buffon george marie clerc comte (2 résultats)

6 vols. Large 8vo. (26 x 16 cm). Contemporary green calf backed marbled boards, spines with raised bands, gilt in compartments. Portait, 5 maps, 116 colour plates of animals and birds. Tape repairs to two plates, spine edges recoloured and two vols with green tape repairs to upper joints, some occasional light spotting, plates clean. A good compact edition.

FIRST EDITION. 34 vols. 4to. (25.25 x 19.5 cm). Uniformly bound in contemporary marbled calf, spines richly gilt in compartments with fleur-de-lis motifs, titles to two dark red morocco labels gilt, raised bands, royal arms of King Louis XV stamped in gilt to upper and lower covers, his monogram gilt to each spine panel, triple fillet to upper and lower covers gilt, inner dentelles gilt, original red ribbon page markers, red speckled edges, marbled endpapers. Complete with 980 full-page engraved plates (of which 9 are folding), including frontispiece of Buffon, 4 folding maps, and 1 folding chart. Numerous inter-textual tables, engravings, and cul-de-lampes throughout. In the Histoire Naturelle plate 14 is misbound in the third volume, plates 5 and 6 are swapped in the fifth volume, plates 13 and 14 are swapped in the tenth volume, and two plates are numbered 46 in the twelfth volume (one of which is entitled 46 bis). In the Supplément two plates are numbered 18 in the third volume (one of which is entitled 18 bis), and plate 41 is misbound in the sixth volume. Ex libris Robinet Fils with his armorial bookplate variably to front and back pastedowns, sometimes removed, and his old ownership stamp variably to front and back endpapers. A very handsome set. THE COMPLETE RUN OF VOLUMES PUBLISHED AT THE IMPRIMERIE ROYALE FOR WHICH BUFFON WAS EDITOR. This set, which comprises 24 volumes of the Histoire Naturelle, 6 volumes of the Supplément, and 4 volumes of the Mineraux, represents the complete run of volumes published at the Imprimerie Royale and for which Buffon acted as editor. Two additional volumes sometimes present are lacking here. They are the fifth and final volume of the Mineraux otherwise known as the Traité de l'aimant, published at the Impremerie des Batiments du Roi (rather than the Impremerie Royale) in 1788, and the seventh and final volume of the Supplément, published in 1789 after Buffon's death. After Buffon's death work was carried on by Bernard Germain de Lacépède, who published 8 further volumes on egg-laying quadrupeds, snakes, fishes, and cetaceans between 1788 and 1804. The last set to pass through our hands included these 10 additional volumes bound slightly differently - due to the publishing span - to the 34 original volumes such as those offered here. Buffon "was the first to present the universe as one complete whole and to find no phenomenon calling for any but a purely scientific explanation" (PMM). "Buffon's work is of exceptional importance because of its diversity, richness, originality, and influence. Buffon was among the first to create an autonomous science, free of any theological influence. He emphasized the importance of natural history and the great length of geological time. He envisioned the nature of science and understood the roles of paleontology, zoological geography, and animal psychology. He realised both the necessity of transformism and its difficulties" (DSB). The "most celebrated treatise on animals ever produced" (Dinber), also represents the birth of evolutionary theory. "Georges Buffon set forth his general views on species classification in the first volume of his Histoire Naturelle. Buffon objected to the so-called 'artificial' classifications of Andrea Cesalpino and Carolus Linnaeus, stating that in nature the chain of life has small gradations from one type to another and that the discontinuous categories are all artificially constructed by mankind. Buffon suggested that all organic species may have descended from a small number of primordial types; this is an evolution predominantly from more perfect to less perfect forms" (Parkinson).