The Linnean Collections
Linnaean Annotated Library
The Linnaean Annotated Library
The personal library of Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) held at the Linnean Society of London includes the books Linnaeus used as reference material (some 1,600 volumes), many of them given to him by fellow naturalists and admirers all over the world. The collection also contains all the theses of his students that he supervised.
The annotated collection contains Linnaeus' personal copies of his own works, spanning from 1735 to 1776, many interleaved and copiously annotated in his own hand. These annotations and corrections are incredibly rich resources for understanding the processes and sources that led to some of the most influential works in the history of science. The annotated collection includes two of his most famous works:
The first edition of Species plantarum (1753) is the starting point of the scientific naming of all plants (botanical nomenclature), and the 10th edition of Systema naturae (1758-59) is the beginning of the scientific naming of all animals.
In order to give researchers all over the world access to this unique material, the Linnaean Annotated Library (197 titles) has been digitised through the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
All of the information for each item/specimen is available to all users without logging in. Registered users do not have access to additional information or downloadable images. Permission to re-use images is required: please email images@linnean.org, or go to Reprographics and Image Use.
