CARLOS LINNEO: BIOGRAPHY, TAXONOMY, CONTRIBUTIONS, WORKS - ARTE - 2025

Carlos Linneo (1707-1778) was a scientist, zoologist and naturalist born in Råshult (Sweden). His main contribution was the creation of a method to classify living beings. In addition, he was the discoverer of new plant species and studied the sexual reproduction of plants.

His contribution to taxonomy, the science to classify living beings, was based on a binomial nomenclature system, that is, with two names. The first, with the initial letter in capital letters, indicated the genus, while the second term, in lowercase, indicates the name of the species.

Carlos Linneo - Source: Johan Henrik Scheffel / Public domain

Linnaeus received almost all his university training at the University of Uppsala. The scientist lived abroad for a few years, at which point he published the first edition of his Systema naturae. Upon returning to Sweden, he began to teach botany classes in the city where he had studied.

Between the 1740s and 1760s, Linnaeus led different expeditions to various regions of Sweden. In them he collected and classified numerous plant, mineral and animal species. His work made him one of the most renowned scientists in Europe and the king of his country awarded him a title of nobility.

Biography

Carlos Nilsson Linnaeus was born on May 23, 1707 in Råshult, Sweden. His father was a Lutheran pastor and showed a great interest in botany.

This hobby was transmitted to young Carlos, who learned the names of many plants during the moments he spent outside his home with his father. While still a child, Linnaeus grew his own plants on a plot of land in his garden.

Education

Until the age of seven, Linnaeus was educated by his father at home, mostly in Latin, geography, and religion. Later, his family hired an educated, Johan Telander, to continue his training. However, young Carlos never appreciated his teacher.

Two years later, Linnaeus entered the Växjo Elementary Institute. At the age of 15, he began what would be his last year at school. His teacher during that course was Daniel Lannerus, a great connoisseur of botany. Realizing the young man's interest in this subject, he began to teach him in his garden.

Similarly, Lannerus introduced him to Johan Rothman, another professor and botanist. This helped Linnaeus to increase his knowledge on the subject, in addition to introducing him to the study of Medicine.

At the end of high school, Linnaeus continued his training at the Växjo Gymnasium in 1724. It was a center focused on those who wanted to pursue a religious career, something according to Linnaeus's father's wishes for his son. However, the professors, especially Rothman, claimed that this was not a good way out for Carlos and proposed that he become a doctor.

college

Linnaeus' little interest in being a priest caused deep disappointment in his family. His choice was to enter the University of Lund to study medicine, in 1727. In addition to classes, the future scientist traveled the outskirts of the city studying flora.

A year later, Linnaeus made the decision to leave Lund and enter the University of Uppsala. There she met Olof Celsius, an amateur botanist and theology professor who became her new mentor.

In 1729, Linnaeus presented his thesis: Praeludia sponsaliorum plantarum. This was about the sexuality of plants and its quality caused him to receive an offer to teach at the university, despite being only a second-year student.

During the winter of 1730, Linnaeus began to work to create a new system of classification of plants, since the existing one did not convince him.

Expedition to Lapland

Although the economic situation of Linnaeus at that time was not very good, he managed to organize an ethnographic and botanical expedition to Lapland. This, which began in 1732, was intended to find new plants, animals and minerals. A grant from the Uppsala Royal Society of Sciences enabled him to meet the costs.

During his journey, which lasted six months, Linnaeus gathered a large quantity of minerals and studied the plants and animals of the region. The result was the discovery of almost a hundred previously unknown plants. The conclusions were published in the book Flora lapponica.

In 1734, the scientist undertook a new expedition together with a group of students. The destination was Dalarna and the objective was to catalog the already known natural resources and try to discover new ones.

Europe travel

Back in Uppsala, Linnaeus spent Christmas at the home of one of his students, Claes Solberg. Her father invited the scientist to visit some nearby mines and later encouraged her to accompany her son as a tutor on a trip to the Netherlands. The scientist accepted the offer and, in April 1735, he and his companion arrived at their destination.

