Product Description
Comte de Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc; Historie Naturelle des Oiseaux, Tomes I-IX. Imprimerie Royale, Paris, 1770-1783. First separate edition.
Quarto, in contemporary half calf over more recent marbled boards with six spine panels and gilt titles. The bindings are tight and very clean, the text and plates are clean with light marginal toning with exception of volume which is noted in the pagination below.
vol. 1, pp. 2, xxiv, 496, 29 plates.
vol. 2, pp. 6, 560, 26 plates.
vol. 3, pp. iv, 12, 502, 31 plates, xcvi, errata.
vol. 4, pp. xvi, 590, 27 plates, xxviii.
vol. 5, pp. xiv, 546, xxviii, 22 plates, errata.
vol. 6, pp. xvi, 702, 26 plates, xlix, errata. Light damp margin to outer portion of some pages and plates.
vol. 7, pp. xvi, 554, 31 plates, xcvi.
vol. 8, pp. viii, 498, 39 plates, xlii.
vol. 9, pp. viii, 438, 31 plates,284.
Georges-Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, and cosmologist. His works influenced future generations of naturalists, including two prominent French scientists Jean-Baptiste Lamark and Georges Cuvier. His most important work was the thirty-six volume “Historie Naturelle”. Buffon published thirty-six quarto size volumes of his "Histoire Naturelle" during his lifetime, with additional volumes based on his notes and further research being published in the two decades following his death. Within this work he described all known living animals. The work was quite popular leading to editions being published describing just particular groups of life. A separate edition was published while he was still alive of the known birds. That work is offered here. This first separate edition of 9 volumes is complete with 262 engraved plates by De Seve. The new set of 262 uncolored plates were made for this separate edition. The plates in the first edition of Histoire Naturelle Generale were by Francois Nicolas Martinet.
