Biography

Swedish professor of medicine and botanical enthusiast who both discovered the lymphatic system and founded the first botanic garden in Sweden. Born in Västerå, Olof Rudbeck became an alumnus of Uppsala University in 1648. It was while a student studying anatomy that he made the discovery for which he is now famous, that of the lymphatic system, which he explored in considerable detail. The money he received from Queen Christina when he demonstrated these findings allowed him to travel to Holland in 1653. It was in the botanic garden at Leiden that he became particularly interested in botany. On his return the next year, Rudbeck brought with him a wealth of seeds and plants which he planted in the university grounds, thus founding the botanic garden of Uppsala. This was the first of its kind in Sweden and after three years there were some 1,000 different plants grown there. In 1655 he became a tutor and 1660 professor of the faculty of medicine.

Rudbeck remained at the university until his son (Olaf Olai Rudbeck) took over from him as professor in 1692. Twice rector of the university he made many important improvements, on top of the creation of a botanic garden. Rudbeck senior was responsible for the creation of a grand dissection theatre for anatomy classes, which was built on top of the university's main building. He was also behind the introduction of a scheme called 'exercita' which allowed students from a noble background to practise such skills as horse riding, fencing and dancing. Aside from anatomy and botany, Rudbeck was extremely knowledgeable in the fields of chemistry, mathematics, astronomy and draughtsmanship, all of which he lectured in at the university. A talented architect, his skills were not confined to the university perimeter, and he designed and acted as chief of construction for the city's aqueducts and bridges as well as in the restoration of the cathedral and castle. He was also a composer and a talented singer who often performed in the cathedral and contributed greatly to the study of music in Uppsala.

As a botanist Rudbeck did not manage to publish much, although he worked on a particularly ambitious project which came to a tragic end. Impressed by Burser's Hortus Siccus he wanted to catalogue all plants known to science at the time. Eventually he wished to produce illustrations and descriptions of 10-11,000 varieties under the title Campus Elysii. Publishing volume II (1701) followed by volume I (1702), Rudbeck's house was very shortly a victim of the great fire of Uppsala which raged through the city in 1702. It destroyed almost all of the copies of these volumes as well as all of his manuscripts for the rest of the publication. Luckily a couple of copies of the first and a considerable number of the second survived and made their way to England where they were republished by J.E. Smith. One hundred and seventy six years later in a library in Leufsta a number of manuscripts were found, as well as 6,200 colour illustrations for all of the plants. Even amidst the disaster, he was still hard at work for the sake of the university and the city. It is said that he led the fire fighting efforts from the roof of the main university building and he certainly made plans for the rebuilding of the city after the event. Already over 70 years old at the time, Rubeck did not, however, survive long after this trauma and died suddenly the same year. In later life he had also been responsible for publishing an account of the ancient history of Sweden which was named Atlantica. In it he used mythological tales as well as archaeological evidence to champion an idea that Sweden was actually Plato's Atlantis, with Uppsala as its capital.

Sources:
W. Blunt, 2001, The Compleat Naturalist
G. Eriksson, 2004, "Olaus Rudbeck as scientist and professor of medicine", Svensk medicinhistorisk tidskrift 8(1): 39-44
R.E. Fries, 1950, A Short History of Botany in Sweden
N. von Hofsten, 1952, "Olaus Rudbeck", Swedish Men of Science: 33-41
Olof Rudbeck, Uppsala Universitet:
http://www.uu.se/en/node125, accessed 13 October 2010.