Johannes
Bureus
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Johannes Thomae Bureus
Agrivillensis (Johan Bure) (1568–1652) was a Swedish antiquarian, polymath
and mystic. He was royal librarian, tutor, and adviser of King Gustavus
Adolphus ofSweden. Bureus was born in 1568 in Åkerby near the famous city
of Uppsala (where the largest and last of the pagan temples has been)
in Sweden as a son of a Lutheran parish priest.
Bureus combined his runic and
esoteric interests in his own runic system, which he called the
"Adalruna". He was interested in the Rosicrucian manifestos.
Contemporary mystics such as Jakob Böhme have studied his works.
In 1611 he published the first ABC
book in the Swedish language, Svenska ABC boken medh runorusing
the runic alphabet and latin script. He also wrote a
genealogy of Bure family, partly using runestones as sources.
Olaus
Rudbeck
Olaus Rudbeck (also known as Olof
Rudbeck the Elder, to distinguish him from his son, and occasionally with the
surname Latinized as Olaus Rudbeckius) (September 13, 1630 – December 12,
1702) was a Swedish scientist and writer, professor of medicine at Uppsala
University and for several periods rector magnificus of the same
university. He was born in Västerås, the son of Bishop Johannes
Rudbeckius, who was personal chaplain to King Gustavus Adolphus, and the
father of botanist Olof Rudbeck the Younger. Rudbeck is primarily known
for his contributions in two fields: human anatomy and linguistics, but he was
also accomplished in many other fields including music and botany. (He
established the first botanical garden in Sweden at Uppsala, called Rudbeck's
Garden, but which was renamed a hundred years later for his son's student, the
botanist Carolus Linnaeus.)
Human anatomy
Rudbeck was one of the pioneers in the
study of lymphatic vessels. According to his supporters in Sweden, he was the
first to discover the lymphatic system and is documented as having
shown his findings at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden in the
Spring of 1652. However, he did not publish anything about it until the fall of
1653, after Thomas Bartholin, a Danish scientist, had published a
description of a similar discovery of his own. (For other early discoverers of
the lymphatic system, seeGasparo Aselli and Jean Pecquet).
Rudbeck's research led to the Queen's
support of his career. To facilitate his studies of human anatomy, he had
a cupola built on top ofGustavianum, a university edifice, and in it
was built an arena-like Theatrum anatomicum, where dissection could be
carried out in front of students. The cupola still remains and is a landmark
in Uppsala. The "Gustavianum" stands in front of the cathedral,
and is still part of the university.
Historical linguistics
Between 1679-1702, Rudbeck dedicated
himself to contributions in historical-linguistics patriotism, writing a
3,000-page treatise in four volumes called Atlantica (Atland eller
Manheim in Swedish) where he purported to prove that Sweden was Atlantis,
the cradle of civilization, and Swedish theoriginal language of Adam from
which Latin and Hebrew had evolved. His work was
criticized by several Scandinavian authors, including the Danish
professor Ludvig Holberg, and the Swedish author and physician Andreas
Kempe, both of whom wrote satires based on Rudbeck's writings. His work was
later used by Denis Diderot in the article "Etymologie"
in Encyclopédie as a cautionary example of deceptive linking of etymology with
mythical history.
David King, in his biography of Rudbeck,
notes that he developed a system for measuring the age of old monuments and
graves by the thickness of the humus accumulated over them - which,
though many of his conclusions were erroneous, anticipated the methods of
modern archaeology and was far in advance of most historians and antiquarians
of his time.
Despite the criticism targeting his
linguistic theories and despite the priority dispute with Bartholin,
Rudbeck remained a national icon in Sweden for many years. His son, Olof
Rudbeck the Younger, continued his linguistic work and also became involved in
providing an "intellectual reason" for power during a period when
Sweden aspired to a position as one of the great powers of Europe.
Rudbeck the Younger added speculations about the relationship between Sami and
Hebrew languages to his father's long list of fantastical linguistic
relationships. A nephew of Olaus the Elder, Petter Rudebeck, also wrote
antiquarian books going even further, purporting to locate the scene of
the Trojan War and ancient city of Troy in southern Sweden.
The above-mentioned David King noted
that, while specific conclusions of father and son Rudbeck about the
relationships of various languages to each other were disproven, they
anticipated the later systematic study of Indo-European Languages, and the
scientific proof that languages distant from each other geographically and
historically are indeed related.
