Plate 41 from Merian's 'Insectorum Surinamensium' showing a sweet potato
Maria Sibylla Merian and William Chinnery1719
University of Sydney Library
Camperdown, Australia
This illustration is from the 1719 edition of 'Insectorum Surinamensium', and shows the detail of Merian's work. This plate is one of the earliest European illustrations of a sweet potato.
Full title: 'Mariae Sibillae Merian Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium: in quâ, praeter vermes & erucas Surinamenses, earumque admirandam metamorphosin, plantae, flores & fructus, quibus vescuntur, & in quibus fuerunt inventae, exhibentur : his adjunguntur bufones, lacerti, serpentes, araneae, aliaque admiranda istius regionis animalcula'
- Title: Plate 41 from Merian's 'Insectorum Surinamensium' showing a sweet potato
- Creator: Maria Sibylla Merian, William Chinnery
- Creator Lifespan: 1647/1717
- Creator Nationality: German
- Creator Gender: Female
- Creator Death Place: Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Creator Birth Place: Frankfurt, Germany
- Date Created: 1719
- Location: Suriname
- 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., Acquired by the University of Sydney Library in 2023
- Type: Book
- Publisher: Joannem Oosterwyk
- Original Source: University of Sydney Library, RB Folio 6219.6
- External Link: View the digitised version
- Medium: Hand coloured engraving
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