Linnaeus (Linné), Carl

LINNAEUS (LINNÉ), CARL. - B. at Råshult (Sweden) on 13 May 1707 and d. at Uppsala on 10 Jan. 1778. Of humble origins, he inherited from his father a passion for the study of nature. Declared by his teachers unfit for study, he was subsequently sent by his father to the University of Lund to study medicine there. Having won renown for his early botanical research, he was sent to botanize in Lapland (1732); on his return, in order to take his doctorate, he went to Holland, to Harderwijk, where he obtained his degree in 1735 and where his Systema naturae was known and appreciated by Boerhaave and by Gronovius, who had it published at his own expense.

He was in contact with all the scientific personalities of his time (Celsius, Réaumur, etc.). In 1741 he obtained the chair of botany at the University of Uppsala, where he received recognition and honors.

He published as many as 180 works of considerable size. A convinced religious man, he did not concern himself with theories, but carried out precise investigations, the fruit of his very acute spirit of observation. He was the first to order the three kingdoms of nature in systematic form; to him is due the introduction of binomial classification, which made possible the arrangement of species discovered subsequently, down to our own times.

He delimited the concept of species; this is understood by L. as the elementary unit of the organic world, a fixed entity and not susceptible to variation. His works are in the possession of the Linnean Society of London.

Giorgio M. Baffoni