Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)
Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium, in Latin and French. Amsterdam: Pierre Gosse, 1726. 2° (523 x 354mm). Latin and French title-pages in red and black with engraved vignette by D. Coster, title-page to the Oosterwyck 1719 edition with engraved vignette, engraved frontispiece after F. Ottens and 72 engraved plates in counterproof with contemporary hand-colouring by Joseph Mulder, Pieter Sluyter, and D. Stopendael after Merian, the frontispiece and 1719 title vignette with contemporary hand-colouring and gold-heightening. (Without the dedication leaf and later inserts of dedication to B. Scott and editor's preface, light browning, occasional spotting, some off-setting of colour onto text leaves, repaired marginal tear in plate, last plate trimmed at lower margin.) Contemporary calf (rubbed and rebacked). Provenance: Henry Rogers Broughton (Lord Fairhaven, bookplate).
THE FAIRHAVEN COPY OF THE FIRST FRENCH EDITION, WITH THE PLATES IN COUNTERPROOF, OF MERIAN'S GREATEST WORK. Merian herself adopted the technique of printing her engraved plates in counterproof -- whereby prints are taken not from the engraved printing plate but from a freshly printed image -- to great effect. Counterproofs replicate as closely as possible the original drawing of the artist, since they are oriented in the same direction, show no plate mark, and have only a lightly inked image, which is highly suitable to delicate colouring. What had originally been a utilitarian process became for Merian the means to a higher aesthetic end. Merian oversaw all aspects of the publication of her works during her lifetime, from the original drawing, to engraving the plate, to colouring the image by hand, and -- in a few rare cases -- to the pulling of counterproof plates for de luxe copies. The production of special copies of her work in keeping with her own high standards was continued pos
The Metamorphosis is justifiably Merian's most famous work, resulting from her trip with her daughter Dorothea to Surinam in 1699. The two women spent two years studying and recording plants and insects, returning to Amsterdam with a series of finished drawings on vellum, sketches, and specimens, from which they continued to work. The first edition of their labours appeared in 1705 in Latin. Later editions, as the present first edition in French, contain 12 additional plates by Merian's older daughter Johanna. The Metamorphosis is 'the 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' (Peter Dance, The Art of Natural History, pp.50-51).
This copy previously belonged to Lord Fairhaven, whose collection, noted for its grand copies of natural history books, was formed in large part on the advice of Handasyde Buchanan, an important figure in the formation of many 20th century collections and co-author of Fine Bird Books and Fine Flower Books. The preliminaries of this copy vary from the collation in Hunt, and it is without the dedication to Mendoza or the interpolated dedication to B. Scott, and the Latin and French prefaces are printed as one gathering, **2. Dunthorne 205; Great Flower Books; Hunt 467; Nissen BBI 6105.