Linnaeus's Uppsala

Scandinavian Review, Spring 2007 by Mortensen, Kristine

One of the most significant scientists ever to emerge from Scandinavia was Carl Linnaeus, the Father of Taxonomy. This year, the 300th anniversary of his birth is being celebrated wherever people fathom the enormity of his contributions-not least in the city he made his home for a half-century.

THE CITY OF UPPSALA, SITUATED ALONG LAKE MALAREN just 45 miles northwest of Stockholm, has been known for more than seven centuries for its enormous Gothic-style cathedral. The oldest and largest church edifice in Scandinavia, it was consecrated in 1435. The original cathedral took 175 years to build. It was restored in 1710 after a huge fire devastated most of the town, and again in the late 180Os.

A short walk from Fyrisan, the lovely river that meanders through the city, Uppsala Cathedral is flanked on its north, west and south sides by Uppsala University, the other institution for which the city is best known. Founded in 1477, it was the first university in Scandinavia. Today, it attracts more than 40,000 students and employs nearly 6,000 people, including faculty, staff and researchers.

But it is another claim to fame in the city's proud history that is being given center stage this year. Uppsala has declared itself "the city of Carl Linnaeus."

This year marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of the great Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. The tercentenary is being celebrated all over Sweden and in countless places around the world. But nowhere is this milestone being given more enthusiastic attention than in Uppsala, where Linnaeus spent the 50 most important years of his life.

Described by some as the most famous Swedish scientist then and now, Linnaeus developed a classification system for plant and animal life that revolutionized the world of natural science. In his first and most famous published work, Systema Naturae, he categorized plants according to their sexual characteristics. It caused quite a stir.

"He wasn't the first to point out that plants have females and males, sexuality was known by several," notes Carl-Olof Jacobson, a professor of zoology at Uppsala University, former secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and current chairman of the Swedish Linnaeus Society. "But many thought this was horrible. There was a German botanist who was working in St. Petersburg who wrote when he read (Linnaeus's) first book on the sexual system that 'you could never put a book like this in the hands of young girls; it is depraved. He's describing plants, the nicest things that God has created, (like) monsters with one male and 10 females!' So there was some resistance."

On top of that, Linnaeus was the first to classify man not only among the animals but among the apes. "This was disturbing for many, not least the church," Jacobson adds.

The publication of Systema Naturae, consisting of 12 folio pages, marked the beginning of a prolific scientific career. Linnaeus aspired to name all of creation, and by the time his work reached its 12th and final edition, it had grown to 2,300 pages and included some 15,000 plant, animal and mineral species. He, himself, is credited with saying, "God created, Linnaeus ordered."

Linnaeus grew up in southern Sweden in the province of Smâland. He moved to Uppsala in 1728 to study medicine. He brought with him a love of botany acquired from his father, a first-generation cleric who was himself an avid amateur botanist. Linnaeus distinguished himself as a gifted student and came under the tutelage of Olof Rudbeck the Younger, a legendary but by then aging professor of medicine.

"The professor was very old and had more or less left medical teaching behind," says Eva Björn, a cultural historian who is curator of Linnémuseet, the Linnaeus Museum, in central Uppsala. "It was kind of a low water mark for medicine during Linnaeus's time, so the field was open for him."

Soon Linnaeus was teaching in the university's Botanical Garden, or Academy Garden as it was called then. But in order to earn his doctorate in medicine, he, like all university students in Sweden at the time, had to travel abroad. He went to Holland and it was there, in 1735, that he published the first edition of his Systema Naturae at the age of 28. He also took advantage of the three years he spent in The Netherlands to become acquainted with numerous scientists and others who would form the basis of an extensive network of professional contacts with whom he would correspond for decades to come.

"He corresponded with more than 400 foreign scientists, most of them during the 1740s, '50s and '60s. That's quite a lot," notes professor Jacobson. This correspondence helped put Linnaeus and the city of Uppsala on the world map.

After Holland, Linnaeus spent a few years practicing medicine in Stockholm before returning to Uppsala to become a professor of medicine and botany at the university. As such, Linnaeus was entitled to take up residence in the university's Botanical House (now the Linnaeus Museum) and was made prefect of the adjacent Academy Garden. He and his family lived together in the house for 35 years, from 1743 to 1778. The family occupied the lower level and Linnaeus taught, worked on his collections and kept his library on the upper floor.