LINNAEUS (LINNÉ), CARL von. — Born at Råshult (Sweden) on 13 May 1707; died at Uppsala on 10 January 1778. Of humble origins, he inherited from his father a passion for the study of nature. Declared by his teachers unsuited to academic pursuits, he was subsequently sent by his father to the University of Lund to study medicine. Having gained renown for his early botanical research, he was dispatched to collect plants in Lapland (1732); on his return, in order to obtain his doctorate, he went to the Netherlands, to Hardwijk, where he earned his degree in 1735. There his *Systema naturae* became known and was appreciated by Boerhaave and Gronovius, who arranged for its publication at his own expense.
He maintained relations with all the leading scientific figures of his time (Celsius, Réaumur, etc.). In 1741 he obtained the chair of botany at the University of Uppsala, where he received recognition and honours.
He published no fewer than 180 works of considerable importance. A convinced religious man, he did not concern himself with theories but carried out precise investigations, the fruit of his extraordinarily acute powers of observation. He was the first to arrange the three kingdoms of nature in systematic form; to him we owe the introduction of binomial nomenclature, which enabled the classification of species discovered subsequently, down to our own time.
He defined the concept of species; for L. it was the elementary unit of the organic world, a fixed entity not susceptible to variation. His works are held by the Linnean Society of London.