1734 Dutch Colonies Vocabulary • Amsterdam: A city that was the trade and cultural center of the Dutch Republic. • apprentice: A person who learns a trade from a more skilled employer. • embroidery: The art of decorating fabric with designs created with a needle and thread. • entomology: The scientific study of insects. • metamorphosis: The change from immature to adult form that many insects and animals undergo. For example, the change from a caterpillar to a butterfly. • privileged: Having many advantages. • specimen: An example of a plant, animal, or insect collected for scientific study. • Suriname: A Dutch colony on the Northeast coast of South America. Also spelled “Surinam.” Pronunciation • Maria Sibylla Merian: Maria Si-BILLA Merian Discussion Questions • How did Maria Sibylla Merian’s education differ from that of her brothers? Why was it different? • In what ways was Maria Sibylla Merian a trailblazer? • What life circumstances allowed Maria Sibylla Merian to follow her own path? • Why is Maria Sibylla Merian’s story important to the history of the Enlightenment? © Women and the American Story 2021 Page 4 of 4.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Maria Sibylla Merian and Metamorphosis
    PUBLISHED: 21 FEBRUARY 2017 | VOLUME: 1 | ARTICLE NUMBER: 0074 books & arts Maria Sibylla Merian and metamorphosis ANNIVERSARY Despite the fact that art is subjective and concerned with aesthetics, whereas science is an objective enterprise based on observation and experimentation, a combination of these dissimilar activities can yield surprising results. A small group of world-class biologists have also been gi"ed artists. #is group includes the German botanist Julius Sachs, founder of experimental plant physiology 1; the zoologist Ernst Haeckel; and, perhaps less known, the entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian (Fig. 1), the tricentenary of whose death falls this year. Merian made signi%cant contributions to the foundation of developmental biology and ecology, but has been neglected. Born in 1647 in Frankfurt (Main), Germany, Merian Figure 2 | Merian’s paintings. Left, watercolour image on the title page of Merian’s first scientific book developed her skill painting insects and Der Raupen Wunderbare Verwandelung und Sonderbare Blumen-nahrung (The Wonderful Metamorphosis plants under the guidance of her stepfather, of Caterpillars and Strange Flower Nourishment). Merian described the complete life cycles of numerous the artist Jacob Marrel. At the age of 13, she insect species, including their destructive feeding behaviour on host plants, and rejected the then was already an accomplished painter, with popular idea of an origin of insects via ‘spontaneous generation’. Image courtesy of U. Kutschera. Right, an overwhelming drive to study nature. Merian’s realistic documentation of the “struggle for existence” in a natural world that was, in her view, Merian started to collect insects and plants God’s creation.
    [Show full text]
  • Maria Sibylla Merian's Research Journey to Suriname
    Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Resources Supplementary Information August 2017 To See for Herself: Maria Sibylla Merian’s Research Journey to Suriname: 1699-1701 Catherine Grimm Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sophsupp_resources Part of the German Literature Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Grimm, Catherine, "To See for Herself: Maria Sibylla Merian’s Research Journey to Suriname: 1699-1701" (2017). Resources. 6. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sophsupp_resources/6 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Supplementary Information at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Resources by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. To See for Herself: Maria Sibylla Merian’s Research Journey to Suriname: 1699-1701 By Catherine Grimm Maria Sibylla Merian was born on April, 2 1647 in Frankfurt am Main, one year before the signing of the Peace treaties of Westphalia and the end of the Thirty Years War. Her 55 year old father, the famous artist, engraver and publisher Matthäus Merian, died when she was three. About a year after his death, Maria’s mother, Johanna Sibylla, remarried the painter and art- dealer Jacob Marrel whose family had moved to Frankfurt from the town of Frankenthal when he was 10, and who also had lived for a number of years in Utrecht, before returning to Frankfurt in 1651. He had been a student of the well-known still life artist Geog Flegel as well as the Dutch painter Jan Davidzs de Heem.1 From an early age, Merian appears to have been surprisingly adept at pursuing her own interests, without arousing the disapproval of her immediate social environment.
