Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata by LINNAEUS, Carlous [Linné, Carl] - 1758

Stockholm: Laurentius Salvius, 1758. 10th Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 10th Edition. Hardcover. 1758-1759. Two parts in two volumes, 8vo (200 x 125 mm). [4], [1-5] 6-823 [1]; [4], 825-1384 pp. Vol. I with dedication leaf to count Tessin, woodcut tailpiece and errata on final unnumbered page. Bound in uniform contemporary half calf and sprinkled paper-covered boards, spines with raised bands and gilt-lettered brown morocco labels (outer joints and spine ends repaired, boards rubbed and spotted, wear to extremities, corners scuffed). Text with light browning, first 5 pages including title and ca. 15 final gatherings of vol. I with mostly light damp-staining towards lower gutter; very minor occasional spotting; browning from binders glue to corners of endpapers and first and final two leaves of vol. II. Edges of bookblocks show sections of different browning which indicates use of different paper stocks at time of printing. Provenance: Gustaf Rudebeck (ownership inscriptions to front pastedowns dated 1987). A very good copy, collated and complete. ----

The important tenth edition, and the definitive edition, 'THE STARTING POINT FOR ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE' (Stafleu-Cowan). Linnaeus' system of binomial classification was originally published in 1735 as a series of seven folio broadsheets and originally applied to plants only. As he collected new data, Linnaeus revised and updated the Systema naturae and he eventually applied his system of classification to all of zoology, where it appears here for the first time.
"In this edition, the binomial system previously employed by Linnaeus in the work entitled 'Museum Tessinianum' (1753) was extended in its application to all the kingdoms of nature" (Soulsby). This edition has been accepted as the basis of zoological nomenclature.
"This is Linnaeus's final version of the system by which many plants and animals are still named to this day with reference 'Linnaeus', 'Linn' or 'L' attached" (PMM).
Linnaeus' Systema Naturae lists only about 10,000 species of organisms, of which about 6,000 are plants and 4,236 are animals. Even in 1753 he believed that the number of species of plants in the whole world would hardly reach 10,000; in his whole career he named about 7,700 species of flowering plants. Linnaeus developed his classification of the plant kingdom in an attempt to describe and understand the natural world as a reflection of the logic of God's creation. His sexual system, where species with the same number of stamens were treated in the same group, was convenient but in his view artificial. Linnaeus believed in God's creation, and that there were no deeper relationships to be expressed. He is frequently quoted to have said: "God created, Linnaeus organized." The classification of animals was more natural. For instance, humans were for the first time placed together with other primates, as Anthropomorpha. As a result of the popularity of the work, and the number of new specimens sent to him from around the world, Linnaeus kept publishing new and ever-expanding editions of his work. It grew from eleven very large pages in the first edition (1735) to 2,400 pages in the 12th edition (1766-1768). Also, as the work progressed, he made changes: in the first edition, whales were classified as fishes, but in the 10th edition, published in 1758, whales were moved into the mammal class. In this same edition, he introduced two-part names (binomen) for animal species, something that he had done for plant species (binary name) in the 1753 publication of Species Plantarum. The system eventually developed into modern Linnaean taxonomy, a hierarchically organized biological classification (Wikisource).
References: Norman 1359; PMM 192 (note); Dibner 27n; Soulsby 62; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 4794. - Visit our website to see more images!