Olof Rudbeck the Younger's dissertation as a baroque work

Abstract

It is hardly possible to imagine the development of society and culture in the Baltic region of the early modern period without the rise of Sweden in the 17th century. The economic and political power of the Swedish state reflected in the powerful rise of science and art, and among other things, in the creation of a national version of the Baroque. This term, which requires careful use, nevertheless allows us to describe quite briefly what became characteristic of Swedish culture in the 17th century: the construction of palaces and the arrangement of parks, the development of science following the leading European schools, the glorification of the national past and the latest victories, the combination of Baroque, neoclassical, and Gothicism tastes. Turning to the problems of the Baroque allows us to highlight the main and general: striving for spectacularity, for the use of the latest artistic techniques. The article is devoted to the study of an example of Swedish book publishing art, the synthetic work of the scientist and engraver Olof Rudbeck the Younger “Propagatio Plantarum Botanico-Physica...”. Acting as a Baroque artist creating a convincing, verisimilar work, he engraved and composed a complex ensemble that combines the achievements of botany, rhetoric, emblematics and modern engraving. This small book deserves close attention, as it demonstrates the peculiarities of thinking in Europe in the 17th century and allows one to clearly highlight the manifestations of the Baroque in Swedish culture of this time.