RUDBECK. 



to Rudbeck. It is a little book of extreme rarity, infomuch 

 that Haller fpeaks of it by report only. A Latin poem is 

 prefixed to the work, defcribing the beauty of this villa, 

 its orangery, aviary, plantations, and fountains. 



We know not at what period of his life Rudbeck firft 

 conceived the vaft project of his Campi Ely/it, in which ;i!l 

 the plants in the world, as far as they had been difcovered, 

 were to be reprefented by wooden cuts, in twelve folio vo- 

 lumes, difpofed according to Bauhin's Pinax. For this 

 ilupendous work he is faid to have prepared ten or eleven 

 thoufand figures. The firft and fecond volumes were al- 

 ready printed, when a dreadful fire reduced almoft the whole 

 town of Upfal to aihes, in the year 1702. Three copies 

 only of the firft volume efcaped the fire, two of which re- 

 main in Sweden, and the third is preferved in the Sherardian 

 library at Oxford. A few leaves of this laft copy, having 

 been deficient, are fupplied in manufcript. A number of 

 the blocks of this very volume, which confifts of grades 

 and their allies, came into England with the Linnaean col- 

 lection ; and having been compared with the Oxford copy, 

 an impreflion of them was given to the public in 1789, under 

 the title of Reliquia Rudbechianx, the appropriate letter- 

 prefs of each figure, and the Linnaean names, being fub- 

 joined. An hiftorical preface is prefixed to this edition, as 

 well as a dedication to Dr. John Guftavus Acrel, Profeftor 

 of Medicine at Upfal, who was entruited with the fale of 

 the Linnaean mufeum and library. (See LlNN^us.) The 

 object of the dedication is to bear teftimony to the honour- 

 able conduct of this gentleman, who, becaufe he would 

 not act unjuftly, was accufed of having received a bribe of 

 IOO pounds, fo moderate is the ftandard of bribery in 

 Sweden, to betray the intereft of the proprietors. Perhaps 

 this report arofe from his rejecting, for them, the ofter of 

 the fame fum, from another quarter, to forfeit their engage- 

 ment to the perfon with whom they had treated, and to 

 whom he indignantly communicated the propofal. 



The fecond volume of the Campi Elyfti came from the 

 prefs a little before the former ; fo that ieveral copies, hav- 

 ing got abroad, efcaped the deltruction of the relt. Even 

 this, however, is a very rare book, the price of which can 

 hardly be eftimated. A copy was bought by profeffor 

 Jacquin in Germany, many years ago, for about 30 guineas. 

 This volume is in the Linnaean, Bankfian, and Sherardian 

 libraries. Containing liliaceous plants, and the Orchis tribe, 

 it is much more fplendid than the firft. The figures are 

 copied from all quarters, though feveral are original, and 

 amount to about 600 in all, many of them executed with 

 great correctnefs and elegance, more efpecially after the fine 

 engravings of the Hortus Malabaricus. There are, of 

 courfe, feveral repetitions of the fame fpecies, and abundance 

 of garden varieties of Tulips, &c. The Orchidia are nu- 

 merous, but inferior, as to the correctnefs of their flowers, 

 to fome other plants, a defect arifing from their fingularity 

 or minutenefs. The preface attributes the anticipated pub- 

 lication of this volume to the greater popularity and attrac- 

 tion of its contents ; and fpeaks of many of the intended 

 figures of the whole work, as to be executed from drawings 

 made by the author himfclf, after original fpecimens, either 

 preferved in Burfer's fine Swifs herbarium, or obtained from 

 other quarters. The author fpeaks of his fon and nephew, 

 each of the fame name with himfelf, as his coadjutors, and 

 the deftined continuators of this laborious undertaking. 

 The deftruction of his materials is extremely to be regretted; 

 for fuch a repofitory of the botanical knowledge of the time, 

 would have been highly valuable to fucceeding writers ; par- 

 ticularly as illuftrating the plants of Bauhin, fo many of 

 which are to be determined from Burfer's herbarium only. 



