Editing Carl Linnaeus (section)

===Early education===
[[File:Linnaeus - Örtaboken, early manuscript, 1725.jpg|thumb|''Örtaboken'' (Herb book), an early Linnaeus manuscript, 1725]]
Linnaeus's father began teaching him basic Latin, religion, and geography at an early age.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thomson|first1=Thomas|title=History of the Royal Society From Its Institution to the End of the Eighteenth Century|year=2011|orig-year=1812|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1-108-02815-8|page=35|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUlt0htkZZgC}}</ref> When Linnaeus was seven, Nils decided to hire a tutor for him. The parents picked Johan Telander, a son of a local [[yeoman]]. Linnaeus did not like him, writing in his autobiography that Telander "was better calculated to extinguish a child's talents than develop them".<ref>[[#Blunt|Blunt (2004)]], pp. 15–16.</ref>

Two years after his tutoring had begun, he was sent to the Lower [[Grammar School]] at [[Växjö]] in 1717.<ref>[[#Stöver|Stöver (1794)]], p. 5.</ref> Linnaeus rarely studied, often going to the countryside to look for plants. At some point, his father went to visit him and, after hearing critical assessments by his preceptors, he decided to put the youth as an apprentice to some honest cobbler.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Caddy |first1=Florence |title=Through the Fields with Linnaeus: A Chapter in Swedish History |date=1887 |publisher=Little, Brown, and Company |page=43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AHFkAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA43 |access-date=10 April 2021}}</ref> He reached the last year of the Lower School when he was fifteen, which was taught by the headmaster, Daniel Lannerus, who was interested in botany. Lannerus noticed Linnaeus's interest in botany and gave him the run of his garden.

He also introduced him to Johan Rothman, the state doctor of Småland and a teacher at [[Katedralskolan, Växjö|Katedralskolan]] (a [[Gymnasieskola|gymnasium]]) in Växjö. Also a botanist, Rothman broadened Linnaeus's interest in botany and helped him develop an interest in medicine.<ref>[[#Blunt|Blunt (2004)]], p. 16.</ref><ref>[[#Stöver|Stöver (1794)]], pp. 5–6.</ref> By the age of 17, Linnaeus had become well acquainted with the existing botanical literature. He remarks in his journal that he "read day and night, knowing like the back of my hand, Arvidh Månsson's ''Rydaholm Book of Herbs'', Tillandz's ''Flora Åboensis'', [[Johannes Palmberg|Palmberg's]] ''Serta Florea Suecana'', Bromelii's ''Chloros Gothica'' and Rudbeckii's ''Hortus Upsaliensis''".<ref>Carl von Linnés betydelse såsom naturforskare och läkare : skildringar utgifna af Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien i anledning af tvåhundraårsdagen af Linnés födelse ([https://runeberg.org/linne200ar/linnebotan/0007.html source] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224084253/https://runeberg.org/linne200ar/linnebotan/0007.html |date=24 February 2021 }})</ref>

Linnaeus entered the Växjö Katedralskola in 1724, where he studied mainly [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[theology]], and [[mathematics]], a curriculum designed for boys preparing for the priesthood.<ref>[[#Stöver|Stöver (1794)]], p. 6.</ref><ref>[[#Blunt|Blunt (2004)]], pp. 16–17.</ref> In the last year at the gymnasium, Linnaeus's father visited to ask the professors how his son's studies were progressing; to his dismay, most said that the boy would never become a scholar. Rothman believed otherwise, suggesting Linnaeus could have a future in medicine. The doctor offered to have Linnaeus live with his family in Växjö and to teach him [[physiology]] and botany. Nils accepted this offer.<ref name="Blunt17-18">[[#Blunt|Blunt (2004)]], pp. 17–18.</ref><ref>[[#Stöver|Stöver (1794)]], pp. 8–11.</ref>