Harderwijk, Netherlands
Linnaeus needed a medical degree to become professionally established. At some European universities it could be earned by satisfactorily completing examinations and defending a thesis. In 1735 Linnaeus traveled to Holland, and after a week at the University of Harderwijk, he took the examinations, defended his thesis on the cause of intermittent fever, and received his degree.
Lund, Sweden
In 1727 Linnaeus entered the University of Lund. The science and medical instruction was very weak, and after a year he decided to leave.
752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
Carl Linnaeus attended Uppsala University.
Lund, Sweden
In 1727 Linnaeus entered the University of Lund. The science and medical instruction was very weak, and after a year he decided to leave.
Harderwijk, Netherlands
Linnaeus needed a medical degree to become professionally established. At some European universities it could be earned by satisfactorily completing examinations and defending a thesis. In 1735 Linnaeus traveled to Holland, and after a week at the University of Harderwijk, he took the examinations, defended his thesis on the cause of intermittent fever, and received his degree.
The Linnean Society of London has awarded the Linnean Medal for excellence in botany or zoology since 1888.
752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
Carl Linnaeus attended Uppsala University.
Peter Artedi or Petrus Arctaedius (27 February 1705 – 28 September 1735) was a Swedish naturalist and is known as the "father of Ichthyology.
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1735
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1737
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1751
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1753
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1811
Botanist physician scientist Zoologist
Carl Linnaeus was born on May 23, 1707 (May 13, Old Style), in Rashult, in the province of Småland (now within Älmhult Municipality), Sweden. His father, who had adopted the surname Linnaeus as a student at the University of Lund, was pastor of Stenbrohult, and his mother was the daughter of a pastor.
In 1716 Linnaeus went to the grammar school in nearby Växjö. He studied Latin, religion, mathematics, and science, but his interest in plants tended to interfere with his studies. A favorite book was Aristotle's Historia animalium, which his father had given him.
His mother hoped he would enter the ministry, but he showed no interest in that career. Johan Rothman, a master at the high school, encouraged Linnaeus's interests in science and suggested that he study medicine. The father reluctantly agreed, and Rothman tutored Linnaeus in physiology and botany for a year.
In 1727 Linnaeus entered the University of Lund. The science and medical instruction was very weak, and after a year he transferred to Uppsala University, where he found that the two medical professors were old and seldom lectured. Fortunately, he soon attracted the interest of Olof Celsius, a theology professor who was interested in the plants of Sweden. Celsius gave him free room and board and became his mentor.
Linnaeus needed a medical degree to become professionally established. At some European universities it could be earned by satisfactorily completing examinations and defending a thesis. In 1735 Linnaeus traveled to Holland, and after a week at the University of Harderwijk, he took the examinations, defended his thesis on the cause of intermittent fever, and received his degree.
From 1730 to 1732 Carl Linnaeus was able to subsidize himself by teaching botany in the university garden of Uppsala. At this early stage, Linnaeus laid the groundwork for much of his later work in a series of manuscripts. Their publication, however, had to await more-fortuitous circumstances. In 1732 the Uppsala Academy of Sciences sent Linnaeus on a research expedition to Lapland. After his return in the autumn of that year, he gave private lectures in botany and mineral assaying.
Carl Linnaeus remained away from Sweden for 3 years, spending most of his time in Holland but also traveling in Germany, France, and England, meeting leading scientists as he went. He had brought with him a number of botanical manuscripts, and these won the admiration of the leading naturalists and the wealthy banker George Clifford.
These men provided Linnaeus with work and assisted in the publication of his manuscripts. The years in Holland were the most productive of his life: he published his Systema naturae, Bibliotheca botanica, Fundamenta botanica, Critica botanica, Flora Lapponica, Methodus sexualis, Genera plantarum, Classes plantarum, Hortus Cliffortianus, and lesser works. With understandable pride he concluded that in 3 years he had "written more, discovered more, and made a greater reform in botany than anybody before had done in an entire lifetime."