The volume in queftion ftands alone, like the fingle un- 

 rivalled column of the temple of peace at Rome, a perpe- 

 tual caufe of regret, and a monument of irrevocable de- 

 ftruction. 



Another great work of our author, on which, mod of 

 all perhaps, his literary celebrity depends, is entitled At- 

 lantica, and ought to confift of four volumes in folio ; but 

 of thefe the fourth, at leaft, if we miftake not, is to be met 

 with in manufcript only. The others are extremely rare, 

 probably from the accident of the fire above-mentioned. 

 One alone, compofed of wooden cuts, is in our poffeffion. 

 The aim of this fingular, but profoundly learned, perform- 

 ance, was to prove that Sweden had been the terreftrial 

 paradife of our firft parents, the Atlantis of Plato, and the 

 fource of all learning, ancient mythology, arts, and fciences. 

 By a paifage in Linnaeus's Lapland Tour, v. 1. 19, it 

 ftiould feem that Rudbeck had fixed the fcene of the Trojan 

 war at a village in Geftrickland, which bears the name of 

 Troye. The reader will no longer wonder at this, when, 

 in one of our author's illuitrative maps, he finds Helicon 

 ftationed in Lapland ; the Fortunate Iflands at the Ork- 

 neys ; and Acheron at the Maelitrom, off the coaft of Nor- 

 way. The church of eld Upfal, certainly a hyperborean 

 temple of the fimpleft form, and the molt remote antiquity, 

 is fuppofed to have been a fane of Apollo. It is fquare, 

 with two round-arched door-ways at each fide, but no win- 

 dows. Rudbeck compares it with the temple of Janus at 

 Rome, and (hews how the prefent cathedral of Upfal ori- 

 ginated from the plan of a fimilar edifice. In thefe points 

 his remarks are well worthy of attention. Thofe who can- 

 not help fmiling at the wildnefs of fome of his hypothefes, 

 mult refpedt his learning and ingenuity, and his work is faid 

 to have excited much attention when it firft appeared. At 

 prefent it ranks chiefly among the baubles of mere collectors, 

 for the fake of its rarity. 



This great man did not long furvive the wreck of all his 

 hopes and labours, in the fire at Upfal. He died in 170*, 

 ao-ed 72, having, nine years before, refigned the Profelfor- 

 (hips of Botany and Anatomy to his fon. In the frontif- 

 piece of his Atlantica he is reprefented, with rather an 

 agreeable and fenfible countenance, of a plump and fleek 

 habit of body, with long ftraight hair, and the habiliments 

 of our profeflors and divines in the time of the Common- 

 wealth. He is demonftrating his peculiar opinions to a 

 circle of ancient philofophers and poets, and Plato is lend- 

 ing the delighted Hefiod a pair of fpeftacles. Rudbeck it 

 faid to have been a man of a mild and amiable character, 

 much efteemed for his perfonal qualities, as "well as for his 

 boundlefs erudition. We can fcarcely call him the founder 

 of Botanical Science in Sweden, becaufe he was preceded 

 by Chefnecopherus, under whofe prefidency at Upfal, in 

 1 62 1, a phyfical differtation on plants was publilhcd and 

 defended by Starbeck, a native of Smoland, which evinces 

 the deep attention this branch of philofophy had even then 

 excited, in that famous fchool. The curious reader may 

 trace, in this differtation, many ideas, fuppofed to have a 

 more modern origin. Rudbeck's Works. Haller's Bibl. 

 Bot. and Anat. Aikin's Gen. Biog. S. 



Rudbeck, Olof, junior, fon of the preceding, was born 

 at Upfal in 1 660. Having been directed by his father to 

 his own favourite ftudies of medicine, botany, and anti- 

 quities, he proved worthy of fuch a parent, friend, and 

 preceptor. He excelled likewife in the art of delineating 

 natural objects, and found great advantage from this talent 

 in his fubfequent purfuits. Having travelled to Holland, 

 he took his degree of doctor of phylic, at Utrecht, in 1690, 

 publilhing on that occafion an able differtation, de Funda- 

 mental* 