Along the way, the two travelers passed through Hamburg, Germany, the mayor showing the scientist the supposed embalmed remains of a seven-headed hydra. Linnaeus immediately discovered that it was false, which provoked the anger of the president and that the investigator and his student should flee the town.

Once at his destination, Linnaeus began studying medicine at the University of Harderwijk. His thesis dealt with the cause of malaria and after defending it in a debate and taking an exam, he managed to graduate and become a doctor at the age of 28.

Linnaeus met an old friend of Uppsala in the Dutch town. Both, still in Sweden, had made a promise that if one died, the other would finish his job. A few weeks later, Linnaeus' friend drowned in Amsterdam. His scientific legacy passed to Linnaeus: an unfinished research on the classification of fish.

Systema naturæ

One of Linnaeus' first contacts with the scientific community in the Netherlands was Jan Frederik Gronovius. In a meeting, the Swede showed him a manuscript on a new classification of plants that he had drawn up in Sweden. Gronovius was very impressed and offered to help him publish it.

With the financial assistance of Isaac Lawson, a Scottish doctor, Linnaeus' work was published under the name Systema naturae. (the full title was Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, in Spanish Sistema natural, in three kingdoms of nature, according to classes, orders, genera and species, with characteristics, differences, synonyms, places).

England

In September 1735, Linnaeus was hired as a personal physician to George Clifford III, one of the directors of the Dutch East India Company. In addition, he was also appointed botanical curator of the park that Clifford owned in Hartecamp.

In the summer of the following year, the Swedish scientist moved to England at the expense of Clifford. His mission in London was to visit various botanical experts. One of them was Phillip Miller, the curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden, to whom Linnaeus presented his system of classification of plants published in the Systema naturae.

The Briton, after reading Linnaeus' work, began to order his garden according to his system. However, other English scientists did not accept his method of classification.

During the following years, Linnaeus published some works on plants. Among them, one that described 935 plant genera in a summarized way: the General Plantarum.

Linnaeus' stay with Clifford lasted until October 1737. Months later, in May 1738, he returned to Sweden after a month-long stop in Paris.

Return to sweden

After a few months working on Falun, Linnaeus moved to Stockholm with the intention of finding a job as a doctor. Thanks to the efforts of some acquaintances, he joined the medical service of the Admiralty.

Also in Stockholm, Linnaeus was one of the founders of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, an entity of which he was the first president.

Improving his finances allowed him to marry his fiancee, Sara Elizabeth Moraea, on June 26, 1739.

In May 1741, the scientist became Professor of Medicine at the University of Uppsala. Soon after, he changed his position to that of professor of botany and natural history. In addition, he took over the botanical garden of the educational center.

Expeditions in Sweden

From his teaching post, Linnaeus organized an expedition together with six of his students. The destination was the Swedish islands of Öland and Gotland, where they wanted to find plants that were useful for medicine. The result was the discovery of almost 100 new species of plants.

In the summer of 1745, Linnaeus published two other books. One, on botany, was titled Flora Suecica, and the other, on zoology, was called Fauna Suecica. That same year, Linnaeus inverted the temperature scale invented by Celsius in 1742, giving it the format that is still used today.

The Swedish government commissioned Linnaeus to carry out a new expedition in the summer of 1746. This time, the destination was the province of Västergötland.

Linnaeus' prestige as a scientist kept increasing. In 1747, he was awarded the title of chief physician to the Swedish king. Also that year he was appointed a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences.

Rector

Starting in 1750, Linnaeus became rector of the University of Uppsala. From that position, he encouraged his students to travel to various parts of the world to collect botanical samples. In addition, every Saturday in the summer he would go out together with groups of students to exploit the fauna and flora around the city.

In 1751 he published Philosophia Botanica, a comprehensive study of the method of taxonomy that he had been using for years.

