Erucarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, In qua Origo, pabulum, transformatio, nec non tempus, locus & proprietates erucarum, vermium, papilionum, phalænarum, muscarum, aliorumque hujusmodi exsanguium animalculorum exhibentur in Favorem, atque insectorum, herbarum, florum, & plantarum Amatorum, tùm etiam pictorum, limbolariorum, aliorumque commodum exactè inquisita, ad vivum delineata, typis excusa, compendiosèque descripta per Mariam Sibillam Merian
WITH COUNTER-PROOF IMPRESSIONS
PERHAPS FROM THE LIBRARY THE DAUPHIN de FRANCE
Amsterdam: Johannes Oosterwyk, [1718]. First edition in Latin.
Quarto (9 ¼” x 7”, 235mm x 178mm):[1] 2 binder’s blanks, π1 *4 A-H4, 2 binder’s blanks [$3 signed; –*1]. 37 leaves, pp. [10] (title, blank, 2pp. dedication, 2pp. to the reader, 3pp. preface, verse), 1-64. With 152 hand-colored plates: an engraved frontispiece, heightened in gold; 2 (of 3) engraved “part-titles,” viz. wreaths; and 149 (of 150) counter-proof natural-historical plates.
Bound in red sheep (re-backed, with the original back-strip laid down) with a wide scrollwork border (incorporating dolphins’ heads and crowns) gilt. On the spine, 5 raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel. In the panels, crowned and encircled dolphins gilt. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards, continued onto the inside dentelle. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Green silk marking ribbon.
Re-backed with the original back-strip laid down. Spine cracked vertically, through to the text-block. Scuffed and scratched, with some bumps to the fore-corners. Tanned generally, with pigment oxidation. Graphite numeration to the plates (which, being counter-proofs, are reversed by pair, i.e., 2, 1, 4, 3, 6, 5 etc.) which are not bound wholly in order. Pl. 49 of the second part is mounted onto an uncolored stub of the counter-proof, with about a 7mm of the image in black only. Lacking pl. 23 of the first part (“Cerasus major fructu subdulci”) and the wreath prefatory to the first part.
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) came from a distinguished Swiss-German family; her father was Matthäus Merian and her grandfather Johann Theodor de Bry. In 1685, Merian moved with her two daughters and her mother into a Labadist community at Waltha Castle. She was so inspired by the Wunderkammer of Cornelis van Sommelsdijck, who had been governor of Surinam (Dutch Guiana or Suriname), at the castle, that she sailed for South America with her younger daughter Dorothea. There she studied, drew and collected specimens for nearly two years, focusing intently on the metamorphoses of insects there.
Indeed, metamorphic insects (Erucarum ortus translates to “the origin of caterpillars”[2]) were the principle subject of her lifelong study and publication, even before her time in Surinam; the first edition of the first part of the present work (with only European insects) was published in German in Nuremberg in 1679 as “Der Raupen…” It was issued in Dutch 1713–1714 as “Der Rupsen Begin…” with the addition of a second part. Merian suffered a stroke in 1715 but completed the work with its third part, aided by her daughter Dorothea Maria Graff and incorporating additional material from Surinam sent by her elder daughter Johanna Helena Herolt, which was published shortly after her death in 1717.
Merian deployed to great effect the counter-proof (contre-épreuve) — pressing a blank sheet onto a sheet fresh out of the engraving-press — forming the very lightest framework for sensitive water-colors (sometimes body-color as well), based on first-hand experience. These counter-proof impressions — reversing also their position on the sheet, as can be seen by the order of the plates — both diminished the inked line and restored the original orientation of the work. In essence, they bring the mechanical reproduction of Merian’s watercolors to its flimsiest manifestation, a tissue of multiplicity giving way to the great genius of her art.
A Latin text reaching a wider audience than the Dutch, the present item, published they year after Merian’s death, can be considered the culmination of her lifetime’s work. It is hard to imagine a superior manifestation of the work, with counter-proof impressions — so rare that Landwehr cites only uncolored engraved examples (though he did own a counter-proof copy that sold at Christie’s in 2020). The binding adds interest: the crowned dolphin, repeated in the panels of the spine (and split apart in the wide scrollwork border), is the traditional symbol of the heir apparent to the French crown (le Dauphin; the title comes from the dolphin in the arms of Guigues IV, count of Vienne; the seigneury was sold to the Philippe VI on the condition that the king’s eldest son take the title). The Dauphin at the time of publication was, technically, Philip V of Spain. Likelier the binding relates to Louis-Ferdinand (1729–1765), the elder son of Louis XV; perhaps it was a gift to the young prince.
Acquired at the Christie’s New York sale of Anita Peek Gilger (14 October 2003, lot 63). Dr. Gilger (1920–2002) graduated Vassar and Johns Hopkins before a distinguished career as an ophthalmologist in Cleveland, Ohio. Her collection of natural history books began in the 1950’s and was redoubtable at the time of her death.
Brunet III.1650; Nissen, BBI 1342; Landwehr, Dutch Books 135.
[1] Although the bibliographies do not note a large-paper edition, the present example is 47mm taller and 36mm wider than another example in our holdings.
[2] The title in full can be translated: “the origin of caterpillars, their diet and the paradox of metamorphosis, in which the origin, food, transformation and also the season, habitat and properties of caterpillars, worms, butterflies, moths, flies and of whatever other sorts of little bloodless animals; and also, in favor of enthusiasts, then of painters and of lace-makers (?*) and in the interest of others: insects, herbs, flowers and plants exactly investigated, drawn from life, detailed in text and thoroughly described by Maria Sibylla Merian.” *“Limbolarioum” is the genitive plural of limbolarius, a maker of edges or fringes (from limbo, a peripheral place).
Item #JLR0569
Price: $375,000