REWRITING THE SYSTEM OF NATURE: LINNAEUS'S USE OF WRITING TECHNOLOGIES

As a consequence of overseas discoveries, early modern scientists were faced with what has been termed the “first bio-information crisis”. The sheer amount of exotic, hitherto unknown species that reached the shores of Europe forced scientists to reconsider the ways in which they wrote and thought about the natural world. Paper technologies had to be developed that allowed to process large amounts of new information, and these technologies in turn allowed early modern naturalists and physicians to think in new ways about the “order of nature.”

Index card from Linnaean Collections Index card from Linnean collections. Courtesy Linnean Society of London

The aim of this 3-year research project is to explore these processes through a detailed reconstruction of the ways in which the naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) assembled, filed, and cross-referenced information about plants and their medicinal virtues. Linnaeus has been described as a “pioneer in information retrieval.” In particular, Linnaeus was one of the first to suggest that “natural” plant genera and families share similar pharmaceutical virtues, and that herbal drugs might be sought out on that basis. His manuscripts, held at the Linnean Society (London), provide an excellent opportunity to understand how information processing practices determine such ideas.

genera plantanum Annotated copy of Genera plantarum (1737) from Linnaeus's own library. Courtesy Linnean Society of London

While the project focuses on the corpus of manuscripts and publications of a single scientist, Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), it will serve as a pilot project to develop both a terminology and a methodology that is attentive to the materiality of writing, and will have ramifications for how the history of science and medicine is done in general. More details on the project.

The research project has been awarded with a Wellcome Trust Research Grant on condition that a suitable research assistant will be appointed.

For further information contact Dr. Staffan Müller-Wille