# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/maria-sibylla-merian
# Generated: 2026-08-31T14:59:11.890Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/maria-sibylla-merian"
name: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
slug: "maria-sibylla-merian"
description: "She painted butterflies emerging from chrysalises at a time when most of Europe believed insects spawned from mud. Her field studies in Dutch Guiana and methodical plates of metamorphosis broke the spontaneous-generation myth that had stood for centuries."
tagline: "German-Dutch entomologist, botanist, naturalist, scientific illustrator, graphic artist, painter, and lepidopterologist (1647-1717)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Bildnis_der_Maria_Sibylla_Merian%2C_1679.jpg"
gender: "female"
country:
  name: "Netherlands"
  isoCode: "NL"
category:
  name: "Scientists"
  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1647-04-02"
deathDate: "1717-01-13"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           61.38
  momentum:             7.069813176007866
  historical:           23.83733333333333
  currentAttention:     39.27673986671037
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "RISING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  164
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Scientists"
    slug: "scientists"
  - name: "Scientist"
    slug: "scientist"
  - name: "Painting"
    slug: "painting"
  - name: "Biology"
    slug: "biology"
  - name: "Early Modern Era"
    slug: "early-modern-era"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "ماريا سيبيلا ماريان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
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  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariya_Sibilla_Merian"
    title: "Mariya Sibilla Merian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
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  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Sibylla_Merianov%C3%A1"
    title: "Maria Sibylla Merianová"
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    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Μαρία Σιβύλλα Μεριάν"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "ماریا زیبلا مریان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Anna Maria Sibylla Merian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Discogs"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Sibylla_Merian"
    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
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  - url: "https://als.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Sibylla_Merian"
    title: "Maria Sibylla Merian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Merian trained under her stepfather Jacob Marrel and published her first book of natural illustrations in 1675. She had been raising silkworms since age 13 and collecting insects through adolescence. Between 1679 and 1683 she released two volumes on caterpillars — 50 engraved plates each — documenting metamorphosis and plant hosts for 186 European species. In 1699 she sailed to Dutch Guiana to study tropical insects, work that became Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium in 1705. Her careful records of egg to larva to pupa to adult dismantled the old conviction that insects were born of mud, replacing superstition with the concept of distinct, predictable life cycles.