Posted on Thursday 14 June 2007
On the odd occasion, I've been accused of being too focussed on technology without much of an awareness or, at least, not much display of my understanding of the rare book trade and the interests of the people in it. To counter this accusation I would like to take the opportunity to digress from my IT focus and venture into a subject that is maybe closer to the collector's heart. For this reason, I have decided to write briefly on the life and works of Carl Linnaeus (1707-1770), in celebration of his 300th birthday, which has just past us by.
Carl Linnaeus is of particular interest to me as a technologist, because he is considered to be the father of modern taxonomy, which is the science of categorisation (particularly with regard to biology) or naming things. Taxonomy is very relevant to IT in general, because standardised nomenclature is used across the field. Without it, we would not have much of the software that is available to us today. In particular, Linnaeus gave us the binomial nomenclature that is used to describe every species of animal or plant that is discovered on earth. The system is so powerful, that it is used in every scientific discipline, from botany to zoology. Even paleantologists name newly discovered fossils according to Linnaean taxonomy.
Linnaeus' story is one of rags to riches. He was born on a farm in southern Sweden and sent to a school to study to be a clergyman. Although the teachings of the clergy clearly rubbed off on him, his interest in botany seemed to distract him from his studies. The local physician suggested that Carl's father send him to develop his knowledge in the field at University. Although he struggled financially, Carl managed to impress a number of leading botanists at Uppsala University and he was soon appointed as a lecturer within the faculty.
In 1732, Linnaeus took part in an expedition to sub-arctic Lapland, which at the time was relatively unknown. This journey inspired his first two books, Florula Lapponica and the later Flora Lapponica. Both of these works focus on the sexes of plants, and develop his fascination with the stamens and pistils of flowers. While there are a number of second edition copies of Flora Lapponica available on the Internet, I haven't seen any copies of Florula Lapponica.
The highlight of Linnaeus' career is in his publication of the Systema Naturae, in which he presents his taxonomy for the first time. He initially published this as a short 11-page pamphlet, soon after he moved to the Netherlands in 1735. Through his life, he revised this work constantly and managed to release 13 editions of the document. By the time he had published the 13th edition in 1770, the work had grown to some 3000 pages. The Systema Naturae was initially released to develop on his early methods of classifying plants according to the number of stamens that they had in their flowers. However, the complete title, Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis reveals his wider-scale project which was to provide a method to categorise the natural world according to three kingdoms (Animal, Plant, Mineral).
Arguably the most important edition of the book is the tenth (1758), which serves as the starting point for all zoological nomenclature based around the binomial system I mentioned earlier, and follows on from his binomial system for all plant species as presented in his 1753 publication of the Species Plantarum. He also made a number of major corrections to the tenth edition, including the recategorisation of the whale from fish to mammal. Of course, editions prior to the 13th edition are understandably rare. A good copy of the 13th edition can sell for around $20,000. Of course, if you're less wealthy, you can browse through a 13th edition copy online at Google Books.
Although remaining a Christian throughout his life, Linnaeus' work laid the foundations for a system that would eventually be developed into the evolutionary theory that would be presented by Charles Darwin nearly a century after the 10th edition of the Systema Naturae. Indeed, Linnaeus is responsible for categorising homo sapiens as belonging to the primates, a revolutionary step in his time and one which brought him the criticism of the Archbishop of Uppsala.
Nonetheless, Linnaeus was ennobled by the Swedish king in 1757. The reach of his legacy is summed up in the hyperbolic words of Jean Jacques Rosseau: "Tell him I know of no greater man on earth!"; and this more reserved and germanic offering from Goethe: "With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly".
When Rare Book Review asked me to write a regular column for their website, I was excited by the prospect of being able to write for such a prestigious magazine and by the opportunity to share my views about the trade from a technology-centric perspective. In the last decade the world has changed dramatically, not least due to some massive leaps in our use of technology in our every-day lives. And while it may easily be disputed that all of these changes have been for the better, it seems that most of us can't live without them today. But even as we pull out our mobile phones while browsing the stalls at a fair, or quickly tap up an email on our Blackberry PDAs, we are often hard-pressed to see how all of this new paraphernalia has much direct application to the rare book world. Indeed, it seems that, more often than not, while computers are becoming more and more powerful and capable of so many amazing tasks, the rare book world seems to plod along using archaic applications and the most basic computing functions available. In these environments it is often difficult to see how to make the most of the technology available to us and how each new breakthrough in the digital domain will apply to our rare book collections.