Naturalist, artist, and publisher - the life of an extraordinary woman between the 17th and 18th centuries. She was a naturalist, artist, and publisher: Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), daughter of the famous engraver Matthäus Merian. Even in her youth, a desire for research stirred within her, a passion that would captivate her throughout her life, despite never having received formal academic training. Her passion was for butterflies. Thus, at the age of 52 - after her marriage to a painter had failed - she embarked on a journey to South America in 1699 to study her beloved "summer birds." Her book published in 1705 about the insect world of Suriname established her fame as a scientist.