    [Show full text]
  • The History and Influence of Maria Sibylla Merian's Bird-Eating Tarantula: Circulating Images and the Production of Natural Knowledge
    Biology Faculty Publications Biology 2016 The History and Influence of Maria Sibylla Merian's Bird-Eating Tarantula: Circulating Images and the Production of Natural Knowledge Kay Etheridge Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/biofac Part of the Biology Commons, and the Illustration Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Recommended Citation Etheridge, K. "The History and Influence of Maria Sibylla Merian’s Bird-Eating Tarantula: Circulating Images and the Production of Natural Knowledge." Global Scientific Practice in the Age of Revolutions, 1750 – 1850. P. Manning and D. Rood, eds. (Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press. 2016). 54-70. This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/biofac/54 This open access book chapter is brought to you by The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The Cupola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The History and Influence of Maria Sibylla Merian's Bird-Eating Tarantula: Circulating Images and the Production of Natural Knowledge Abstract Chapter Summary: A 2009 exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum on the confluence of science and the visual arts included a plate from a nineteenth-century encyclopedia owned by Charles Darwin showing a tarantula poised over a dead bird (figure 3.1).1 The genesis of this startling scene was a work by Maria Sibylla Merian (German, 1647–1717), and the history of this image says much about how knowledge of the New World was obtained, and how it was transmitted to the studies and private libraries of Europe, and from there into popular works like Darwin’s encyclopedia.
    [Show full text]
  • Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis
    5858 BOOK REVIEW Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society 62(1), 2008, 58–59 CHRYSALIS: MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN AND represent them artistically in an “ecological” way, on THE SECRETS OF METAMORPHOSIS. By Kim their host plants and in the company of their natural Todd. 330 pages, 8 black-and-white and 8 color plates; 8 enemies. She suggests that Merian helped significantly x 5.25 in.; ISBN 978-0-15-603299-5 (paperback), ISBN in banishing the outlandish notions of spontaneous 978-0-15-101108-7 (hardcover); US$15 (paper). A generation and transformism that had colored zoology Harvest Book of Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, New York and right into the seventeenth century. In her Epilogue, she London. Publication date: 2007. attempts to tie her fascination with metamorphosis to As a penurious graduate student 40 years ago, I spent contemporary research in developmental genetics, a significant amount of my savings on a full-size insect hormones, and phenotypic plasticity. I think it is facsimile edition of Maria Sibylla Merian’s “Insects of fair to say that while she may have contributed some to Surinam.” Many years later my wife surprised me with the emergence of such science, her contemporary an authentic Merian butterfly plate, which hangs Swammerdam, for one, contributed quite a bit more. proudly in our living room. It shows the familiar Gulf Merian’s achievement is extraordinary enough without Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae. That plate lies at the very having to stretch to tie her to the latest stuff in “evo- heart of a mystery about Madame Merian. I read this devo.” book hoping it would solve that mystery.
    [Show full text]
  • Maria Sibylla Merian Conference 2017
    MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN CONFERENCE 2017 Changing the Nature of Art and Science Intersections with Maria Sibylla Merian AbstrActs And biogrAphies Joris Bürmann Merian at l’Église du Seigneur: A New Light on the Wieuwerd Context Starting with Merian’s alleged fascination for Labadie’s spiritual poetries, this paper shows how a close look at the Father’s poetic hermeneutic of Scripture can provide new elements for the understanding of Merian’s conversion and her own reading of the Book of Nature. Labadist piety and poetry held sway over the work of Merian, both in echoing her own research of that time and forming a stimulating context for her artistic creation. Merian’s status and integration inside the community is also questioned through a newly discovered collection of canticles written in Wieuwerd, which helps to redefine the role of members, especially women. Joris Bürmann is a student at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, majoring in 17th century French literature, and currently part-time at the faculty at Boston College. In 2015–2016, he defended with honours his master thesis at the Université Paris-Sorbonne under the supervision of Olivier Millet, professor of 16th century French literature and specialist of protestant rhetoric. Bürmann’s theses worked to shed light on the forgotten poetic works of Jean de Labadie and his followers through a new archival enquiry. In 2016, he was a visiting fellow at the Fryske Akademy and participated in the discovery and publication of the Labadist library catalogue by Pieta van Beek. In order to introduce the Labadist heritage to a wider public, he also wrote articles in the Walloon Churches’ journal, L’Écho Wallon, and the French protestant cultural periodical, Foi & Vie.
    [Show full text]
  • Nature's Bible
    Nature’s Bible: Insects in Seventeenth-Century European Art and Science Brian W. Ogilvie History Department , University of Massachusetts [email protected] Abstract Keywords: Artists and naturalists in seventeenth-century Europe avidly pursued the study of insects. Natural history, Since entomology had not yet become a distinct discipline, these studies were pursued art, within the framework of natural history, miniature painting, medicine, and anatomy. In Science, the late sixteenth century the Renaissance naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi collected and insects, described individual insects and their lore but showed little sustained interest in their tem - entomology poral transmutations; meanwhile, the court artist Joris Hoefnagel studied the structure of insects in order to paint real and imaginary insects while giving them an emblematic inter - pretation. By the middle of the seventeenth century the painter Johannes Goedaert was assiduously studying insect transformations, which he saw as evidence of God’s wondrous works. His work was critiqued and systematized by the physicians Martin Lister and Jan Swammerdam, who insisted that orderly transformation was the best sign of God’s hand - iwork. These examples show how verbal descriptions and illustrations of insects easily crossed disciplinary boundaries; knowledge generated in one particular context moved into others where it was critiqued but also employed in new investigations. The Bible of Nature; or, The History of Insects appropriate for the study of insects in the Brought into Certain Classes , is the strange seventeenth century. Characterized by title that Jan Swammerdam (d. 1680) gave scholarly erudition, painstaking observa - to his posthumously published magnum tion, and artistic flair, the study of insects opus (Swammerdam 1737-38).
