Uppsala and Enlightenment

Linnaeus had been abroad and learned about the big world outside of Sweden; he had spent several years in Holland and visited London and Paris. For what it was worth, he had also been living for a couple of years in Stockholm. What did he bring to Uppsala? His reputation as the new star among naturalists, his knowledge of how to run an advanced garden project, and many foreign contacts; above all, perhaps, his successful role in the creation of the Academy of Sciences and evangelical convictions on precisely how the natural sciences could drive the growth of the nation’s