Annika Windahl Pontén

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Kiär hustru, wackra barn, bodde i ett palais: Identitet och materialitet i hushållet von Linné

THE SUBJECT OF this thesis is identity and materiality in the household of Carl Linnaeus. Focus in on the period between the mid 1730s and early 1780s. The household eventually came to consist of five children and a number of servants. By mapping the numbers of servants, and piecing together scattered information about the consumption of the Linnaeus household this thesis has uncovered new information about Linnaeus. The thesis has two aims: the first is to situate Carl Linnaeus in his spatial and material context, and to emphasize the importance of materiality. The second is to show which performative practices formed the persona of Linnaeus. The method in the study is combining texts and objects and thus allowing new research problems to be identified. The persona formed by Linnaeus´s household can be labelled academic gentry . The academic gentry combines older ideals for learned persons or nobility and more modern ideals associated with an active lifestyle, according to which a person should contribute to society in useful ways. The persona academic gentry is characterized by two types of developments: from the informal to formal style, and from birth nobility to meritocracy. Carl Linnaeus’s scientifical works were not produced in a vacuum but under particular historical circumstances. His career evolved in a household that included a family, servants, yellow chairs, portraits and silk dresses. Coffee cups with a twinflower decoration are ordered from Chine twice because the first time the colour and shape of the flower is not good enough. These symbols were important to the Linnaeus household because they are a part of performative practices that formed the persona. The twinflower was of particular importance, together with books and the order of the Northern Star since they were used as his attributes. In this study the picture of Carl Linnaeus and his household is broadened and light is shed on an important basic structure that has been overlooked by earlier studies, but not by Linnaeus himself. When he describes his career and success he includes his closest context, his house and family: beloved wife, beautiful children and lived in a palace.

Denna avhandling studerar identitet och materialitet i hushållet von Linné. I studien analyseras bl a föremål, bilder, mantalslängder, bouppteckningar och texter för att situera hushållet von Linné i en rumslig och materiell kontext. Genom performativa praktiker i hushållet, självpresentation och användning av exempla i föreläsningar formerar medlemmarna i hushållet von Linné en särskild typ av persona. Med hjälp av delvis tidigare opublicerat material kastas här nytt ljus över en av Sveriges mest kände vetenskapsmän. Syftet är att studera hur Carl von Linné gör karriär och förutsättningarna för att bedriva vetenskap i 1700-talets akademiska Uppsala. Hushållet med hustru, barn och tjänstefolk var centralt för att den vetenskapliga vardagen skulle fungera. Tidigare forskning har i hög grad förbisett den materiella och rumsliga kontexten, men Carl von Linné fäster själv vikt vid dem när han framhåller att han har en kär hustru, vackra barn och att han bor i ett ”palais”. Annika Windahl Pontén är besökskoordinator vid Uppsala universitet och har bedrivit forskarstudier vid Institutionen för idé- och lärdomshistoria. Detta är hennes doktorsavhandling.