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Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)
Portrait of Buffon (Francois-Hubert Drouais)
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon lived from from Sept. 7, 1707 to April 16, 1788. He was a French naturalist, whose encyclopedic writings entitled Histoire Naturelle directly influenced Lamarck and Cuvier, among many others. Buffon published thirty-six quarto volumes of his Histoire Naturelle during his lifetime, with additional volumes based on his notes published in the following two decades.
In 1739 Buffon was appointed head of the Parisian Jardin du Roi, a position he held throughout his life. Buffon transformed and enlarged the Jardin du Roi into a major research center and museum. acquiring new botanical and zoological specimens from around the world.
Buffon's Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, published in 36 volumes between 1749–1788, was originally intended to cover all aspects of nature, but was eventually limited to the animal and mineral kingdoms. Editing was assisted by Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, Philibert Guéneau de Montbeillard, and Gabriel-Léopold Bexon, along with numerous artists. Buffon's Histoire naturelle was translated into numerous languages and widely read. The evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr (1981) considered that "Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century."
References:
Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc,1749-1788. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière. Paris, Imprimerie National
Mayr, Ernst 1981. The Growth of Biological Thought. Cambridge: Harvard.
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