Tras las huellas de Linneo: las representaciones de las «bodas de las plantas» en los poemas científicos de finales del siglo XVIII y principios del siglo XIX

Abstract

The 18th century is a crucial period in the history of botany, which moves into a separate discipline from medicine. In that time a variety of different systems of classification of plants were created, among which the one devised by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus clearly stands out. In the presentation of his taxonomic system, Linnaeus uses the idea of the «marriages of plants» which inspired many authors of scientific poems written in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In the article we point out some peculiarities of the way the «marriages of plants» concept was used in works by Jacques Delille, René-Richard Castel and especially in the poem Las bodas de las plantas by José de Viera y Clavijo.