
Linné on line
Mathematics in Linnaeus’ time
"our honest Klingenstierna"
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and some of its publications
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and some of its publications
The Swedish Academy of Sciences was founded by Carl Linnaeus and others in 1739 and was granted royal status in 1741. One of its very first members was Klingenstierna. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences met at Stortorget (Grand Square) in Stockholm, at least twice a week. Trips between Uppsala and Stockholm (~75 km/45 miles) took a long time in the 18th century. It is therefore fully understandable that Klingenstierna did not take part in very many of these meetings. Contacts were largely through letters.
One of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' ambitions from the outset was to publish texts in Swedish. The Academy's proceedings, which were published quarterly (often much delayed), were written in Swedish, and after a few years the German fraktur style was abandoned in favor of the Latin style, that is, the style we use today. Several textbooks in mathematics were published with the help of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The two most important ones were undoubtedly Strömer's Swedish translation of Euclid's Elements and Fredrik Palmquist's Inledning till Algebran (Introduction to Algebra) (in three parts 1745–1749). Palmquist's book was used in teaching at Uppsala University, probably Strömer's as well.

Introduction to Algebra by Fredrik Palmquist

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