Buffon Natural History Study
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Jacques Eustache de Sève (fl. 1742-1788) (after)
Georges-Louis Marie Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) (editor) C. Baquoy (engraver) L'Elephant from Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi [Natural History, General and Specific, with the Description of the Office of the King] De L'Imprimerie Royale, Paris: 1749-1804 Hand colored engraving 9.75 x 7.25 inches, overall 8.75 x 6.75 inches, plate mark Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items. |
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Natural history illustration showing an Asian elephant standing in its native land, alluded to by the buildings in the background. It comes from a 44-volume encyclopedia published by Buffon with illustrations by Jacques E. De Sève.
Georges-Louis Marie Leclerc, the Count of Buffon, was a French aristocrat of formidable intellect and achievements, including books on mathematics and natural history. Although his father initially steered him toward law school, Buffon persisted in pursuing his interest in math. At the age of 20, he discovered the binomial theorem and later introduced differential and integral calculus into probability theory. He soon became fascinated with biological science, and his father relented and let him enroll in the faculty of medicine to study botany and zoology. As a young man in Paris, he befriended Voltaire and other intellectuals, and gained admission to the prestigious Academy of Science at age 27. Buffon’s Histoire Naturelle was his major achievement and an ambitious project characteristic of the 18th-century Enlightenment: a 44-volume encyclopedia attempting to include everything known about the natural world and widely disseminate scientific knowledge. It was the first complete natural history survey presented in a popular form, and also broke ground in attempting to separate science from theological dogma. Decades before Darwin introduced his theory of evolution, Buffon dared to challenge religious thought with empirical observations, suggesting that the earth was older than 6,000 years and that the physical resemblance between humans and apes might be explained by their having a common ancestry. While the theories he proposed to explain these phenomena were by and large incorrect, he correctly grasped that a new paradigm was needed. "Buffon." Info Science Portraits. 1998-2003. http://www.infoscience.fr/histoire/portrait/buffon.html (16 June 2003).
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