Linnaeus : The Compleat Naturalist - Softcover

Wilfred Blunt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0711223629 ISBN 13: 9780711223622

Publisher: Frances Lincoln, 2004

Synopsis

Carl Linnaeus (1707-78) invented the system, now used worldwide, of giving living organisms two Latin names and through his Systema Naturae, published in 1735, brought order to all recorded knowledge about plants and animals. This book charts Linnaeus's rise from poor student at Lund University in Sweden, to Professor of Medicine at Uppsala and founder of the Royal Academy of Sciences. A keen traveller, scientist, collector, painter and geologist, his lifelong passion was for botany. In the course of his life, he distinguished and named 9000 plants, 828 shells, 2100 insects and 477 fish. This is a lively and readable account of Linnaeus the man, his adventures in the wilds of Lapland, his family life and his relations with his pupils, as well as his epoch-making scientific achievements.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"This evocative account of Linnaeus's life and achievements has become a natural history classic. Wilfrid Blunt beautifully captures Linnaeus's zest for botany and its key place in the intellectual ferment of the eighteenth century, showing how the Linnean system was used by plant explorers from America to Japan to Lapland and helped establish the foundation of modern botanical science--as well as introducing new species to gardens all over the world. The impact of this system on the culture of Linnaeus's day was incalculable, ranging from the classification of diseases to fashionable illustrative art or spicy innuendo in writing about the sex life of plants. And the man himself was lively and likeable, with an eye for a joke in naming species after friends or enemies. This new edition of Blunt's story of the "Prince of Flowers" will make a very welcome addition to any plant-lover's library."--Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging

About the Author

Wilfrid Blunt was for many years senior drawing master at Eton. An Associate of the Royal College of Art and a fellow of the Linnean Society, he was the author of a number of biographies and books on European art and botany: his The Art of Botanical Illustration has become a standard work of reference. He died in 1987. Professor William T. Stearn, who contributed a new Introduction, was a distinguished botanist of the British Museum (Natural History) and Honorary Curator of the Linnean Society's Botanic Collections. His appendix on Linnean Classification, Nomenclature and Method provides a concise and well documented survey of the basic facts necessary for understanding Linnaeus's work. He died in 2001.

Edition details

• Publisher: Frances Lincoln
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0711223629
• ISBN 13: 9780711223622
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288