Lot 06

George Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707 - 1788) OEUVRES COMPLETES. AVEC DE EXTRAITS DE DAUBENTON.

George Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707-1788) was a French naturalist, director of the botanical garden, mathematician, astronomer and encyclopedist from the period of Enlightenment, translator of Newton, a member of the French and British academies. He dedicated his life to the extraordinarily extensive scientific encyclopedia "Histoire naturelle, générale et particuliére", which has been published since 1749 and includes a total of 44 volumes published posthumously. The later six-volume edition presented by us contains: part 1. Matiéres générales. Théorie de la Terre, 2. Minéraux, 3.- 4. Mammiféres, 5.- 6. Oiseaux. Individual volumes of about 600 - 800 pages are complemented by a steel engraving portrait of the author, vignettes on the title pages, 5 engraved line-colored maps and especially 116 finely engraved precisely hand-colored boards depicting animals and birds in their typical natural environment. The colorations are further enhanced by the glosses made by the egg whites to achieve a high effect and plasticity of the image. The boards at the bottom are marked with the names of the authors Janet-Lange, Travies and engravers Pardinel, Fournier, Manceau, they were carefully printed by the Parisian company Furne. They are covered with Japanese papers and, like the text itself, are completely clean and intact.