APPENDIX I 
LINNETS AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 
Almost the only sources from which Linne’s biographers 
can draw, are some autobiographic notes, which he made 
in leisure hours, chiefly to please his memory with the 
distant events, sometimes brought down to later years. 
Unquestionably these must be regarded as especially 
weighty and valuable, but they cannot be reckoned as 
perfectly true materials. The various biographies con¬ 
cerning the same occurrences vary much, probably because 
they were written long after the events. 
Nevertheless, these autobiographies are of such great 
importance as to deserve an account of them, and so much 
the more, as that published by Afzelius is not only 
incomplete, but somewhat confused and partially erroneous. 
The autobiographies known to the author are the following: 
1. Vita Caroli Linnaei, with the heading: Ens entium 
miserere mei (Being of Beings, have mercy upon me). 
This is the oldest and therefore for a knowledge of his 
younger years, the most important; it extends to 1734. 
The original manuscript is in the library of the Linnean 
Society of London, where it was discovered in 1881, by the 
unwearied and enthusiastic enquirer, Dr. E. Ahrling, who 
afterwards published the same in “ Carl von Linne’s 
Juvenile Writings,” in 1888. That it remained so long 
unregarded is due to the fact that it is bound in at 
the end of an interleaved copy of J. Scheuchzer’s 
“ Operis Agrostographici Idea,” Tiguri, 1719, with many 
annotations of Linne. 
2. Historiola vitae meae, contributed by Linne in a 
letter to Haller, dated 12th Sept., 1739, which was, without 
the writer’s permission, printed in Haller’s correspondence, 
vol. i., Bern, 1773, a want of tact which greatly hurt 
Linne. It is of small extent, embracing the years 1730-39, 
but notable by its lively style and certain small details 
which do not appear elsewhere. 
3. Vita Caroli Linnaei. This, apparently begun before 
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