    [Show full text]
  • Conversion, Capital, and Haitian Transnational Migration
    KAREN E. RICHMAN A MORE POWERFUL SORCERER: CONVERSION, CAPITAL, AND HAITIAN TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION He was a giant with stooped shoulders, always dressed in black, who never left the house without a Bible tucked under his arm. When he was about thirty years old and already a highly reputed houngan [priest-shaman], he contracted tuberculosis as the consequence of a chill he caught at the falls at Saut d’Eau [pilgrimage festival in honor of the Virgin], where he had bathed while possessed by Simbi. His family loi [spirits], evoked in succession, were not able to affect a cure, so he gave up serving them and was converted to Protestantism. And since he was of robust constitution, a doctor whom he had the good sense to consult succeeded in putting him back on his feet. Then, after some theological studies in Port-au-Prince as well as in the United States, he became, thanks to his extensive knowledge of vodou, one of the most effective adversaries of the popular beliefs in our country. (Thoby-Marcelin & Marcelin 1970:127) The popular religion of Haiti, known to outsiders as Vodou, is a complex, dynamic blend of European, African, and Creole religious ideologies and practices centered around the material reality of spiritual affliction, sor- cery, and magic. The vast majority of the more than two hundred thousand Haitians who arrived in South Florida since the late 1970s identified as Catholics. Echoing a trend in Haiti and throughout Latin America, Haitian migrants have been publicly disavowing both Catholic practice and wor- ship of their African-Creole spirits (lwa), and joining Haitian evangelical Protestant churches.
    [Show full text]
  • Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis Online
    4LViI (Free download) Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis Online [4LViI.ebook] Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis Pdf Free Kim Todd audiobook | *ebooks | Download PDF | ePub | DOC Download Now Free Download Here Download eBook #582415 in eBooks 2013-09-16 2013-09-16File Name: B00FJ5EPZ2 | File size: 31.Mb Kim Todd : Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis: 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Wonderfully written. Some nice image insertsBy Angela BoyleWonderfully written. Some nice image inserts, but mostly the author explores the time period and how Maria was a fore runner for her time.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. this book has all of these as well as a great story.By nutmegHistory, art, botany, biography...this book has all of these as well as a great story.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Butterflies AboundBy Robin C. BrownReally lovely book! Thanks!! Today, an entomologist in a laboratory can gaze at a butterfly pupa with a microscope so powerful that the swirling cells on the pupa’s skin look like a galaxy. She can activate a single gene or knock it out. What she can’t do is discover how the insect behaves in its natural habitat—which means she doesn’t know what steps to take to preserve it from extinction, nor how any particular gene may interact with the environment.
    [Show full text]
  • Crossing Disciplines: the Fruitful Duality of Maria Sibylla Merian's Artistic and Naturalist Inheritances
    Dutch Crossing Journal of Low Countries Studies ISSN: 0309-6564 (Print) 1759-7854 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ydtc20 Crossing Disciplines: The Fruitful Duality of Maria Sibylla Merian's Artistic and Naturalist Inheritances Catherine M. Nutting To cite this article: Catherine M. Nutting (2011) Crossing Disciplines: The Fruitful Duality of Maria Sibylla Merian's Artistic and Naturalist Inheritances, Dutch Crossing, 35:2, 137-147, DOI: 10.1179/155909011X13033128278597 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/155909011X13033128278597 Published online: 18 Jul 2013. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 17 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ydtc20 Download by: [University of Georgia] Date: 02 April 2016, At: 17:14 dutch crossing, Vol. 35 No. 2, July, 2011, 137–47 Crossing Disciplines: The Fruitful Duality of Maria Sibylla Merian’s Artistic and Naturalist Inheritances Catherine M. Nutting University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada At the end of the seventeenth century Maria Sibylla Merian, then in her fi fties, set out from Amsterdam bound for Surinam. Sketchbook and water- colours in hand, she was to spend two years travelling, sketching plants and animals, and following her passion: to unravel the mystery of metamor- phosis. Historians have compared Merian unfavourably with early modern taxonomists, arguing that because she did not publish on scholarly matters we must conclude that she did not debate ideas about natural philosophy. However, Merian was fi rmly rooted in an artistic network that was enthusias- tically amenable to the sharing of information and subjects.
