Printed images played a role in the strategies of savant amateurs of the Enlightenment in consolidating their scientific networks, traced here through the case study of Johann Heinrich Merck. Convinced of the importance of his palaeontological findings, Merck developed an impressive network from Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Samuel Thomas Sömmerring to Petrus Camper and Joseph Banks. Academic celebrities set an important horizon for Merck's aspirations, but his ambitions also depended on professional artists. Increasingly disappointed with printmakers' contribution to natural history, Merck eventually emancipated himself as an etcher in his own right.

This article's focus is on printed images regarded as both visual and material sources; both preserved—some neglected hitherto—and those only known via written sources, whose record allows for a detailed reconstruction of events and the intentions behind them. As images used to disseminate knowledge, they were expected to be reliable; as objects employed in the pursuit of scholarly recognition, they were supposed to reach their recipients post-haste. An inspection of Merck's utilization of printed images, with their concomitant demand for reliability and speed, reveals a pattern of misjudgements in his career and a craving for attention and primacy, which repeatedly exposed him to predicaments.

印刷图像在启蒙运动的业余爱好者的策略中发挥了作用，以巩固他们的科学网络，通过约翰·海因里希·默克 (Johann Heinrich Merck) 的案例研究可以追溯到这里。默克深信他的古生物学发现的重要性，从约翰沃尔夫冈歌德和塞缪尔托马斯索默林到佩特鲁斯坎珀和约瑟夫班克斯建立了一个令人印象深刻的网络。学术名人为默克的抱负奠定了重要的视野，但他的抱负也取决于专业艺术家。默克对版画家对自然历史的贡献越来越失望，最终凭借自己的权利将自己解放为蚀刻师。

本文的重点是被视为视觉和材料来源的印刷图像；既有保存下来的——有些迄今为止被忽视了——还有那些只能通过书面来源知道的，其记录允许详细重建事件及其背后的意图。作为用于传播知识的图像，它们被期望是可靠的；作为追求学术认可的对象，它们应该在匆忙后到达接收者手中。对默克对印刷图像的利用以及对可靠性和速度的伴随要求的检查，揭示了他在职业生涯中的误判模式以及对注意力和首要地位的渴望，这使他一再陷入困境。