The Fathers of Taxonomy
A brief tribute.
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli corresponded with Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist who laid the foundations of modern taxonomy.[1] Scopoli communicated all of his research, findings, and descriptions (for example of the olm and the dormouse, two little animals hitherto unknown to Linnaeus). Linnaeus greatly respected him and showed great interest in his work. Because of a great distance, however, they never met.
Linnaean historian, chronicler, and analyst Frans Stafleu points out that Linnaeus’s training and background was scholastic. He excelled in logic, “… which was almost certainly the Aristotelian and Thomistic logic generally taught in secondary schools all over Europe”:[31]
Linnaeus’s methods were based on philosophical principles and logical a priori assumptions which gradually lost their relevance to the natural sciences during the eighteenth century. Even so, the direct results of his work were salutary: descriptions were standardised, ranks fixed, names given according to precise rules and a classification proposed which permitted rapid and efficient storage and retrieval of taxonomic information. No wonder that much of what Linnaeus proposed stood the test of time. The designation of species by binary names which have the character of code designations is only one element out of many which show the profound practicality underlying Linnaeus’s activities and publications.[32]
Flora Lapponica (1737)
Flora Lapponica (Amsterdam, 1737)[1] is an account of the plants of Lapland written by botanist, zoologist and naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1788) following his expedition to Lapland. In Flora Lapponica Linnaeus’s ideas about nomenclature and classification were first used in a practical way, making this the first proto-modern Flora.[4] The account covered 534 species, used the Linnaean classification system and included, for the described species, geographical distribution and taxonomic notes. It was Augustin Pyramus de Candolle who attributed Linnaeus with Flora Lapponica as the first example in the botanical genre of Flora writing. Botanical historian E.L. Greene described Flora Lapponica as “the most classic and delightful of Linnaeus’s writings”.
Genera Plantarum (1737)
Genera Plantarum contains brief descriptions of the 935 plant genera that were known to Linnaeus at that time. It is dedicated to Herman Boerhaave, a Leiden physician who introduced Linnaeus to George Clifford and the medico-botanical Dutch establishment of the day. Genera Plantarum employed his “sexual system” of classification, in which plants are grouped according to the number of stamens and pistils in the flower. Genera Plantarum was revised several times by Linnaeus, the fifth edition being published in August 1754 (eds. 3 and 4 were not edited by Linnaeus) and linked to the first edition of Species Plantarum.[1] Over the 16 years that passed between the publication of the first and fifth editions the number of genera listed had increased from 935 to 1105.
Flora Carniolica (1772)
- Scopoli, Giovanni Antonio (1772). Flora Carniolica exhibens plantas Carnioliae indigenas et distributas in classes, genera, species, varietates, ordine Linnaeano. Vindobonensis (Vienna): Ioannis Pauli Krauss.: A revised second edition of the first elaborate description of the flora of Carniola, undertaken when Scopoli lived in Idrija. It has 66 plates engraved by J. F. Rein after original drawings by Scopoli. Whereas the unillustrated first edition of 1760 of 600 pages had no binary names for the plant species, this edition has binary names and is written in the Linnaean tradition in all other respects as well.
Natural History Containing Genera of Stones, Plants, and Animals (1777)
- Introductio ad historiam naturalem, sistens genera lapidum, plantarum et animalium hactenus detecta, caracteribus essentialibus donata, in tribus divisa, subinde ad leges naturae. Prague. (1777): masterwork of natural history describing world genera and species.
