Systema Naturae

by Carl von Linné. Parisiis: Sumptibus Michaelis-Antonii David..., 1744.

In his classic work Systema naturae (The system of nature) Carl von Linné (1707-1778), better known as Linnaeus, brought order out of chaos in the natural sciences of the 18th century by developing a system of scientific nomenclature that quickly became — and still remains — the international standard. For zoology the key text is the tenth edition published in 1758, but the history of the work's publication, and the comparison of the texts from the exceedingly rare first edition of 1735 (7 folio sheets) through the 13th edition (3 volumes in 8) edited by Gmelin, provides important information to modern researchers in museum taxonomy and systematics. The Cullman Library holds the 1st in facsimile, 2nd, 6th, 9th, 10th, 12th, and 13th; adding the 4th and the 7th will help to fill SIL's set of the editions.