Olof Rudbeck the Elder
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Olof Rudbeck the Elder , also Olaus Rudbeckius (born September 13 or December 11 , baptized December 12, 1630 in Västerås , † September 17, 1702 in Uppsala ) was a Swedish anatomist, botanist and polymath . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " OJRudbeck ".
Life
Olaus Rudbeck was the son of the Bishop of Västerås , Johannes Rudbeckius . His godfather was King Gustav II Adolf . He attended the grammar school founded by his father in Västerås. In 1648 he moved to Uppsala University , where he studied medicine, including the anatomical writings of William Harvey . With a work on the blood circulation ( De circulatione sanguinis ) Rudbeck received his doctorate in medicine in Uppsala in 1652.
In 1652 he discovered that the lymphatic vessels represent a separate organ system. However, it can be assumed that the Danish doctor Thomas Bartholin made the same discovery, which he published in his work Vasa lymphatica nuper hafniae in animalibus inventa et hepatis exsequiae in 1653, two months before Rudbeck.
1653 began Rudbeck with a scholarship from Christina of Sweden and Axel Oxenstierna , the chancellor of the University of Uppsala, to study in Leiden . There he dealt with medicinal science , as well as music , mechanics , painting and ancient studies , but did not obtain a degree. Rudbeck returned to Uppsala in 1654 as an adjunct in medicine. As a lecturer in botany at the University of Uppsala, he laid out the botanical garden there, which gained great importance through Carl von Linné . In 1660 he became professor of natural history, 1661–1670 he was rector of the university. He later received the professorship in anatomy and then also became the university's curator . He not only reformed studies and designed the most modern dissecting room in Europe ( Theatrum anatomicum ), which could also be visited for a fee by the citizens of Uppsala, but also invented fish traps, windmills and a lifting bridge, set up a postal service between Uppsala and Stockholm and secured it Uppsala's water supply through an aqueduct.
Rudbeck was also active as an excavator; according to his own information, he examined 16,000 burial mounds , which he dated over the thickness of the humus layer.
He was the father of Olof Rudbeck the Younger , Alfred Nobel is one of his great-great-great-grandsons .
Uppsala University
According to Rudbeck (1685), the university should not be an elementary school or church school, the latter being its main purpose at the time, but should be there for all those striving for a state office, whether spiritual or secular, civil or military, including for “master masons, carpenters, the builders of Hammer mills and fountains and others ”. He therefore placed great emphasis on imparting practical knowledge and trained his students, among other things, in surveying, shipbuilding and the construction of fountains and in fireworks , which was his special passion.
His successor at the chair for medicine was his son Olof Rudbeck the Younger.
Works
Rudbeck created a large set of panels with woodcuts in which he wanted to depict all known plants; he drew around 11,000 plants for this. In 1701 the second part of the work appeared as Campi Elysii liber secundus , in 1702 the first part. In a fire on May 16, 1702, all copies of the first part were destroyed except for two and most of the copies of the second part. A new edition of the first part in 20 copies did not appear until 1863.
From 1670 until his death Rudbeck worked on the work Atland eller Manheim, Atlantica sive Manheim, vera Japheti posterorum sedes et patria (Upsala 1675–98, 4 volumes). It was published simultaneously in Swedish and Latin, with Swedish being the original version and the Latin version being created by a translator.
In the Atlantica Rudbeck tried to prove that Sweden was the Atlantis of Plato . Gomer , the son of Japhet , settled in Sweden after the flood , which makes it the home of most of the European peoples ( vagina gentium , an expression that can already be found in Jordanes ). Rudbeck was an early proponent of the thesis Ex septentrione lux . Scripture ( runes ) and astronomy were invented in Sweden . Because of the favorable climate and good nutrition, Swedish women are very fertile (Rudbeck reported that some women he knew by name had 8–16 children, even 34, and the women were rarely completely sterile). Sweden was chosen for its abundance of fish, as fish were the main food shortly after the Flood; Other early peoples also predominantly settled by the sea.
Scandinavia corresponds to Plato's Atlantis, as its topography shows. In total, Rudbeck cited 44 direct and 102 indirect proofs for his thesis. The capital of Atlantis was near Uppsala . The trenches reported by Plato are found in some watercourses, but are mostly silted up.
