Maria Sibylla Merian: New Book of Flowers (Art & Design)

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Maria Sibylla Merian emerged as one of the leading researchers on botany and insect life. The elegance, delicate colours, and detailed scientific accuracy captured in her exquisite drawings of flowers are beautifully reproduced in this volume. Merian's New Book of Flowers, first published in 1680, continues to be a source of fascination throughout the world today.

The Book of Flowers, published in Nuremburg between 1675 and 1680 in three volumes of twelve sheets, is the first work that Maria Sibylla Merian published and marketed herself. Its enormous success encouraged her to reprint and colour all 36 plates, adding a preface before publishing it in 1680 as the New Book of Flowers. As Merian herself expressed in her foreward, the publication was meant to be an inspiration to others: "In that it may be useful for traveling and painting, and for the women to sew, and all lovers of art for benefit and joy."

• Maria Merian's Butterflies
• Maria Sibylla Merian: Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium
• Insects and Flowers: The Art of Maria Sibylla Merian
• Flowers, Butterflies and Insects: All 154 Engravings from "Erucarum Ortus" (Dover Pictorial Archive)