Carl Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), later ennobled as Carl von Linné in 1761, was a Swedish biologist and physician. He created binomial nomenclature, the standard way scientists name living things, and is often called the father of modern taxonomy. Most of his work was written in Latin; his Latin name was Carolus Linnæus, and after 1761, Carolus a Linné.

He was born in Råshult, a rural part of Småland in southern Sweden, the son of a curate. Linnaeus did most of his higher education at Uppsala University, where he started teaching botany in 1730. From 1735 to 1738 he lived abroad, studying and publishing the first edition of his key work in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden and became a professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. During the 1740s, he traveled across Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he kept collecting and classifying plants, animals, and minerals, publishing several volumes. By his death in 1778, he was one of Europe’s most celebrated scientists.

Linnaeus has been called the Prince of Botanists and "The Pliny of the North." He is also regarded as a founder of modern ecology. In botany, the abbreviation L. marks him as the authority for a species’ name. In zoology, the abbreviations Linnaeus, L., Linnæus, and Linné are used; older works sometimes use "Linn." He is designated as the type specimen for the human species, *Homo sapiens*.

Linnaeus was born on 23 May 1707 in the village of Råshult, Småland, the first child of Nicolaus (Nils) Linnaeus and Christina Brodersonia. His father taught him Latin as a young child. Nils, an amateur botanist and Lutheran minister, was the curate of Stenbrohult; Christina was the daughter of the local rector. A year after Linnaeus’s birth, his grandfather died, and Nils became rector, moving the family into the rectory. Even as a toddler, Linnaeus loved plants, especially flowers. When upset, a flower would calm him. Nils spent much time in his garden, showing Linnaeus flowers and telling him their names. Soon Linnaeus had his own small plot to grow plants.

Carl’s father was the first in his family to use a permanent surname. Earlier ancestors used patronymics; Nils was originally Ingemarsson. When he entered Lund University, he needed a family name and chose the Latinate Linnæus, after a giant lime tree on the family property. The name was spelled with the æ ligature. Carl was named Carl Linnæus, always using that spelling in handwriting and publications. His patronymic would have been Nilsson.

His father began teaching him Latin, religion, and geography early. At age seven, Nils hired a tutor, Johan Telander, whom Linnaeus disliked, later writing that Telander was better at extinguishing a child’s talents than developing them. Two years later, in 1717, Linnaeus was sent to the Lower Grammar School at Växjö. He rarely studied, preferring to search for plants in the countryside. When his father visited and heard critical reports from teachers, he considered apprenticing the boy to a cobbler. But the headmaster, Daniel Lannerus, noticed Linnaeus’s botanical interest and introduced him to Johan Rothman, a doctor and teacher. Rothman deepened Linnaeus’s botanical knowledge and sparked his interest in medicine. By 17, Linnaeus knew existing botanical literature thoroughly, writing that he read day and night and knew several key works by heart.

In 1724, Linnaeus entered the Växjö Katedralskola, studying Greek, Hebrew, theology, and mathematics—a curriculum for future priests. In his final year, his father asked professors about his progress; most said the boy would never be a scholar. Rothman disagreed, suggesting medicine, and offered to let Linnaeus live with his family in Växjö to teach him physiology and botany. Nils agreed.

Rothman showed Linnaeus that botany was serious, teaching him Tournefort’s classification system and Vaillant’s ideas on plant sexual reproduction. In 1727, at age 21, Linnaeus enrolled at Lund University in Scania, registered under the Latin form of his full name. Professor Kilian Stobæus, a natural scientist, physician, and historian, provided tutoring, lodging, and access to his collections.