At the age of just 13, Maria Sibylla Merian began her first systematic studies of insects, focusing on the silkworm. Initially, the insects were merely a complement to her floral paintings, but the "wonderful transformation of caterpillars" increasingly became the focus of her research, which she published and self-published in a multi-volume work featuring her own copper engravings. Her most significant book, the large-format copper engraving work on the butterflies of Suriname, was the result of a perilous two-year research journey to the tropics and made her famous beyond her death. Following the foundational works of Elisabeth Rücker, this publication, now available as a special edition, is the first comprehensive monograph on the oeuvre of Maria Sibylla Merian. Her life's work is examined not only from artistic and scientific perspectives.