Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Notes and exhibits', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, vol. 8, pp. 532-3, 1884 (B84.04.10), and was read at the meeting of 27 December 1883. The letter is dated to December 1883 on that basis. The text is introduced by: 'The following communication from Baron von Müller on the Orthography of the name of Linnaeus was read'.

As a Society, bearing the great name of Linnaeus, must be particularly interested in the exact manner in which that name should be written, a translation is herewith offered

2

The translation is by M; see M to J. Agardh, 30 December 1883 (in this edition as 83-12-30a). Agardh's letter itself has not been found, but it was dated 11 October 1883; see J. Agardh to M, 20 November 1883.

from a letter by the celebrated Algologist, Professor Dr. J. Agardh, of Lund, to Baron von Müller, on this subject, concerning which, after some recent writings of the latter, a controversy had arisen.

3

For the controversy, see M to J. Agardh, 28 August 1883 (in this edition as 83-08-28a).

"You desire to know how the name of Linné has been written with us. In olden times it was customary in Sweden, that University Students chose a particular name, and to this often added the Latin syllable -us. Especially among Divines were such names very usual; thus we have had Archbishop Rydeling, Benzelius, and many others; in this manner the name of Linné was Carl Linnaeus; and so did he write it himself in all his publications, (whether Latin or Swedish) till he became ennobled. In former times it was here also very customary that whosoever was thus honoured, adopted a new name; and it was on this occasion that Linnaeus altered his name to Linné, writing either Carl Linné or Carl von Linné, or in his subsequent Latin works, Carolus a Linné, (vide Dissertatio de coloniis plantarum (1768), Planta Aphyleia (1776), and some other writings); but he wrote also Carolus Linné (Dissertatio de Erica 1770), and Carolus von Linné (Dissertatio de Cimicifuga (1774), Plantae Surinamenses (1775). Whether it was Linné himself or the then King (Gustav III.), who put the name into a French form, I must leave undecided." It may be added, that in Germany and Denmark, the name of the great Reformator in Natural History, is also usually written Linné.