dujyt's review
4.0
Enjoyed this story of a woman who had to fight against the social norms and expectations of the day (early 17th century) to satisfy her need to research and *know*. She was fascinated by the concept of metamorphosis at a time when many scientists and philosophers simply assumed the principle of spontaneous generation explained the appearance of flies on rotting meat, or roaches and mice from soiled clothes.
She used natural observation and meticulous scientific illustration to document the process of metamorphosis in insects, especially butterflies. Eventually, she traveled to Surinam to research and document the unknown South American insect and plant life because she had exhausted the subjects available to study in the region around Amsterdam. She struggled with being taken seriously by the scientific community and her reputation as an illustrator/naturalist went through a metamorphosis as her work was ridiculed, then plagiarized, then commended well after her death.
This book has a fascinating story line and narrative voice. It's reads like a novel and made me look at nature study and appreciation as a practice of life, not just a single act you *do*. The author shows how our current understanding of ecology and the study of a whole ecosystem began with Maria's work.
She used natural observation and meticulous scientific illustration to document the process of metamorphosis in insects, especially butterflies. Eventually, she traveled to Surinam to research and document the unknown South American insect and plant life because she had exhausted the subjects available to study in the region around Amsterdam. She struggled with being taken seriously by the scientific community and her reputation as an illustrator/naturalist went through a metamorphosis as her work was ridiculed, then plagiarized, then commended well after her death.
This book has a fascinating story line and narrative voice. It's reads like a novel and made me look at nature study and appreciation as a practice of life, not just a single act you *do*. The author shows how our current understanding of ecology and the study of a whole ecosystem began with Maria's work.
brogan7's review
slow-paced
What a woman, what a life! Born in 1647 in Germany--she dedicated her life to studying the mystery (and it truly was a mystery then) of metamorhosis. She went to Surinam in 1699...
This book also follows what happened to her work after her death in 1717. (It would not have occurred to me that others could have added to her book, and thus diminished it and her reputation...)...but she was found again.
This book also follows what happened to her work after her death in 1717. (It would not have occurred to me that others could have added to her book, and thus diminished it and her reputation...)...but she was found again.
greeniezona's review
5.0
Years ago, I bought a copy of this book for my insect-obsessed sister, then promptly forgot all about it. Then, recently, I heard about Maria Sibylla Merian again and decided i needed to know more about her. I ended up rediscovering this book and putting it on my library hold list. It's actually part of what inspired my new Women in Science phase -- after that I looked up several other biographies of female scientists and added them to my to-read list as well.
Merian's topic was metamorphosis, at a time when spontaneous generation was just starting to be disproven. In fact, Merian's work contributed to the refutations in a significant way. She was interested in metamorphosis in general, but in caterpillars in particular. Her medium was watercolor. (At a time when she was actually barred from painting in oils by artists guilds because she was a woman.) She raised hundreds of caterpillars, hoping to watch and document their transformations. Friends brought and sent her caterpillars. She sought permission to explore nearby gardens in the hopes of finding new caterpillars. She kept careful notes of dates, observations, sketches. And then she published. Books of watercolors with caterpillar/pupa/moth or butterfly on the same page. Perhaps more importantly, on their host plant. At first, she represents this work lightly -- telling stories designed to amuse of she and her friends in their fine dresses on country strolls, scrambling after insects. Suggesting her watercolors be used as inspirational patterns for embroidery. But she must have taken her work more seriously as time went on, because at the turn of the 18th century, she and her daughter sailed to Surinam to document metamorphosis there, quite possibly the first cross-Atlantic expedition for purely scientific reasons.
I could go on and on and on, but I'm going to try to rein it in. Things I want to particularly note: Merian was a contemporary of Leeuwenhoek! I think right now I am in love with turn of the 18th century Amsterdam. The hobbyist scientists. The salons full of new ideas. The crazy collections of artifacts and the birth of museums. Also, a chapter in the end about her enduring influence discusses how her work was held to some higher standard: she was dismissed entirely for decades because she was wrong about a few things, despite the significance of her gaffes being largely in line with those of her contemporaries. (Always my favorite example: Leeuwenhoek was sure that the entire germ for a new being came from the sperm. The egg was just a house to be filled.)
Also, I need to acknowledge that the author admits a dearth of primary sources about Merian's inner world. Very well recorded is what she saw, what she painted. But very little record remains of what she felt. About anything, ever. Todd is pretty transparent about this, and I thought she did an admirable job of both filling in the blanks and also directly stating what she is basing these speculations on as she makes them.
Recommended to those interested in insects, women in science and/or art, ecology, or turn of the 18th century worldviews.
Merian's topic was metamorphosis, at a time when spontaneous generation was just starting to be disproven. In fact, Merian's work contributed to the refutations in a significant way. She was interested in metamorphosis in general, but in caterpillars in particular. Her medium was watercolor. (At a time when she was actually barred from painting in oils by artists guilds because she was a woman.) She raised hundreds of caterpillars, hoping to watch and document their transformations. Friends brought and sent her caterpillars. She sought permission to explore nearby gardens in the hopes of finding new caterpillars. She kept careful notes of dates, observations, sketches. And then she published. Books of watercolors with caterpillar/pupa/moth or butterfly on the same page. Perhaps more importantly, on their host plant. At first, she represents this work lightly -- telling stories designed to amuse of she and her friends in their fine dresses on country strolls, scrambling after insects. Suggesting her watercolors be used as inspirational patterns for embroidery. But she must have taken her work more seriously as time went on, because at the turn of the 18th century, she and her daughter sailed to Surinam to document metamorphosis there, quite possibly the first cross-Atlantic expedition for purely scientific reasons.