    [Show full text]
  • Loathsome Beasts: Images of Reptiles and Amphibians in Art and Science Kay Etheridge Gettysburg College
    Biology Faculty Publications Biology 2007 Loathsome Beasts: Images of Reptiles and Amphibians in Art and Science Kay Etheridge Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/biofac Part of the Animal Sciences Commons, and the Biology Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Etheridge, K. "Loathsome beasts: Images of reptiles and amphibians in art and science." Origins of Scientific Learning: Essays on Culture and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe. Eds. S.L. French and K. Etheridge. (Lewiston NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2007), 63-88. This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/biofac/27 This open access article is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Loathsome Beasts: Images of Reptiles and Amphibians in Art and Science Abstract The ym thology and symbolism historically associated with reptiles and amphibians is unequaled by that of any other taxonomic group of animals. Even today, these creatures serve as icons - often indicating magic or evil - in a variety of media. Reptiles and amphibians also differ from other vertebrates (i.e. fish, mammals and birds) in that most have never been valued in Europe as food or for sport. Aside from some limited medicinal uses and the medical concerns related to venomous species, there was little utilitarian value in studying the natural history of reptiles and amphibians.
    [Show full text]
  • Insects and Flowers: the Art of Maria Sibylla Merian Free Download
    INSECTS AND FLOWERS: THE ART OF MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN FREE DOWNLOAD David Brafman,Stephanie Schrader | 52 pages | 08 Sep 2008 | Getty Trust Publications | 9780892369294 | English | Santa Monica CA, United States Insects and Flowers: The Art of Maria Sibylla Merian I created the first classification for all the insects which had chrysalises, the daytime butterflies and the nighttime moths. Andy Meyer marked it as to-read Oct 11, Voraces Lectores added it Aug 12, Terrestrial Arthropod Reviews. Description David Brafman and Stephanie Schrader The artist and scientist Maria Sibylla Merian — was born in Frankfurt, Germany, into a middle-class family of publishers and artists. Maria Sibylla Merian was a naturalist and scientific illustrator who studied plants and insects and made detailed paintings about them. The flower painter Rachel Ruysch became Merian's pupil. Aside from painting flowers she made copperplate engravings. Views Read Edit View history. A Tessaratomidae bug has been named Insects and Flowers: The Art of Maria Sibylla Merian merianae. Pineapple and cockroaches Maria Sibylla Merian For instance, the Gulf fritillary is shown with a vanilla plant an orchid from Madagascar, cultivated in Surinamewhich is definitely not the host plant, and with the caterpillar of some other species. In general, only men received royal or government funding to travel in the colonies to find new species of plants and animals, make collections and work there, or settle. Scientific expeditions at this period of time were not common, and Merian's self- funded expedition raised many eyebrows. Inshe started to publish a three-volume series, each with 12 plates depicting flowers.
    [Show full text]
  • Insects in Seventeenth-Century European Art and Science
    TfK 3-2008 ombrukket3.qxd:TfK 1-2-2007 07-10-08 12:29 Side 5 Nature’s Bible: Insects in Seventeenth-Century European Art and Science Brian W. Ogilvie History Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst [email protected] Abstract Keywords: Artists and naturalists in seventeenth-century Europe avidly pursued the study of insects. Natural history, Since entomology had not yet become a distinct discipline, these studies were pursued art, within the framework of natural history, miniature painting, medicine, and anatomy. In science, the late sixteenth century the Renaissance naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi collected and insects, described individual insects and their lore but showed little sustained interest in their tem- entomology poral transmutations; meanwhile, the court artist Joris Hoefnagel studied the structure of insects in order to paint real and imaginary insects while giving them an emblematic inter- pretation. By the middle of the seventeenth century the painter Johannes Goedaert was assiduously studying insect transformations, which he saw as evidence of God’s wondrous works. His work was critiqued and systematized by the physicians Martin Lister and Jan Swammerdam, who insisted that orderly transformation was the best sign of God’s hand- iwork. These examples show how verbal descriptions and illustrations of insects easily crossed disciplinary boundaries; knowledge generated in one particular context moved into others where it was critiqued but also employed in new investigations. The Bible of Nature; or, The History of Insects appropriate for the study of insects in the Brought into Certain Classes, is the strange seventeenth century. Characterized by title that Jan Swammerdam (d. 1680) gave scholarly erudition, painstaking observa- to his posthumously published magnum tion, and artistic flair, the study of insects opus (Swammerdam 1737-38).
    [Show full text]