He was born in Västerås, the son of Bishop Johannes Rudbeckius, who was personal chaplain to King Gustavus Adolphus, and the father of botanist Olof Rudbeck the Younger.

[2] Between 1679 and 1702, Rudbeck dedicated himself to contributions in historical-linguistics patriotism, writing a 3,000-page treatise in four volumes called Atlantica [sv] where he purported to prove that Sweden was Atlantis, the cradle of civilization, and Swedish the original language of Adam from which Latin and Hebrew had evolved.

[4] David King, in his biography of Rudbeck, notes that he developed a system for measuring the age of old monuments and graves by the thickness of the humus accumulated over them – which, though many of his conclusions were erroneous, anticipated the methods of modern archaeology and was far in advance of most historians and antiquarians of his time.

[6] A nephew of Olaus the Elder, Petter Rudebeck, also wrote antiquarian books going even further, purporting to locate the scene of the Trojan War and ancient city of Troy in southern Sweden.

Rudbeck was active in many scientific areas, including botany and astronomy, and left many traces still visible in the city of Uppsala today.

[7] Life-sized woodcut illustrations of many of the species were included in the two volumes that were published, and the woodblocks for these were made by Rudbeck as well as his son Olof, his two daughters, ohanna Christina and Wendela, and other colleagues.