MAHIA SIBILLA MERIAN. ]9 
reside there for several years, exercising his profes- 
sion with diligence and success. He was not long, 
however, in returning to Ms native country, and after 
travelling through various parts of the continent, 
Mially 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- 
um ; Florilegium Plantarum ; Itinerarium Itali® ; 
and the Dance of Death, copied from the famous 
work so named at BMe, and augmented hy the 
addition of several new designs. Shortly after his 
settlement at Frankfort he had married the daughter 
of John Theodore de Biy, the mother of the subject 
of the present notice. 
Maria Sibilla Merian was bom in the city just 
named iu the year 1647. Inheriting, in an eminent 
degree, the talent for which her family was distin- 
guished, she appem's 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 
tlnm 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- 
