Johan Ernst Gunnerus

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Right Reverend
Johan Ernst Gunnerus
Royal Swedish Academy of Science
Scientific career
FieldsBishop, botanist, zoologist
InstitutionsBishop of the Diocese of Nidaros, Trondheim; University of Copenhagen
Author abbrev. (botany)Gunnerus
Author abbrev. (zoology)Gunnerus

Johan Ernst Gunnerus (26 February 1718 – 25 September 1773) was a

botanist. Gunnerus was born at Christiania. He was bishop of the Diocese of Nidaros from 1758 until his death and also a professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen
.

Biography

Gunnerus was born and raised in

Jena from 1744, where he received his Magister degree in 1745 and in 1753 was admitted to the Faculty of Philosophy. At Jena he published extensively, notably a work on natural and international law in eight volumes. In 1754 he was recalled to Denmark and appointed Professor and Rector at Herlufsholm. In 1758 he became Bishop of the Diocese of Nidaros in Trondheim, Norway.[1]

Gunnerus was very interested in

Gerhard Schöning and Peter Frederik Suhm he founded the Trondheim Society in 1760. In 1767 it received royal recognition and became the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
.

Gunnerus was vice President and Director Perpetuus of the Society from 1767 to 1773. The society began publishing its journal in 1761, entitled Det Trondhiemske Selskabs Skrifter, still published today as Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskabs Skrifter. In 1765 Gunnerus published a description of a basking shark in this journal, giving it the scientific name Squalus maximius.

Gunnerus was the author of Flora Norvegica (1766–1776). He contributed notes on the ornithology of northern Norway to

Carolus Linnæus, mainly known as Carl von Linné, with whom he was in correspondence. The original letters from Carolus Linnæus are held at the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters in Trondheim, while the ones from Gunnerus to Linnæus are found at the Linnean Society of London.[2]

Gunnerus was the first to suggest that since the

auroras around the moon, Venus and Mercury
.

In 1766, Gunnerus was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Legacy

The plant genus Gunnera was named after him,[a] as well as the Gunnerus Library.

See also

Notes

  1. ^
    The standard author abbreviation Gunnerus is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[3]

References

  1. ^ Nordisk familjebok, p. 641.
  2. ^ A translation of Bishop Gunnerus’ description of the species Hydroides norvegicus with comments on his Serpula triquetra
  3. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Gunnerus.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Johan Ernst Gunnerus.
Church of Norway titles
Preceded by Bishop of Trondhjem
1758–1773 		Succeeded by


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