Title:
Albrecht von Haller to Carl Linnaeus
Type:
Image
Licence:
Contact [email protected]
Repository:
The Linnean Society of London
Collection:
Linnaean Correspondence
Reference number:
LC/6/97
Archival level:
Item
Date:
25 May 1747
Placement:
Volume 6: 190
Extent:
190
Language:
la
Description:
In his last letter of 10 April 1747 o.s., 21 April 1747 n.s., Linnaeus says that Albrecht von Haller is angry with him, because Haller is censured in Linnaeus’s dissertation for adding Passiflora to the Cucurbitaceae. Moreover, the letter was full of hard expressions. If this is Linnaeus’s way of showing his friendship how does he show his anger? He sends an engraving of Linnaeus’s medal. Owing to the tension between Linnaeus and Haller the correspondence and interchange of books, northern plants and mosses have been interrupted. Linnaeus severely criticises Haller in Flora Svecica and he changes the names of all but one of the plants named by Haller. Haller defended Linnaeus to Johann Jakob Dillenius. Linnaeus has overthrown Haller’s determination of more than 400 Alpine plants.Time should not be wasted on quarrels. Haller will go to Eisleben and the warm parts of Saxony to promote the “Prodromus” of his German Flora. He hopes to determine Hippomarathrum (Rivinus). Franz Balthasar Lindern has published Hortus Alsaticus. He expects Christian Gottlieb Ludwig’s Definitiones plantarum. The latter has taken much from Linnaeus but not his classes. These are based on the petals according to August Quirinus Rivinus. A disciple of Haller’s has found Napellus coeruleus in Germany.
Sender:
Haller, Albrecht von
Recipient:
Linnaeus, Carl
Sent to location:
[Uppsala, Sweden]
Transcription:
LINNAEO celeberrimo A[lbertus] Haller. Non absque dolore legi Tuas ultimas datas 10 april[is]. Dum testaris Te me amare, laudare, ais iratum fuisse, cum lego Te in diss[ertatione] Tua me carpere, quod Passifloram addiderim cucurbitaceis, et asperis vocibus plenam scribis epistolam. Si is Tibi amoris modus est, quomodo succenses? An injuriam Tibi facio, quod Tua, ut jacent, lego? Persuadere, quaeso, Linnaee celeberrime, noli me aemulum Tui aut invidum credere. Noli ea ratione mecum agere quasi laudibus Tuis vellem detractum. Ecce contrarium, quod mitto specimen sculptum Tuum cum Koehleri nostri explicatione nummum, quem ipse Cl[arissimo] viro cum libris Tuis suppeditavi. Ego omnes naturae amantes homines amo et neglectus a Te interrupto commercio, interrupta librorum communicatione, detrectata missione plantarum aliquarum borealium aut muscorum, carptus tot locis florae Suecicae mutatis omnibus nominibus plantarum, quas ego primus determinavi, relicto unico. Vides, quomodo me ulciscar. Adgnosce hominem ab invidia, imo a simplici doloris sui publica mentione alienissimum, Tuae famae studiosissimum. Obiit Dillenius, sed epistolae mihi sunt in manubus, ex quibus manifestum sit, quam sollicite ego Te apud eum summum botanicum purgaverim. Talis cum sim, vide an Tuum amorem merear? An asperas voces, an eversionem eorum, quae in re herbaria feci (nempe determinationis ultra 400 stirpium Alpinarum)? Annon melius sit et jucundius labores nostros nunquam omni naturae suffu[l]turos conjungere quam liticulis, aemulatione tempus terere, in controversias delabi, valetudini suae et felicitati nocere? Dissensum facillime fero. Sed eum, quoties ab amico eum patimur, mollit ipse modus, quo dissentitur, et cura in exprimendo nostro aliis locis, ubi nihil ab amico peccatur, judicio. In re herbaria nihil valde promovi. Nunc ad eam redeo. Hac aestate iter suscipiam Eislebiense et ad vicinas calidas partes Saxoniae, ut promoveam meum Florae Germanicae prodromum et determinem Hippomarathrum Riv[ini] aliasque nonnullas plantas. Alpinae aliquae laete mihi germinant. Aliquas etiam sculptas dabo. Linderus edidit Floram Alsaticam cum novis aliquot iconibus et specierum determinationibus. Ludwigii definitiones quotidie exspecto. Multum mutatas fore praevideo. Nunc vidi; multa a Te recepit. Classes maluit, ne a Rivino nimus dissentiret, a petalis sumere totus eclecticus. Nihil ult[ra] novi vidi ad rem herbariam. In Germania a discipulo meo Napellus coeruleus et [Polemonium] et aliae spontanea repertae. Vale et me non aliter meritum ama! D[abam] 25 Maj[i] 1747. [address] Celeberrimo Linnaeo / Upsaliam
Previous reference number:
L0805
