''Fundamenta Botanica'' ("Foundations of botany") (Amsterdam, Salomon Schouten, ed. 1, 1736) was one of the major works of the Swedish
botanist
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
,
zoologist
Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...
and
physician
A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
(1707–1778) and issued both as a separate work and as part of the ''
Bibliotheca Botanica
''Bibliotheca Botanica'' ("Bibliography of botany", Amsterdam, 1736, Salomen Schouten; 2nd edn., 1751) is a botany book by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778). The book was written and published in Amsterdam when Linnaeus was twenty-e ...
''.
Publication and reprints
This book states maia , for the first time, Linnaeus's ideas for the reformation of botanical
taxonomy
image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy
Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...
. The first edition is dated 1736 but it was released on 14 September 1735 (Linnaeus wrote in his personal copy "Typus absolutus 1735, Sept 3".). The full title was ''Fundamenta Botanica, quae Majorum Operum Prodromi instar Theoriam Scientiae Botanices by breves Aphorismos tradunt''.
The first edition was dedicated to
Olof Rudbeck
Olaus Rudbeck (also known as Olof Rudbeck the Elder, to distinguish him from his son, and occasionally with the surname Latinized as ''Olaus Rudbeckius'') (13 September 1630 – 12 December 1702) was a Swedish scientist and writer, professor ...
,
Lorenz Heister,
Adriaan van Royen,
Johann Jacob Dillen,
Antoine de Jussieu
Antoine de Jussieu (6 July 168622 April 1758) was a French Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and physician.
Jussieu was born in Lyon. He was the son of Christophe de Jussieu (or Dejussieu), an apothecary of some repute, who published a ' ...
,
Giulio Pontedera,
Johann Amman,
Johannes Burman
Johannes Burman (26 April 1707 in Amsterdam – 20 February 1780), was a Dutch botanist and physician. Burman specialized in plants from Ceylon, Amboina and Cape Colony. The name ''Pelargonium'' was introduced by Johannes Burman.
Johannes ...
,
Pierre Magnol
Pierre Magnol (8 June 1638 – 21 May 1715) was a French botanist. He was born in the city of Montpellier, where he lived and worked for most of his life. He became Professor of Botany and Director of the Royal Botanic Garden of Montpellier and h ...
and
Giuseppe Monti
Giuseppe Monti (27 November 1682 – 29 February 1760) was an Italians, Italian chemist and Botany, botanist. He was a professor of botany and from 1722 to 1760 director of the Bologna Botanical Garden. His son Gaetano Lorenzo Monti (1712–1797) ...
.
A second edition was published in Stockholm in 1740 and a third in Amsterdam in 1741. The publication of this work as well as
Genera Plantarum
''Genera Plantarum'' is a publication of Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778). The first edition was issued in Leiden, 1737. The fifth edition served as a complementary volume to ''Species Plantarum'' (1753). Article 13 of the Internat ...
and
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...
was encouraged by
Herman Boerhaave
Herman Boerhaave (, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738Underwood, E. Ashworth. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. .) was a Dutch chemist, botanist, Christian humanist, and ph ...
, who had been Linnaeus's teacher.
Impact
The ''Fundamenta'' in combination with the ''
Critica Botanica
''Critica Botanica'' ("Critique of botany", Leiden, July 1737) was written by Swedish botanist, physician, zoologist and naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778). The book was published in Germany when Linnaeus was 29 with a discursus by the botani ...
'' lays Linnaeus's bronzers for his system of
nomenclature
Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. (The theoretical field studying nomenclature is sometimes referred to as ''onymology'' or ''taxonymy'' ). The principl ...
,
classification
Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...
and botanical terminology that were later reviewed and expanded in the ''
Philosophia Botanica
''Philosophia Botanica'' ("Botanical Philosophy", ed. 1, Stockholm & Amsterdam, 1751.) was published by the Swedish naturalist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) who greatly influenced the development of botanical Taxonomy (biology), taxono ...
'' (1751). He does this by means of 365
aphorism
An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...
s (principles) arranged into 12 chapters:
Table of contents
''VIRIS NOBILISSIMIS'' (Dedication to men to honor)
''BOTANICIS CELEBERRIMIS'' (Dedication to famous botanists)
''PRAEFATIO'' (Preface)
''FUNDAMENTA BOTANICA'' (Botanical fundamentals or fundamental botanical aphorisms)
::I. ''BIBLIOTHECA'' (library), Aphorismen : articles 1-52 (page 1-5)
::II. ''SYSTEMATA'' (systematics) : articles 53–77 (pages 5-7)
::III. ''PLANTAE'' (plants) : articles 78–85 (pages 7-9)
::IV. ''FRUCTIFICATIO'' (fruit carrier) : articles 86–131 (pages 10-15)
::V. ''SEXUS'' (sex) : articles 132–150 (pages 15-17)
::VI. ''CHARACTERES'' (characterisation) : articles 151–209 (pages 18-22)
::VII. ''NOMINA'' (nouns or names) : articles 210–255 (pages 23-26)
::VIII. ''DIFFERENTIAE'' (distinction) : articles 256–305 (pages 26-29)
::IX. ''VARIATIONES'' (Varieties) : articles 306–317 (pages 30-31)
::X. ''SYNONYMA'' (synonyms) : articles 318–324 (pages 31-31)
::XI. ''ADUMBRATIONES'' (description) : articles 325–335 (pages 31-32)
::XII. ''VIRES'' (forces) : articles 336–365 (pages 33-35)
''CONCLUSIONES EX DICTIS'' (Conclusion from the foregoing) I-XII (page 36)
Bibliographic details
Full bibliographic details including exact dates of publication, pagination, editions, facsimiles, brief outline of contents, location of copies, secondary sources, translations, reprints, manuscripts, travelogues, and commentaries are given in Stafleu and Cowan's ''Taxonomic Literature''.
[Stafleu & Cowan, p. 75.]
References
Bibliography
* Stafleu, Frans A. & Cowan, Richard S. 1981. "Taxonomic Literature. A Selective Guide to Botanical Publications with dates, Commentaries and Types. Vol III: Lh–O." ''Regnum Vegetabile'' 105.
{{Authority control
1736 non-fiction books
1736 in science
18th-century books in Latin
Botanical nomenclature
Florae (publication)
Botany books
Carl Linnaeus
Biology and natural history in the Dutch Republic