Two years later, Linnaeus published Species Plantarum, which the international scientific community accepted as the beginning of modern botanical nomenclature. That year he was also recognized by the king, who made him knight of the Polar Star. Thus, he was the first civilian to achieve that distinction.

Uppsala transfer

A fire that destroyed part of Uppsala and threatened his home led Linnaeus to build a museum near Hammarby. In addition, the scientist brought his library and his collection of plants there.

On the other hand, King Adolfo Federico granted him a title of nobility, which became effective in 1761.

Last years

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences relieved Linnaeus of his duties in 1763. The scientist, however, continued to work for the next ten years.

In 1772, before the deterioration of his health weighed down by fevers that he had suffered in 1764, Linnaeus resigned as rector. Two years later, he had a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. A second attack, in 1776, left his right side unusable and also affected his memory.

At the end of 1777 he suffered a new stroke. On January 10, 1778, he passed away in Hammarby.

Taxonomy of Carlos Linneo

From the beginning of his botanical investigations, Linnaeus strove to create a new classification of plants. At first, he relied on his reproductive system, but soon decided that it was not enough.

Thus, in 1731, the Swedish scientist created a binomial system that served to classify all living beings. The first word indicated the genus and the second the name of the species. Later, he grouped genders into families, families into classes, and classes into kingdoms.

Thanks to this work, he was able to classify more than 6,000 plant species and 8,000 animals. His book Species Plantarum, published in 1753, is considered the beginning of modern nomenclature.

That work has led to Linnaeus being considered the creator of the taxonomy, despite the fact that some scientists had made some approaches before.

Other contributions

Although his contribution to taxonomy is undoubtedly the most important work of Linnaeus, the Swedish scientist was also the author of other discoveries.

The human being as an animal species

According to some experts, Linnaeus was one of the first scientists to consider the origin of man beyond religious dogmas.

The Swedish researcher put the human being in his biological classification system, along with the rest of the living beings. Thus, in the first edition of the Systema naturae, it appeared under the name of Homo sapiens, located among the primates.

Sexual reproduction of plants

Linnaeus managed to demonstrate the sexual reproduction of plants, in addition to baptizing the different parts of the flowers. Thus, he developed a classification system based on the sexual parts, using the stamen to name the class and the pistil to determine the order.

Minerals

Although most of Linnaeus' research focused on plants and animals, he also did others on minerals.

The scientist dedicated part of his explorations to study and understand the composition of the minerals he found. This knowledge allowed him to classify them, just as he had done with living beings.

Plays

- Præludia sponsaliarum plantarum (1729)

- Fundamenta botanica quae majorum operum prodromi instar theoriam scientiae botanices per brief aphorismos tradunt (1732)

- Systema naturæ (1735-1770), with 13 corrected and enlarged editions.

- Fundamenta botanica (1735)

- Bibliotheca botanica (1736)

- Botanical Critique (1736)

- Genera plantarum (Ratio operis) (1737)

- Corollarium generum plantarum (1737)

- Flora lapponica (1737)

- Classes plantarum (1738)

- Hortus Cliffortiana (1738)

- Philosophia botanica (1751)

- Metamorphosis plantarum (1755)

- Flora svecica exhibens plants per Regnum Sveciae crescentes (1755)

- Fundamentum fructificationis (1762)

- Fructus esculenti (1763)

- Fundamentorum botanicorum parts I and II (1768)

References

1. Marcano, José E. Carlos Linneo. Obtained from jmarcano.com
2. EcuRed. Carlos Linneo. Obtained from ecured.cu
3. Historical figures. Carlos Linneo: Biography, Contributions, Classification and more. Obtained from charactershistoricos.com
4. Australian National Herbarium. Linnaeus, Carolus (1707-1778). Retrieved from anbg.gov.au
5. Müller-Wille, Staffan. Carolus Linnaeus. Retrieved from britannica.com
6. Famous Scientists. Carolus Linnaeus. Retrieved from famousscientists.org
7. Maccarthy, Eugene M. Carolus Linnaeus. Retrieved from macroevolution.net