Olof Celsius
Who was Olof Celsius?
Swedish botanist (1670-1756)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Olof Celsius (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Olof Celsius the Elder was born on July 19, 1670, in Uppsala and passed away on June 24, 1756, also in Uppsala. He was a Swedish botanist, philologist, clergyman, and professor at Uppsala University. His work covered a wide range of areas, including runology, Oriental languages, theology, and natural history. He is perhaps best known today as the mentor of Carl Linnaeus, who later became famous for his work in botanical classification. The two met when Linnaeus was a young student in Uppsala, and Celsius gave him access to his extensive botanical library and supported him during the early stages of his career.
Celsius's most notable publication was "Hierobotanicon," written between 1745 and 1747, which identified and examined the plants mentioned in the Bible. This work combined his expertise in Oriental languages and classical philology with his deep knowledge of botany. It remained a respected reference in biblical natural history for many years. His skill with ancient and Eastern languages allowed him to trace botanical terms through Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts, giving the work a scholarly precision that set it apart.
In addition to his work in botany and philology, Celsius was an important runologist, contributing to the study and understanding of Scandinavian runic inscriptions. He was active in Sweden's intellectual life at a time when interest in antiquarian studies was growing, and his work on runes was part of a national effort to explore Sweden's pre-Christian history. He became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1739, which recognized his wide-ranging and high-quality scholarly contributions.
Celsius came from a prominent academic family. His father was the mathematician Magnus Celsius, and his brother Nils Celsius was a professor of astronomy. His nephew, Anders Celsius, was the astronomer who created a temperature scale where 100 represented the freezing point of water and 0 the boiling point. Jean-Pierre Christin reversed this scale in 1744, and it was renamed the Celsius scale in 1948 in honor of Anders. Another brother, Johan Celsius, was a well-known dramatic poet and actor. Olof Celsius himself was the father of two accomplished sons: Olof Celsius the Younger, who became Bishop of Lund, and Magnus von Celse, a historian and librarian.
Before Fame
Olof Celsius studied at Uppsala University, the top learning institution in Sweden during the late 1600s, known for both scientific and humanistic studies. The university environment offered him exposure to various fields, and his curiosity led him to study theology, classical languages, Oriental philology, and natural history at the same time. This was challenging but not uncommon for ambitious scholars back then who aimed for broad knowledge.
He grew up in a family with strong connections to mathematics and natural sciences, which fostered a love for thorough investigation. In the late seventeenth century, Sweden was becoming a key European power with goals in scholarship and politics, and Uppsala University was adding to its faculty and collections. This setting encouraged young scholars like Celsius to explore careers that combined science and the humanities, and it prepared him for his diverse academic life as a professor, clergyman, and naturalist.
Key Achievements
- Authored Hierobotanicon (1745–47), a landmark study of plants referenced in the Bible drawing on Oriental philological scholarship.
- Served as mentor to Carl Linnaeus, providing critical early support that helped shape the botanist's career.
- Elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1739.
- Made significant contributions to runology through the study and interpretation of Scandinavian runic inscriptions.
- Held a professorship at Uppsala University while pursuing scholarship across botany, philology, theology, and Oriental languages.
Did You Know?
- 01.Celsius provided the young Carl Linnaeus with access to his personal botanical library, a gesture that proved instrumental in launching Linnaeus's scientific career.
- 02.His major work Hierobotanicon identified and discussed plants mentioned throughout the Bible by cross-referencing Hebrew, Greek, and Latin textual sources.
- 03.His nephew Anders Celsius devised the original Celsius temperature scale with the freezing and boiling points of water reversed from the modern convention.
- 04.Celsius was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1739, the same decade in which Linnaeus was developing his revolutionary system of plant classification.
- 05.He was a practicing clergyman as well as a university professor, a dual role that was common among Swedish academics of the period but that he sustained alongside unusually prolific scholarly output.