Signatures: [pi]⁴ ⁴ (-1) A-H⁴ (pi 1 blank, pi 2 engraved).

Publication date from the Hunt botanical cat., no. 483 note.

Translated from the German by the author's daughter, Dorothea Maria Henriette Merian, who also wrote pt. 3.

"This work in its earliest form was published as Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blummennahrung (Nuremberg, 1679-1683) with 100 plates and Die rupsen Begin, voedsel, en wonderbaare verandering (Amsterdam, [1713-1717]) with 150 plates. It became Erucarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis (Amsterdam, [1718] with 150 plates. In 1730 the work was issued in Dutch as De Europische Insecten ... Ultimately it became part of the combined Histoire générale des insectes de Surinam et de toute l'Europe, edited and enlarged by P.J. Buc'hoz (Paris, 1771)"--Hunt botanical cat., no. 483 note.

In this edition the three parts of text are no longer bibliographically distinct, but the plates remain in three sequences; each part has a special engraved title page consisting of a floral wreath design, without lettering; plates are numbered 1-50, I-L, 1-50.

All ill. are engravings; portrait of the author signed in the plate: "Jak. Houbraken sculpcit"; frontispiece, classical style, depicts the Merians and children collecting and drawing insects and plants, signed in the plate: "Schÿnvoet. del. et fec. 1717."

Engraved armorial vignette at head of dedication to Theodore Huyghens.

Initials; tail-pieces.

Pfeiffer, M.A. Merian, p. 27

Nissen, C. Botanische Buchillustration (2. Aufl.), 1342