Linnaeus returned to practice medicine in Stockholm. He was appointed physician to the Admiralty and soon had the best medical practice in Stockholm. In 1739 he married Sara Moraea; they had two sons and four daughters. Linnaeus became professor of botany at Uppsala University in 1741.
As a professor, Linnaeus was immensely successful. He had a genius for organization which he applied to both science and science education. His popularity with students was also based upon his attractive personality and his concern for their success. He taught botany, zoology, natural history, pharmacy, dietetics, and mineralogy. There were 186 students who defended these under his supervision. It was the custom for the adviser to write much, if not all, of the dissertation, and those which his students defended contained some of his important ideas in ecology and natural history. These theses were published separately and then collected into a periodical entitled Amoenitates academicae (1749-1790).
Linnaeus was not without detractors, some sincere, but many merely jealous. However, the love of his students and the value of his work ensured both his widespread influence and the receipt of many honors. He was appointed chief royal physician in 1747.
Beyond his work in botany and scientific classification, Linnaeus directed a host of activities for the betterment of his home country. Linnaeus held that a country’s welfare depended on science-based administration, and in 1739 he was among the founders of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. He also promoted the creation of chairs in economics at Swedish universities, organized public botanical excursions around Uppsala (sometimes with several hundred participants), and undertook research travels within Sweden to identify domestic products that could substitute for expensive imports.
Linnaeus also sent a number of students on expeditions around the globe to collect exotic plants for acclimatization in Sweden. The most famous of these so-called “Linnaean apostles” include Pehr Kalm, who traveled through North America between 1748 and 1751; Daniel Solander, who accompanied British explorer James Cook on his first circumnavigation (1768–71); and Carl Peter Thunberg, who reached Japan in 1776.
He retired in 1776 and was permitted to appoint as his successor his son Carl. Linnaeus died in Uppsala on January 10, 1778.
Carl Linnaeus was "the father of modern systematic botany," and the founder of the modern system of scientific nomenclature. In his works, Linnaeus described and applied a new system for classifying plants that greatly facilitated identification. Linnaeus' publications include more than 180 books and numerous papers, chiefly in the fields of natural history and medicine.
In 1753, Carl Linnaeus became a Knight of the Order of the Polar Star - the Order of Civil Merit of Sweden.
Founded a few years after Linnaeus's death, the Linnaean Society of London is still going strong as an international society for the study of natural history. The Society preserves the bulk of Linnaeus's surviving collections, manuscripts, and library. The Strandell Collection of Linneana, at Carnegie-Mellon University, and the Mackenzie Linneana collection at Kansas State University, are major American collections of writings by and about Linnaeus and his associates. The Linnaeus Link at the British Natural History Museum, aims to make available electronic versions of Linnaeus's writings and documents.
Carolus was raised in a religious home and had deep beliefs concerning God and nature. It was his belief that since God created the world, it was possible to understand God's wisdom by studying His creation.
The deeply religious side of Linnaeus was disclosed in the posthumously published Nemesis Divina (1968; “Divine Retribution”), a manuscript that explores the notion of divine retaliation. It meticulously details the ill fates befalling persons who, in Linnaeus’s eyes, have either misbehaved or committed offenses against him. The Nemesis Divina was intended as a lesson in morality for Linnaeus’s son, Carl.
Linnaeus was an ardent believer in Сameralist economy, a “science” that attempted to improve bureaucratic practices in order to strengthen the monarchy’s position. Moreover, he advocated widespread government intervention in the economy.
Linnaeus is most widely known for having introduced efficient procedures for naming and classifying plants and animals at a time when new species were being rapidly discovered by explorers. Before the insights of evolutionary theory provided a rationale for classification and nomenclature, the criteria used were arbitrarily chosen according to similarities in morphology, habitat, and man's uses of the species. In Linnaeus's day, the problems of classification were most acutely felt in relation to flowering plants. Naturalists agreed that morphology was the most natural criterion, but in practice, it was difficult to know which groups were most similar.
