BUFFON was born in 1707 and died in 1788. He epitomized the French Enlightenment being simultaneously or
successively mathematician, physicist, geologist, natural scientist, mineralogist, steel foundry entrepreneur, landowner,
administrator of France’s Natural History Museum and founder of the Royal Botanical Gardens. His lifelong
encyclopedic work Histoire Naturelle (Natural History) famous for the elegance of its French language, encompasses
geology and mineralogy, all forms of living organisms from birds and mammals to Man, heralding in many
ways Darwin’s The Origins of Species a century later. He was fluent in English and translated works by Newton
and other British scientists into French and was a member of the Royal Society and of the Academies of Science of
Berlin, Saint Petresburg, Edinburgh and Florence. He was an accomplished scientist who conducted many controlled
experiments in the fields of forestry, animal husbandry and metallurgy and may be considered, in his Natural
History of Man, as the founder of social anthropology.
The author, Yves LAISSUS, former Curator of France’s Natural History Museum Library, gives a detailed account
of BUFFON’s life and works, paints a very complete portrait of his subject’s personality, often at odds with his
contemporaries, in particular the « Encyclopedists », and provides a balanced assessment of his contribution to the
advancement of science, and its continued relevance to the world we live in.