Common or Spectacled Caiman with South American False Coral Snake
Dorothea Maria Graff1719
University of Sydney Library
Camperdown, Australia
Maria Sibylla Merian and her daughter, Dorothea Maria Henriette travelled to Surinam in South America, where they recorded plants, insects, and animals of the region between 1699 and 1701.
This illustration has been attributed to Dorothea, and comes from a second edition of their work in Suriname, 'Mariae Sibillae Merian Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium', published in 1719.
The University of Sydney Library copy of this work has an English calligraphic manuscript translation by William Chinnery, dated 1734.
- Title: Common or Spectacled Caiman with South American False Coral Snake
- Creator: Maria Sibylla Merian, Dorothea Maria Henriette
- Creator Gender: Female
- Date Created: 1719
- Location Created: Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Physical Dimensions: 49 cm
- Original Language: Latin, English
- Provenance: Item 164 in a catalog (29 May 1749) of bookseller Thomas Osborne (1704-1767). Osborne was one of the great booksellers of the XVIIIc, who bought large libraries en masse and sold them via catalog at set prices rather than by auction. Its purchaser, perhaps, was Philip Wenman, 6th Viscount Wenman (1719-1760) or his son the 7th viscount., Purchased by the University of Sydney Library
- Type: Book
- Publisher: Printed by Joannem Oosterwyk
- Original Source: University of Sydney Library, RB Folio 6219.6
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