Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon | Oeuvres Complettes, Paris, 1749-88, 35 (of 38) vols, contemporary red morocco gilt

Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon

Oeuvres Completes: Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particuliére.... Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1749-1775

35 (of 38) volumes, 4to (250 x 189mm.), Histoire Naturelle: 14 vols (of 15, lacking vol. 10), 521 plain engraved plates (of which 1 folding); Supplement: engraved frontispiece portrait and 293 plain engraved plates (of which 8 folding); Oiseaux: 254 plain engraved plates; Mineraux: 8 plain engraved folding plates; all volumes: woodcut printer's ornaments and engraved vignettes, contemporary red morocco gilt in the style of Derome, spines with raised bands in six compartments, morocco labels in second and third compartments, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, inner dentelles, scattered spotting, occasional slight dampstaining at margins, new morocco labels on some volumes, extremities slightly rubbed

A fine copy of this extensive review of the exotic and domestic natural world enshrining Buffon's literary capabilities in his discursive, lengthy descriptions, and displaying an impressive collection of plates. 

Ernst Mayr wrote that "Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century". Buffon (1707-1788) was one of the pre-eminent naturalists in France at the time, and his Histoire naturelle was a groundbreaking success, apparently read "...by every educated person in Europe" (Mayr, Ernst 1981. The Growth of Biological Thought. Cambridge: Harvard. p 330).

LITERATURE:

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