This is how Carl Linnaeus himself described his collection of letters:
"Linnaeus has exchanged correspondence not only rather copiously throughout Sweden, with all curious people, but also with many foreigners and in particular with the most learned and curious in Europe [...]. This valuable collection of letters should be made public as it contains many hundreds of letters in which are treated anything extraordinary that occurred from 1735 until his death." What could be more public than publishing all of the letters on the internet? A sort of posthumous blog that will contain letters from Linnaeus, and from his disciples and other scientists throughout the world. The place to find it is www.linnaeus.c18.net, where the 5,600 known letters, both to and from Linnaeus, are presented in facsimile, with a summary of each letter in English, an easy-to-use catalogue of all letters, and brief biographies of people who are mentioned in the correspondence. "The letters are not only of scientific interest for biologists: they also give an accurate view of life in the 18th century and the way of thinking at the time", says Carl-Olof Jacobson, Chairman of the Swedish Linnaeus Society. |
