146 M E Tt 
fruits, flowers, and infefts; and under his inftruftion our 
young artift foon diftinguiflied herfelf as a painter and 
natural philofopher, to which attainments Ihe afterwards 
added the art of etching. In the year 1665 flie married 
Jean Andre Graf, a meritorious painter of Nuremberg, 
who ftudied in the fchool of Morell. In 1679 fne pub- 
lifhed the firlt volume of her “ Hiftoire des Infeftres 
de l’Europe, deflines d’apres nature, et expliques par 
Marie-Sybille Merian; oil Ton traite de la Generation et 
des differentes Metamorpliofes des Infeftes et des Plantes 
dont ils fe nourifi'entand, in 1683, Ihe publifhed the 
fecond volume of the fame work, in the execution of 
which Ihe paid attention to the engravings, as well as the 
defigns, it being the firil work wherein are difplayed the 
minutiae which are fo important in the eye of the connoif- 
feur ; and the managed the etching-needle with the dex¬ 
terity flie had before evinced in the management of her 
pencil. In the courfe of the next year, Are returned to 
Frankfort with her family, and, from a miftaken zeal in 
religion, feparated from her hufband ; retired with her 
mother and two daughters to Weft Friefland, and be¬ 
came a member of the fociety of Labadiftes. The fociety 
of Labadiftes (who called themfelves brothers and fit¬ 
ters') had then affembled under Peter Yrond, and their 
head-quarters were the caftle of Den Bofch, fituated 
between Franeker and Levardin, of which the poffefl’or’s 
name was Sommerdyck. Here flie remained a confiderable 
time, and here flie had opportunity to inlpeft: at leifure 
a fine collection of the inlefts of America, of which Ihe 
made very exaft drawings; and from hence her tliirft after 
profeflional knowledge led her to make occafional ex- 
curfions to Amfterdam and other parts of Holland, which 
at that time abounded with cabinets both of piftures 
and natural hiftory. 
Her enthufiafm now took a new turn ; and, coinciding 
with the willies of the Dutch naturalifts, flie was induced, 
in the year 1699, to undertake a voyage to Surinam. On 
her arrival, after an agreeable pafl'age, a wide field opened 
to her profeffional ambition. She painted the infefts and 
reptiles of the country on vellum, and examined with 
philolbphical care their various habits and changes : but 
the heat of the climate, and her intenfe application, hav¬ 
ing injured her health, it became necellary for her to 
return to Europe in the following year. She brought 
home an ample colleftion, not only of drawings, but of 
ftieils, dried infefts, &c. She now fettled at Amfterdam, 
and immediately let about publilhing the fruits of a 
voyage, than which none had ever been performed more 
truly interefting to the naturalifts of Europe. Of the 
fixty large folio plates contained in her “ Metamorphofes 
Infeftorum Surinamenfium, &c.” feveral were executed 
by herfelf, and Ihe alio fupplied the defcriptions. It was 
publifhed at Amfterdam in the year 1705. In the fecond 
edition, which was publifhed by the phylician Jean Mar- 
ret, in the French language, more plates and explanations 
were added by the author, who confecrated the remainder 
of her days to delineations and refearches of this nature. 
To each infeft is added the plant on which it delights 
to feed, painted with great elegance, though without 
the botanical charafters, as Ihe was unacquainted with 
that fcienoe ; their names in Latin were added by Com- 
' melin. 
Too far advanced in life to venture on a fecond voyage, 
yet knowing that much had been left unaccompliflied at 
Surinam, Maria Sibylle now formed the tlefignof fending 
thither her eldeft daughter, who had accompanied and 
aiTifted her in her former voyage. Jeanne Helene Graf 
cheerfully undertook the commiflion, landed at Surinam, 
painted with hereditary fkiil all the remaining fubjefts of 
natural hiftory that the could find interefting in the coun¬ 
try, added her remarks, and tranfmitted them to Amfter¬ 
dam ; but death had now interpofed to prevent this con- 
fummation of the pleafures of Maria Sibylle. She died at 
Amfterdam in 1717. The Supplement was however pub- 
liflicd by her lecoi.d daughter Dorothea Maria, who was 
M E R 
born in 167?, and herfelf painted flowers and infefts with 
great ability. 
