Carl Linnaeus

Lore & Background

Linnaeus was born in Råshult, Småland, Sweden, the first child of Nicolaus Linnaeus and Christina Brodersonia. His father, a Lutheran minister and amateur botanist, taught him Latin as a small child and often showed him flowers. Linnaeus received most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, studying and publishing the first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden, becoming professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, publishing several volumes.

Reader's Guide

Linnaeus's significance lies in his formalisation of binomial nomenclature, the system by which each organism is given a two-part Latin name (genus and species). This system, first published in his Systema Naturae, provided a stable, universal method for naming and classifying the natural world, replacing chaotic local names. His work laid the foundation for modern taxonomy and influenced biology, ecology, and related fields. He is also considered one of the founders of modern ecology. By the time of his death in 1778, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. In botany, the abbreviation L. indicates him as the authority for a species' name; in zoology, the abbreviation Linnaeus is generally used. He is designated as the type specimen for the human species, Homo sapiens.

Did You Know?

• Linnaeus was ennobled in 1761, taking the name Carl von Linné.
• His father adopted the Latinate name Linnæus after a giant lime tree on the family homestead.
• Linnaeus is designated as the type specimen for the human species, Homo sapiens.
• He wrote a thesis on plant sexual reproduction in 1729, titled Praeludia Sponsaliorum Plantarum.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"As quoted in Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm (2009), "Linnaeus and homo religiosus," Universitet, p. 83." — Carl Linnaeus "Nature does not make any leaps. All plants show an affinity with those around them, according to their geographical location." — Carl Linnaeus "If the names are unknown knowledge of the things also perishes." — Carl Linnaeus "Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 210. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 80." — Carl Linnaeus