250TH ANNIVERSARY
Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon
Histoire Naturelle
(1749)
The French naturalist Buffon, keeper of the Jardin du roi in Paris, made it a center of research during the Enlightenment.
Published in 1749, the first volume of Buffon's
Histoire naturelle sold out in six weeks with forty-three volumes to follow.
The first modern work to attempt to treat the whole of nature, it was written for the general public. A compendium of data on natural history is integrated with Buffon's own speculations. Buffon and his collaborators advanced a concept of evolution and created a science free of theological cant. The intellectual structure Buffon constructed influenced naturalists up to the age of Darwin.
At Montbard in Burgundy, Buffon analyzed numerous species of quadrupeds and birds. A favored few had the run of his chateau. When Rousseau arrived at Montbard, he knelt down in homage to the great man.
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