I could go on and on and on, but I'm going to try to rein it in. Things I want to particularly note: Merian was a contemporary of Leeuwenhoek! I think right now I am in love with turn of the 18th century Amsterdam. The hobbyist scientists. The salons full of new ideas. The crazy collections of artifacts and the birth of museums. Also, a chapter in the end about her enduring influence discusses how her work was held to some higher standard: she was dismissed entirely for decades because she was wrong about a few things, despite the significance of her gaffes being largely in line with those of her contemporaries. (Always my favorite example: Leeuwenhoek was sure that the entire germ for a new being came from the sperm. The egg was just a house to be filled.)
Also, I need to acknowledge that the author admits a dearth of primary sources about Merian's inner world. Very well recorded is what she saw, what she painted. But very little record remains of what she felt. About anything, ever. Todd is pretty transparent about this, and I thought she did an admirable job of both filling in the blanks and also directly stating what she is basing these speculations on as she makes them.
Recommended to those interested in insects, women in science and/or art, ecology, or turn of the 18th century worldviews.
fallchicken's review against another edition
4.0
After seeing the exhibit of Merian's work in Amsterdam, I wanted to know more about this fascinating woman and was pleased to find this book. It turned out to be very similar to Bailey's [book: Vermeer: A View of Delft], both are well-researched but largely speculation since so little information is available of the subject. Still, an interesting look at a strong woman at the leading edge of natural science in her time.
aaronj21's review
5.0
A fascinating and compelling book about a pioneering entomologist, Chrysalis combines the best aspects of biography, history, travel log, and science into a single gripping story. Maria Sibylla Merian was a woman far ahead of her time, an insect enthusiast who studied the process of metamorphosis when most people thought insects were spawned spontaneously and a skilled artist who insisted on sketching her highly detailed portraits from life in a period when outlandish and exaggerated drawings were popular. In addition to her incredibly full and adventurous life this book also includes the fall from popularity to obscurity Maria's reputation and work suffered after her death. Discussing why Maria was dismissed and ridiculed as a foolish old lady after her death for making claims that she witnessed and were later corroborated by other scientists is a crucial and fascinating part of her story and the author takes great pains to emphasize that. This is an enjoyable book for science lovers in general or entomologists in particular, for fans of history books or biographies or anyone interested in interesting individuals that history has largely forgotten.
jeanm333's review
Maria Sibylla Merian broke out of the mold of 17th-century women's "place" and she may have been the first ecologist. She studied plants and insects and their interactions and she combined art and science by her innovative illustrations. She was the first (so the author says) to create illustrations that combine plants and insects. She was endlessly curious, starting with a collection of silkworms when she was 13. The high point of her life was her two-year trip to Surinam (Dutch colony in South America), where she studied and collected insects and plants, many of them in the rain forests.
I have to give a caveat to this book by noting that the author had little to base this biography on because there is so little that Maria wrote (only 17 letters exist) and few documents exist (her will and some other court documents). So Todd assumed a great deal to turn the few facts into an entire book. In general, she did a good job but she did tend to exaggerate. From only a little evidence about the state of Merian's marriage to Johann Graff she says, "...something had rotted at the core of the marriage."
Todd enlivens the book with discussions about the natural sciences of the time and the men who worked in this area. Most interesting was her discussion of how these scientists viewed metamorphosis. Many believed in spontaneous generation - that maggots, for example, were generated from rotting meat. Merian's experiments proved them wrong.
Merian has been rediscovered today; you can buy copies of her prints and there are several books out about her, some of them for young readers. Much of that new interest is the focus on women scientists and some of her proto-ecological views.
Read more about women like Maria Sibylla Merian at my new series on
Women Adventurers
I have to give a caveat to this book by noting that the author had little to base this biography on because there is so little that Maria wrote (only 17 letters exist) and few documents exist (her will and some other court documents). So Todd assumed a great deal to turn the few facts into an entire book. In general, she did a good job but she did tend to exaggerate. From only a little evidence about the state of Merian's marriage to Johann Graff she says, "...something had rotted at the core of the marriage."
Todd enlivens the book with discussions about the natural sciences of the time and the men who worked in this area. Most interesting was her discussion of how these scientists viewed metamorphosis. Many believed in spontaneous generation - that maggots, for example, were generated from rotting meat. Merian's experiments proved them wrong.
Merian has been rediscovered today; you can buy copies of her prints and there are several books out about her, some of them for young readers. Much of that new interest is the focus on women scientists and some of her proto-ecological views.
Read more about women like Maria Sibylla Merian at my new series on
Women Adventurers
cspiwak's review
5.0
Great book. The science and the art get plenty of play and the life, hidden as it is by the stretch of centuries, is there , nonetheless, revealed somewhat if not in as much detail as one would like. Glad she goives credit to Mewrian for her observational skills and her ecological nature, before such a thing was named.
anywherebuthere's review
5.0
I picked this book up off the browsing shelf at the Mercantile Library, without having ever heard of Maria Sibylla Merian, mostly because it had an appealing cover. Besides, the Mercantile's collection is small but well chosen; once you're inside, you can be reasonably sure that all of the books are good. That gives me a lot of confidence when checking things out on impulse.
This book is a fascinating story about an early naturalist who is largely forgotten by history, an inspiring tale of a woman who went her own way in a time when women's choices were limited, and a surprising example of how an author can write a biography of a person about whom little is known.
This book is a fascinating story about an early naturalist who is largely forgotten by history, an inspiring tale of a woman who went her own way in a time when women's choices were limited, and a surprising example of how an author can write a biography of a person about whom little is known.