Linnaeus at Bologna

The Tercentenary of Carolus Linnaeus is celebrated at the Bologna University with a temporary exhibition, opened by an inaugural Symposium.

Temporary exhibition

Botanic Garden, Bologna

Opening: October 22nd, 2007 Closure: January 31st, 2008

The exhibition includes a general introduction to the Linnaean scientific thought, and to his innovation on classification and nomenclature of living organisms. His relationships with Bononian botanists, and in particular with Ferdinando Bassi, is presented and documented with letters and herbarium specimens. A short itinerary through the Botanical Garden is focussed on the importance of Linnaean nomenclature.

Foreword

Pier Ugo Calzolari,

Rector, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna

Many prominent figures in all fields of arts and sciences have given glory to the Alma Mater Studiorum during its long life, and have contributed to progress of human knowledge in Europe and the whole world. A hotspot of this story is in the second half of the Eighteenth Century, at the times of the Enlightenment, with the appearance of the new science of classification of life.

Unquestioned leader of this innovation was the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus, also known in Sweden as Carl von Linné.

Linné had intense exchanges of letters and of dried specimens with scholars and pupils all around the world. Among his correspondents, two Bonionian botanists emerge. Giuseppe Monti, to whom Linné showed the highest consideration, and Ferdinando Bassi, with whom the great Swede had important exchanges of dried plants.

Recent finding of five autoptic Linnaean specimens in the historical Herbarium of the Alma Mater has given the opportunity to deepen the knowledge of the cultural exchanges between Bologna and Northern Europe. Researches in the archives of the Linnean Society of London, have driven to the discovery of several letters sent by Monti and by Bassi, along with accurate drawings of newly discovered species, and dried specimens sent by Ferdinando Bassi: such drawings and specimens served to Linné to describe plant species new to science.

Documents and specimens found in Bologna and London form the core for the exhibition “Linnaeus atr Bologna”, that highlights the impact of Linnean innovations, and the development of biological classification, in Italy - and particularly in Bologna.

The exhibition, also supported by an international scientific symposium, enlightens an aspect until now little known of the glorious history of the Alma Mater Studiorum. The exhibition, as well as the symposium, resulted from the synergy among researchers and technicians of different cultural training, belonging to different Faculties; they witness of the vitality of the University Museums, custodians of the historical legacy of the University and stimulus for further development of knowledge.