Fundamenta Botanica is a topic that has generated great interest and debate in modern society. For years, Fundamenta Botanica has been the subject of study, discussion and controversy in various fields, including politics, science, culture and history. Its relevance and impact on people's lives make it a topic of great importance for understanding today's world. Over the years, a wide spectrum of opinions and points of view on Fundamenta Botanica have developed, which has contributed to enriching the knowledge and understanding of this phenomenon. In this article, we will explore some of the most relevant perspectives and reflections around Fundamenta Botanica, with the aim of analyzing its impact and significance in contemporary society.
Fundamenta Botanica ("Foundations of botany") (Amsterdam, Salomon Schouten, ed. 1, 1736) was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and issued both as a separate work and as part of the Bibliotheca Botanica.
This book states, for the first time, Linnaeus's ideas for the reformation of botanical taxonomy. 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, Lorenz Heister, Adriaan van Royen, Johann Jacob Dillen, Antoine de Jussieu, Giulio Pontedera, Johann Amman, Johannes Burman, Pierre Magnol and Giuseppe Monti.
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 and Systema Naturae was encouraged by Herman Boerhaave, who had been Linnaeus's teacher.
The Fundamenta in combination with the Critica Botanica lays Linnaeus's foundations for his system of nomenclature, classification and botanical terminology that were later reviewed and expanded in the Philosophia Botanica (1751). He does this by means of 365 aphorisms (principles) arranged into 12 chapters:
VIRIS NOBILISSIMIS (Dedication to men to honor)
BOTANICIS CELEBERRIMIS (Dedication to famous botanists)
PRAEFATIO (Preface)
FUNDAMENTA BOTANICA (Botanical fundamentals or fundamental botanical aphorisms)
CONCLUSIONES EX DICTIS (Conclusion from the foregoing) I-XII (page 36)
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.