Amsterdam, approx. 1780.

Beautiful original copper engraving from approx. 1780. -- Leaf mass approx. 28x20cm. -- well preserved. || Beautiful engraving from c. 1780. -- in very good condition. || Gravure on cuivre originale d'environ 1780. || Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) was an important French naturalist in the Age of Enlightenment. His main work is the "Histoire naturelle générale et particulière", which appeared from 1749 until his death in 1788. The work, which was translated into many languages, brought its author great scholarly recognition and popularity. Buffon's scientific work was based on the methods of observation and experiment. He tried to explain the origin of living beings through the creation of tiny particles and their development as a result of climatic changes, and opposed Linnaeus's hierarchical system with the idea of ​​an evolutionary ladder. Buffon supported his theory through comparative anatomical studies. He explained useless body parts by the regression of formerly useful parts of an ancestor. Buffon held that all members of a family of species descended from the same ancestor, from which some perfected themselves and others regressed. Buffon, for example, saw a monkey as an incomplete or regressed human being. Carl von Linné named the genus Bufonia of the carnation family (Caryophyllaceae) in his honor. The lunar crater Buffon and the asteroid (7420) Buffon were also named after him. The same applies to the Buffon Islands in Antarctica. -- -- Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) was a major French naturalist of the Age of Enlightenment. His main work is the "Histoire naturelle general et particulière", which was published from 1749 until his death in 1788. The work, translated into many languages, brought great scholarly recognition and popularity to its author. Buffon's scientific work was based on the methods of observation and experiment. He tried to explain the origin of living beings through spontaneous generation from the smallest particles and their development as a result of climatic changes, and countered Linnaeus's hierarchical system with the idea of ​​an evolutionary ladder. Buffon supported his theory with comparative anatomical studies. He explained useless body parts by the regression of formerly useful parts of an ancestor. Buffon held that all members of a family of species descended from the same ancestor, from which some perfected but others degenerated. For example, Buffon saw in a monkey an incomplete or degenerate human. Carl von Linné named the genus Bufonia of the carnation family (Caryophyllaceae) in his honor. The lunar crater Buffon and the asteroid (7420) Buffon were also named after him. The same applies to the Buffon Islands in Antarctica.

Order number: 250790