
Fundamenta Botanica ("Foundations of botany") (Amsterdam, Salomon Schouten, ed. 1, 1736) was one of the major works of the Swedishbotanist,zoologist andphysicianCarl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and issued both as a separate work and as part of theBibliotheca Botanica.[1]
This book states, for the first time, Linnaeus's ideas for the reformation of botanicaltaxonomy. The first edition is dated 1736 but it was released on 14 September 1735 (Linnaeus wrote in his personal copy "Typus absolutus 1735, Sept 3".).[2] The full title wasFundamenta Botanica, quae Majorum Operum Prodromi instar Theoriam Scientiae Botanices by breves Aphorismos tradunt.
The first edition was dedicated toOlof Rudbeck,Lorenz Heister,Adriaan van Royen,Johann Jacob Dillen,Antoine de Jussieu,Giulio Pontedera,Johann Amman,Johannes Burman,Pierre Magnol andGiuseppe Monti.
A second edition was published in Stockholm in 1740 and a third in Amsterdam in 1741. The publication of this work as well asGenera Plantarum andSystema Naturae was encouraged byHerman Boerhaave, who had been Linnaeus's teacher.
TheFundamenta in combination with theCritica Botanica lays Linnaeus's foundations for his system ofnomenclature,classification and botanical terminology that were later reviewed and expanded in thePhilosophia Botanica (1751). He does this by means of 365aphorisms (principles) arranged into 12 chapters:
VIRIS NOBILISSIMIS (Dedication to men to honor)
BOTANICIS CELEBERRIMIS (Dedication to famous botanists)
PRAEFATIO (Preface)
FUNDAMENTA BOTANICA (Botanical fundamentals or fundamental botanical aphorisms)
CONCLUSIONES EX DICTIS (Conclusion from the foregoing) I-XII (page 36)
Full bibliographic details including exact dates of publication, pagination, editions, facsimiles, brief outline of contents, location of copies, secondary sources, translations, reprints, manuscripts, travelogues, and commentaries are given in Stafleu and Cowan'sTaxonomic Literature.[3]