MARIA SIBILLA MER1AN. 19 



reside there for several years, exercising his profes- 

 sion with diligence and success. He was not long, 

 however, in returning to his native country, and after 

 travelling through various parts of the continent, 

 finally settled at Frankfort, where he remained till 

 his death, which happened in 1651. During his 

 residence in that place he published various topo- 

 graphical and other works, illustrated with engrav- 

 ings, which are said to he executed in a style greatly 

 superior to similar productions of that period. Of 

 these we may mention, the Topography of Zeiler, 

 in twenty-seven folio volumes ; Theatrum Europe- 

 urn; Florilegium Plantarum; Itinerarium Italiae; 

 and the Dance of Death, copied from the famous 

 work so named at Bale, and augmented hy the 

 addition of several new designs. Shortly after his 

 settlement at Frankfort he had married the daughter 

 of John Theodore tie Bry, the mother of the subject 

 of the present notice. 



Maria Sibilla Merian was horn in the city just 

 named in the year 1647. Inheriting, in an eminent 

 degree, the talent for which her family was distin- 

 guished, she appears to have early devoted herself 

 to painting and drawing, and soon to have attain- 

 ed considerable skill in these branches. It is 

 probable that she enjoyed the instructions of her 

 brother, Matthew Merian, an individual to whom we 

 shall afterwards allude, who was so much older 

 than herself as to have acquired high distinction as 

 a painter while she was yet a child. It is affirmed, 

 however, that the chief care of her education de- 



