BIHANG TILL K. SV. VET.-AKAD. HANDL. BAND 13. AFD. IV. N:0 5. 39 



tomologist Charles Alexander Clerck was to paint the exo- 

 tic Insects. For the shells H. C. v. Kruus^) and, it is said, 

 NicoLAS Lafrensen-) were engaged. The entire collection of 

 these figuies, the joint produce of their talents, now belongs 

 to the library of the Academy of Sciences. The Univalvee 

 are represented by 415 figures on fourty quarto leaves of 

 vellum, signed by von Kruus, and, by 35 figvires on two 

 leaves in folio executed, as an adnotation indicates, by Laf- 

 rensen, all neatly finished en youache. At the close of the 

 year 1754 LinNjBUS requests to have sent to him for nume- 

 ration the figures then made by von Kruus, but it does not 

 appear that he had them^). The fifteenth leaf of von Kruus 

 is dated Febr. 1754, the 26, 27, 30: 1754, the 31 and 32 in 

 October, and the 33, 34 in November that year, the 37 is 

 dated 1755, and the 39, 40 in February that same year. In 

 the same month LinnvEus was summoncd to court to select 

 the Bivalves that were to be drawn. These, it seems, were 

 intrusted to Lafrensen alone, but twenty one figures only 

 were done when the work was discontinued, never to be re- 

 sumed. 



LiNN^us had sent his MS. of the Museum Regis Adolphi 

 Frederici to the printer in the month of September 1753, and 

 in the same month of 1754 its first part was published^), the 

 well-known folio with thirty three plates. At that time also 

 the MS. of its second part was ready, and the King wished 

 the printing of it to begin early in 1755^). But at that pe- 

 riod the political difficulties which had long been imminent, 

 became threatenino- to such a deoree as to avert the thouo-hts 



') Herman Conrad von Kruus, b. 1720, d. 1787, an officer who 

 had served with distinction in foreign armies, »was engaged to depict 

 the Museum of Queen LouiSA Uleica». Sv. Adelns Åttartafior II, p. 516. 



^) If so, no doubt the elder Lafrensen, a distingnished niiniature- 

 painter. father of Nicholas Lafrensen jun., b. 1737, the eminent por- 

 trait-painter, who lived in Paris 1774 — 1791. and was called Lavreince 

 by the French. 



3) L. to BÄCK, •■'7,2 54, and '72 55. 



^) »It is never so well to hammar iron wlieii cold as when red hot. 

 The printing of the King"s Cabinet goes so sluggishly that I almost fal] 

 asleep över it ... . Dear friend, when the Queen's Cabinet is to pass 

 through the press, I beg you to arrange that I have my hands free, and 

 we will see whether I have not still within me a little of the old fire.» 

 L. to BÄCK, "/i2 53- 



^) L. to BÄCK, 'Vii 54. It will even appear that it was commenced: 

 »Accepi a D:no Momma Museum cum tabulis prolusoriis», ib. " j 55. 



