Systema Naturae

First edition of Systema naturae is printed in Leiden

Linnaeus tried to map the mineral, plant and animal worlds on eleven enormous pages, and put humans inside the animal tables while he was at it.

Two friends and a press

Carl Linnaeus brought the manuscript to the Netherlands. The botanist Jan Frederik Gronovius and the Scottish physician Isaac Lawson both urged him to publish it; Gronovius helped finance the printing, and Lawson otherwise supported the production.

Johannes Wilhelm de Groot printed the book at Leiden for the bookseller Theodorus Haak. Linnaeus's almanac records that printing began on 30 June, the manuscript was finished on 15 July, and printing was ready on 13 December 1735.

Eleven folio pages

The work presented Linnaeus's classifications of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms in large tabular spreads organized through classes, orders, genera and species. The substantive text ran to eleven large folio pages, though counts vary between 11, 12 unnumbered and 13 facsimile pages depending on which leaves are included.

It was schematic, not descriptive, and it did not consistently apply binomial species names. The animal table placed Homo within the order Anthropomorpha — not the later Primates — alongside other manlike genera, and divided humanity into four geographical varieties distinguished principally by colour terms.

A date the title page does not give

The title page carries only the year. Bibliographical evidence places printing and publication between 9 and 13 December, and no single first-sale or release day is securely established. The manuscript's closing note is dated 23 July 1735, which is not the publication date.

Once printing was finished Haak sold copies in Leiden at 2½ guilders while Gronovius retained stock for distribution. Linnaeus was 28.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 8 sources 2 audit passes Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 1735-12.

What the sources leave uncertain

The title page gives only 1735. Bibliographical evidence places printing and publication between 9 and 13 December, while Linnaeus’s almanac says printing was ready on 13 December. A single first-sale or release day is not securely established.
The manuscript’s closing note is dated 23 July 1735; that is not the publication date.
Descriptions vary between 11 pages, 12 unnumbered pages and 13 facsimile pages depending on whether title, blank or supplementary leaves are counted.