The curious, who would form an adequate idea of the 
knowledge and talent of this extraordinary artift, fhould 
vifit the principal cabinets of Holland. Sir Hans Sloane 
purchafed what were fuppofed to be her original drawings 
on vellum ; but the copy exhibited in the Britifli Mufeum 
has certainly marks of the graver, though it may have 
been coloured by her hand. 1 
MERIA'NA, J'. in botany. See Antholyza meriana, 
vol. i. 757, 8. 
MERIANEL'LA. See Antholyza merianella. 
MERIA'NIA. See Rhexia leucantha and purpurea. 
MERJAPOU'R, a town of Hindooftan, in Bahar i 
twenty-eight miles fouth-fouth-weft of Bahar. 
MER'IBAH, [Heb. ftrife.] The name of a place. 
MERIBBA'AL, [Heb. rebellion.] A man’s name. 
MERIBA'SA, a river of Afiatic Turkey, which runs 
into the Mediterranean near Adana. 
MER'IDA, an ancient town of Spain, in Eftramadura, 
feated on an eminence, near the Guadiana. It was an¬ 
ciently large, populous, and flourilhing, and much em- 
belliflied by the Romans ; and it ftill prefents an image of 
its former grandeur. This town became a colony under 
the emperor Auguftus ; and, being peopled, after the war 
with the Cantabrians, with foldiers of the 5th and 10th 
legions, took the name of that prince, and was called 
Emcrita Augufta. Writers differ about its extent; fome 
afligning to it eight miles, and others fix leagues, of cir¬ 
cumference. Under the dominion of the Goths, it pre- 
ferved its monuments ; but, when taken by the Moors, 
A. D. 713, it was very much ranfacked and almoft de- 
ftroyed. From them it was recovered by Alphonfo IX. 
king of Caftile and Leon, in 1230 ; and from that period 
it has been always attached to the kingdom of Caftile. 
It lies in that part of Spain which the Romans called 
Vetonia ; but, notwithftanding its former extent and po- 
puloufnefs, the number of its prefent inhabitants fcarcely 
amounts to 5000. Under the Gothic kings it was the 
fee of an archbilhop, and the feat of fome provincial 
councils. The archiepifcopal fee was removed to Com- 
poftella by pope Calixtus II. under king Alphonfo VII. 
whilft this town was in the poffelfion of the Moors. When 
it was retaken by Alphonfo IX. he gave it to the military 
order of St. James, and it ftill belongs to this order. 
Merida took for arms the reverie of a medal ftruck under 
Auguftus for commemorating its ereftion into a Roman 
colony; this is a gate of a town formed by two arches 
with two towers, and a femicircular enclofure, which 
extends from one to the other. The environs of Me¬ 
rida are pleafant and fertile ; abounding in wine, good 
fruits, and grain, with excellent palture ; nine league* 
from Badajoz. Lat. 38. 4.8. N. Ion. 6. 3. W. 
We cannot prefent our readers with a better defcrip- 
tion of this town in its prefent ftate, than by inferting 
fome extrafts from a moft interefting letter of an Englilh 
gentleman, dated Madrid, in the month of May 1815, to 
a friend of ours in London. 
“ Among the feveral places through which I have 
palled, I do not think that you would have found your- 
lelf any-where fo much delighted as you would have been 
in viewing the numerous veftiges of ancient magnificence 
which meet the eye at Merida. It was the capital of the 
Roman eftablilhments in the peninlula; and is fituated 
on the Guadiana. Upon defcending the hill, that Hopes 
gently towards the left bank of the river, you find at 
once, burlting upon the fight, a fine prolpeft of a Bridge, 
of no lefs than fifty-feven arches, over which you have 
to pafs in entering the town. This bridge is nine hun¬ 
dred and ninety-fix Caftilian yards in length, and nine 
in breadth. It is laid to have been built under the con- 
fulate of Publius Licinius Craffus; and is compofed of 
large blocks of granite. This magnificent work, and 
ctirious fpecimen of Roman architecture, may be faid to 
remain entire, with the exception of five or fix arches, 
which 