By combining ancient tradition, the Bible, Georgios Synkellos and Snorris Edda , Rudbeck established a detailed chronology of the ancient world. He also saw the Viking as "our strong, warlike, honorable, pagan and primitive ancestors", which was in the course of developing our own Nordic identity.
| event | Date AM (Anno mundi) |
|---|---|
| Birth of Noah | 1056 |
| Deluge | 1656 |
| Tower of Babel | 1700 |
| Invention of the runes | 1861 |
| first wave of Nordic conquests | 2200-2500 |
| End of the Copper Age, Beginning of the Heroic Age (Age of the Gods) | 2300 |
| Founding of Troy | 2500 |
| Destruction of Troy | 2700 |
| Alexander the Great | 3700 |
The fourth volume of Atlantica remained unfinished, only the first chapters were printed and almost all of them were destroyed in the great fire of Uppsala in the summer of 1702.
While Rudbeck is best known today for his bizarre conclusions, it is only recently that the solid scientific principles on which those conclusions are based have gained increasing recognition. Erikson sees Atlantica as a point where Renaissance humanism and modern science meet . Erikson characterizes the book as "a historical work of extreme patriotism". Rudbeck himself, however, vehemently emphasized that his love for truth was greater than that for his fatherland.
Taxonomic honor
Carl von Linné named the genus Rudbeckia of the daisy family (Asteraceae) in honor of him and his son, Olof Rudbeck the Younger .
Works
- Axel Nelson (Ed.): Olaus Rudbeck's Atlantica: Svenska original texts. 5 volumes. Studier och källskrifter utgivna av Lärdomshistoriska samfundet, Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm 1937–1950.
- Disputatio anatomica, de circulatione sanguinis. Västerås, Eucharius Lauringer 1652.
literature
- Rudbeck, Olof the Elder Ä. In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 2 : L – Z, including supplement . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 381-382 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
- Ernst Ekman: Gothic Patriotism and Olof Rudbeck. In: The Journal of Modern History. 34/1, 1962, pp. 52-63.
- Gunnar Eriksson: The Atlantic Vision. (= Uppsala Studies in the History of Science 19). Science history publications 1994.
- Gunnar Eriksson: Rudbeck 1630-1702: liv, lärdom, dröm i barockens Sverige . Atlantis, Stockholm 2002, ISBN 91-7486-617-6 .
- Werner E. Gerabek : Rudbeck, Olof. In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1272 f.
Web links
- Literature by and about Olof Rudbeck the Elder in the catalog of the German National Library
- Publications by and about Olof Rudbeck the Elder in VD 17 .
- Author entry and list of the described plant names for Olof Rudbeck the Elder at the IPNI
- Gábor Paál : The rediscovery of Olof Rudbeck the Elder. The polymath from Uppsala . SWR2 Wissen, December 6, 2016
- Lidnqvists.net: Genealogy
Individual evidence
- ↑ Olav Rudbeck Sueci Professoris Medicinae Upsaliensis, Nova Exercitatio Anatomica, Exhibens ductus Hepaticos Aquosos Et Vasa Glandularum serosa .
- ↑ Esberg: Laudation funebris Olai Rudbeckii patris (Upsala 1703)
- ↑ Frands Herschend: Vikings. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. (RGA). Volume 34, Berlin 2007, p. 58. (English)
- ^ Gunnar Eriksson: The Atlantic Vision. Olaus Rudbeck and Baroque Science . (= Uppsala Studies in the History of Science 19). Science history publications, 1994, ISBN 0-88135-158-X , p. 139.
- ↑ Eriksson 1994, p. Vii.
- ↑ Atlantika Vol. 2, 137
- ^ Carl von Linné: Critica Botanica . Leiden 1737, p. 94
- ↑ Carl von Linné: Genera Plantarum . Leiden 1742, p. 415.
- ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rudbeck, Olof the Elder |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rudbeckius, Olaus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish polyhistor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 13, 1630 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Västerås |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 17, 1702 |
| Place of death | Uppsala |