Background
Clerck was born in 1709, in Stockholm, Sweden. He came from a family in the petty nobility. Surprisingly little is known about Clerck’s life, and not even his birth date can be ascertained accurately.
752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
Clerck entered the University of Uppsala in 1726. It is believed that during his short time there he had no contact with his contemporary Linnaeus, who later became his friend and supporter. Financial problems caused him to abandon his studies at Uppsala in 1727 and find work in the capital.
752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
Clerck entered the University of Uppsala in 1726. It is believed that during his short time there he had no contact with his contemporary Linnaeus, who later became his friend and supporter. Financial problems caused him to abandon his studies at Uppsala in 1727 and find work in the capital.
entomologist scientist arachnologist
Clerck was born in 1709, in Stockholm, Sweden. He came from a family in the petty nobility. Surprisingly little is known about Clerck’s life, and not even his birth date can be ascertained accurately.
Clerck entered the University of Uppsala in 1726. It is believed that during his short time there he had no contact with his contemporary Linnaeus, who later became his friend and supporter. Financial problems caused him to abandon his studies at Uppsala in 1727 and find work in the capital.
Clerck's limited means forced him to leave university early and enter into government service, later ending up working in the administration of the City of Stockholm. Clerck was a practical man, not only observing the life of spiders and insects in the field but also inventing apparatus for collecting and preserving them. Among his inventions are “butterfly tongs” (a basic tong structure with a pair of flat, mesh “paddles” at the ends) and an ingenious box for collecting spiders.
Clerck’s fame is based mainly on two, works, Aranei Suecici (1757) and Icones insectorum rariorum (1759-1764). The former became a standard work for spider nomenclature and is the only exception to the accepted fact that modern scientific nomenclature began in 1758 with Linnaeus’ Systema naturae. Icones, one of the greatest rarities among entomological books, deals with Swedish and tropical butterflies and moths; the illustrations were made from specimens in the Queen Lovisa Ulrika collection. The butterfly plates, which Clerck designed with great skill, were hand-colored by C. M. Rising, Erik Borg, and J. A. Aleander; the artistic quality is uneven, however, and the reproductions frequently vary from copy to copy.
During his whole life, Clerck was in need of money, mainly because he himself had to pay for the color illustrations of his books. At his death, he was so deeply in debt that his collections of animals, plants, and minerals had to be sold to satisfy his creditors. The insect collection was purchased by Petter Jonas Bergius, who bequeathed it to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.