Linnaeus realized that new plants were being discovered faster than their morphological relationships could be established, and he decided to abandon for a while the attempt to achieve a natural classification. He devised a simple numerical classification based upon the number of floral parts. This system was so useful that it remained popular into the 19th century.
Gradually Linnaeus also developed a consistent system of names, in which each species of plant and animal had a genus name followed by a specific name: for example, Plantago virginica and Plantago lanceolata were the names of two species of plantain.
The subject of ecology as a distinct area of investigation was first outlined by Linnaeus in a thesis entitled Specimen academicum de oeconomia naturae, which was defended by one of his students in 1749. Linnaeus organized ecology around the balance of nature concept, which he named the "economy of nature." He emphasized the interrelationships in nature and was one of the first naturalists to describe food chains. He also studied plant succession, the diversity of habitat requirements among species, and the selective feeding habits of insects and hoofed animals. He was strongly interested in the distribution of species and studied their different means of dispersal. He urged the application of biological knowledge not only in medicine but also in agriculture, for he believed that the effective combating of agricultural pests must be based upon a thorough knowledge of their life histories.
Quotations:
"If a tree dies, plant another in its place."
"If you do not know the names of things, the knowledge of them is lost, too."
"The first step in wisdom is to know the things themselves; this notion consists in having a true idea of the objects; objects are distinguished and known by classifying them methodically and giving them appropriate names. Therefore, classification and name-giving will be the foundation of our science."
"It is not God, but people themselves who shorten their lives by not keeping physically fit."
"In natural science the principles of truth ought to be confirmed by observation."
"The plant kingdom covers the entire earth, offering our senses great pleasure and the delights of summer."
"A professor can never better distinguish himself in his work than by encouraging a clever pupil, for the true discovers are among them, as comets amongst the stars."
"Blessed be the Lord for the beauty of summer and spring, for the air, the water, the verdure, and the song of birds."
"Nature does not proceed by leaps."
"Stones grow, plants grow, and live, animals grow live and feel."
"As one sits here in summertime and listens to the cuckoo and all the other bird songs, the crackling and buzzing of insects, as one gazes at the shining colors of flowers, doth one become dumbstruck before the Kingdom of the Creator."
"Nomenclature, the other foundation of botany, should provide the names as soon as the classification is made... If the names are unknown knowledge of the things also perishes... For a single genus, a single name."
"Nature's economy shall be the base for our own, for it is immutable, but ours is secondary. An economist without knowledge of nature is therefore like a physicist without knowledge of mathematics."
"Natural bodies are divided into three kingdoms of nature: viz. the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Minerals grow, Plants grow and live, Animals grow, live, and have feeling."
Linnaeus was a member of the French Academy of Sciences (1762) and a number of other academies and scientific societies, an Honorary Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts in St. Petersburg since December 18, 1753.
He was also elected a member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin.
Quotes from others about the person
The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote him, "I draw more real profits from your Philosophia botanica than from all the books on ethics."
The German poet Goethe acknowledged that "apart from Shakespeare and Spinoza, Linnaeus exercised the greatest influence on me."
During one of his journeys, through the province of Dalarna in 1734, Carl Linnaeus met Sara Lisa Moraea, to whom he became engaged. They were married and had two sons and four daughters.
July 1, 1674 - May 12, 1748
1688 - 1733
June 24, 1716 - April 20, 1806
1743 - 1782
1751 - 17 January 1835
1757 - 1830
1749 - 1839
1741 - 1783
Johan Rothman was a teacher in Växjö. He helped Carl Linnaeus to develop an interest in botany and medicine. He also recommended Carl to attend Uppsala University.
Peter Artedi and Carl Linnaeus were both friends and colleagues.
George Clifford III was a director of the Dutch East India Company. He was interested in botany and owned a rich botanical garden. Linnaeus was invited to become a superintendent of the garden.
Johann Dillenius and Carl Linnaeus corresponded for many years, though Dillenius never fully accepted Linnaeus' ideas.
Count Carl Gustav Tessin helped Carl Linnaeus to be appointed as a physician at the Admiralty.
