Speaker: Marieke Van Delft, Curator of Early Printed Collections, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands
In 1705 the remarkable work Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium by Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) was published in Amsterdam, the first illustrated overview of the plants and insects of Surinam. In this lecture, held in conjunction with the republication of her masterpiece, Merian will be introduced as an independent woman who traveled from Germany to the Netherlands and Surinam, producing groundbreaking work as an entomologist.
Dr. Marieke van Delft is Curator of Early Printed Collections at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands, in The Hague. She studied history and book history at the universities of Amsterdam and Leiden and gained her doctorate in cultural studies at the KU Leuven. Van Delft has published on many aspects of the history of the printed book in the Netherlands.
Free and open to the public.
This event is sponsored by the Humanities Institute at the New York Botanical Garden.