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VENDUTO

Réf : 63592

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Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de BUFFON

Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière

chez Sanson & Compagnie, Aux Deux-Ponts 1785-1790, in-12 (10x17,5cm), 54 volumes reliés.

BUFFON Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de
Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière [Natural History, General and Particular]
Aux Deux-Ponts, chez Sanson & Cie 1785-1790, in-12 (10 x 17,5 cm), 54 volumes, contemporary tree calf bindings
First edition after those published by the Imprimerie Royale and the last published during the lifetime of the author. The book is illustrated with a portrait of the author as a frontispiece, 4 fold-out maps and 323 plates, including 300 heightened in color at the time (113 plates of birds, 186 plates of quadrupeds, and 24 natural history plates).
Elegant contemporary bindings in tree calf, spines richly decorated with double fillets, lace patterns, and fleurons in the form of rosettes and gilt urns, title labels in red morocco, volume labels in either black or blond morocco, delicate gilt lace patterns enclosing the boards, roll-tooling on leading edges of sides and spine-ends, marbled endpapers, gilt edges.
A colossal work that took Buffon almost fifty years to produce, L'Histoire naturelle enjoyed huge success, comparable to that of the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d'Alembert, which was published in the same period and for which the naturalist refused to write a single article. The project was launched in 1739 following the appointment of Buffon to the post of steward of the Jardins du Roi. At this stage it was envisaged as a mere "catalog of the king's cabinet." But the naturalist aspired to something far greater: his endeavor, far from being a compilation, was to embrace all the kingdoms of nature. Ten years later, the "Pline of Montbard" published the first three volumes of his Histoire naturelle, in which, to the great surprise of his readers, he exposed his method of work, which was neither mathematical nor classificatory. Surrounded by zealous collaborators, Buffon then added other volumes, concerning animals (quadrupeds and birds) and minerals. He added a Théorie de la Terre [Theory of the Earth], as well as a Discours by way of introduction and many supplements, including Epoques de la Nature. Buffon had then planned to add volumes concerning fish and other aquatic organisms, reptiles and plants, but upon his death his work remained on hold, before being continued by Lacépède.
Buffon attached great importance to the illustrations of his Histoire naturelle; those of the quadrupeds were produced by Jacques de Sève, and those of the birds by François-Nicolas Martinet. The animals are represented with strong aesthetic and anatomical concern, in dreamlike and mythological scenes.Exceptional colored copy established in an elegant and remarkably preserved uniform binding.
$ 12 500

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