Metamorphosis
The coloured copper engraving showing the metamorphosis of caterpillar to moth is from the 1726 edition of Maria Sibylla Merian's Dissertation de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium, a copy of which was given to the library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1768 by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. It is reproduced here by kind permission of the college.
Surinam, on the north coast of South America, was a Dutch province when Maria Merian travelled there in 1699 at the age of 52. She spent two years collecting and painting the insect and plant life of its swamplands and forests, until ill health forced her to return to the Netherlands. She died in Amsterdam in 1717.
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