Title:
Adriaan van Royen to Carl Linnaeus
Type:
Image
Licence:
Contact [email protected]
Repository:
The Linnean Society of London
Collection:
Linnaean Correspondence
Reference number:
LC/12/132
Archival level:
Item
Date:
8 January 1739
Placement:
Volume 12: 271-272
Extent:
271-272
Description:
Adriaan van Royen gratefully acknowledges receipt of letters from France and Sweden, where Linnaeus is now back. He would have wished to answer these letters before, but excessive work has not admitted of this. Van Royen has been appointed successor to Herman Boerhaave together with Hieronymus David Gaub. Now he both works and teaches at the hospital clinic, a very demanding task. To this comes a very upsetting academic feud with a person he thought was his friend, but who has acted deceitfully. Van Royen is bitter, disappointed and full of pain. The constant work, pain and worries have made it impossible even to think of editing a flora of Leiden. What he has done, however, is to start writing a preliminary study, a “prodrome”, to this flora. So far, he has finished about a third of it, but, because of his work, it is almost impossible to find time to devote to his beloved botany. Van Royen mentions various plants. An African plant, Ferula Myrrhidis, has flowered. Joseph Pitton de Tournefort was right in referring Siler aquilegiae to Angelicae. Could Linnaeus help him classify the two enclosed plants? From Philip Miller van Royen has received Randia, Guajabara, Calaba, Ximemia and Guajacum. In the fields of chemistry and metallurgy no progress is being made. Johannes Burman has now published eight Decades and is planning another two. The tenth and last will deal with African plants. When this work is completed, van Royen will send it to Linnaeus together with his prodromel, and his speech at Boerhaave’s funeral. As Linnaeus probably already knows, Johann Bartsch has died miserably in Surinam. Boerhaave’s library will be sold in the spring. He had bequeethed all manuscripts to his relatives, the Kaans, nothing to the university, not even the lithophytes, which will all be sold by Luchtmans’s bookshop. Van Royen will recover his own “Bibliotheca botanica et medica“, and try to acquire the pictures by Charles Plumier, either for himself or for the public library. Van Royen excuses himself for not sending anything this time, but he must first discuss this matter with his brother in Amsterdam. Together with his wife, van Royen congratulates Linnaeus on his matrimony and wishes the newly married couple “joyful days and not idle nights”. Van Royen’s wife is already expecting their third child, thus setting Linnaeus a good example to emulate!
Sender:
Royen, Adriaan van
Sent from location:
Leydae [Leiden, Netherlands]
Recipient:
Linnaeus, Carl
Sent to location:
[Stockholm, Sweden]
Transcription:
Viro Clarissimo D[omino] D[octori] Carolo Linnaeo. Med[icinae] Doct[ori] Ac[ademiae] Imp[erialis] Nat[urae] Cur[iosorum] Socio Botanicorum Principi Amico exoptatissimo integerrimo S[alutem] P[lurimam] D[icit] Adrianus Van Royen. Tuas, tum in Gallia peregrinantis, tum in patriam reducis litteras accepi et quam avidissime exosculatus sum; Utinam prius ad eas respondere licuisset praxi et practicis collegiis ocupatissimus: Ut enim Cl[arissimus] Gaubius in Theoreticis, ita ego in Practicis Cl[arissimo] Boerhaavio successor datus sum ab Illustriss[imis] hujus Academiae Curatoribus, quibus et visum fuit, me Praxi clinicae in Nosocomio coram aegris docendae admovere, unde, quantum occuper in dies ipse facile colliges, sed et forte dolebis cum vix somnus aut cibus me reficiat amplius, exulante jam omni laetitiae datore: accedit, quod, sed reprimam me nec chartae, cui nomen praefigitur meum, quidquam committam prius, quam iniquissimae rei exitum viderim; forte enim alter in foveam, quam mihi fecerat, incidet, sed de his alio et sereniori tempore: Tu candorem novisti meum, Hic solus mihi nocuit, tum et quod nimis apertus fuerim apud eum, quem multis sane nominibus mihi devinctissimum im amicitiam interiorem admiseram. Hi summi cordis dolores et curae perpetuae effecerunt ut de editione Florae Leydensis ne quidem cogitare potuerim; His tamen paucorum dierum feriis, postquam non Floram, sed Florae Prodromum brevem, edere decreveram tertiam circiter partem absolvi, quae jam sub prelo sudat quo autem tempore totum prodromus ad umbilicum perducam novit ille, qui sperata nobis otia faciet; namque me totum sibi vindicat medicina adeo ut vix horula de die, Botanicae dilectisque mihi Botanicis supersit colendis. Ex Africanis istis floruit fruticosa quaedam planta, quae Ferula Myrrhidis folio Commelino in horto Amst[elodamensi] nuncupatur. Ego ad Bubonem retuli, an recte judices ex Umbella his inclusa, licet enim non omnia, plurima tamen cum hoc genere habet communia. Siler aquilegiae folio Boerh[aavii] recte ad Angelicas relatum a Tournefortio scias velim, habet enim Folia sub umbella, ut ex Magnolii characteribus didici: hinc neque amplius vaga erit planta. Adjectam verticilla tam determines mihique quo pertinant, significes. Tum et alteram, quae nasturtii faciem prae se fert humique procumbit ramosissima, mihi quippe tempus non sufficit examini. A Millero vivas accepi Randiam et Guajabaram Houst. Calabam Ximemiam et Guajacum lentisci folio fructu tetragono Plum. aliasque plures, utinam jam fixam haberent sedem! In Chemicis aut Metallurgicis hactenus hic prodiit nihil. Cl[arissimus] Burmannus jam 8 decades edidit et in 10:mo, credo, cum africanis subsistet. Opus absolutum transmittam una cum prodromo nostro, oratione funebri in orbitum Cl[arissimi] Boerhaavii &c. si quaedam alia hinc desideres, velim significes et prima opportunitate obtinebis: interim te mei memorem vivere gaudeo, et quicquid in Ericis aliisque depingendis ac describendis praestiteris, in foenore positum suo tempore experieris. Eximium Bartschium curis et pauperie enectum in Sÿrinama periisse non dubito quin jam resciveris. Integra C[larissimi] Boehavii Bibliotheca verno tempore distrahetur. Manuscripta ad unum omnia legavit Cognatis Kaan. Academiae nihil, immo ne quidem lithophyta, quae una cum libris divendet D[ominus] Luchtmannus. Ego, si vivam, meam ex ejus Bibliotheca Bibliothecam Botanicam et Medicam instruam, et vel mihi vel Bibliothecae publicae autographas Plumierii icones comparabo, et plura auro certe redimenda. Ne, quaeso, aegre feras, quod hoc tempore nihil transmittam, prius enim cum fratre meo, qui Amstelaedami degit, colloquar, et de via ac modo conveniam, necesse est; Uxorem jam Te duxisse rumor ait, si verus, hanc vitae conditionem gratulor et faustissima quaeque Tibi Tuaeque apprecor; probat et haec vota uxor mea: sic laeti transeant dies, nec inertes transigantur noctes; nos jam in terio sed nondum excluso, tori pignore praeimus. Vale et me Tuo utere. Plurimum Te salvere jubet D[ominus] Gronovius. Dabam Leydae ad d[iem] 8. Januar[ii] 1739. [address] Monsieur / Monsieur C. Linnaeus Docteur / en Medecin et Membre de l’Academie Imperiale / Tres celebre a Stockholm
Previous reference number:
L0272
Condition note:
Discol r.h.edge and centre l. 271 recto. Seal tear and split. Black seal present.
