18 
MEMOIR OP 
tinction as a scientific naturalist, nor can it be 
affirmed tbat either her powers of observation or 
the capacity of her judgment were of the first order. 
But the extraordinary zeal she shewed in the study 
of that branch to which her attention was directed, 
the sacrifices and inconveniences to which she sub- 
mitted in prosecuting it, the excellent delineation 
which she has made of many natural objects, and 
the mass of materials wliich she has thus provided 
to facilitate the labours of fiitmo inquirers, justly 
entitle her to an honourable place in a biographical 
series of those wortliies who hav.e exerted them- 
selves to promote the study of nature, u-ith wliich 
it has been our anxious endeavour to enrich the 
volumes of the Naturalist’s Library. 
Unfortunately not many particulars of her life 
have been preserved, but the following notices may 
not be void of interest to those who have had an oppor- 
tunity of examiniog the works by which her name 
has become known to the public. She belonged to a 
family of which many of the members acquired con- 
siderable celebrity as painters mid engravers. Her 
father, Mathew Merian, was the son of a magistrate 
of Bale, and was bom in that town in 1593. After 
learning the art of engraving at Zurich, under 
Dietrick Meyer, he removed to Nanci, where he 
was employed in aquafortis engraving, a branch of the 
art then only newly invented, and in which he par- 
ticularly excelled. He subsequently went to Paris, 
and having entered into partnership with an artist 
of some note, named Jacques Callot, continued to 
