BUFFON'S HISTOIRE NATURELLE...
Historia natural, general y particular
Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière
Georges Louis Leclerc (Conde de Buffon),
Traducido por D Joseph Clavijo y Faxardo
Madrid: por la viuda de Ibarra, 1791
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon conceived Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière as nothing less than a comprehensive account of the natural world. Published between 1749 and 1804, the project ultimately comprised 36 volumes produced during and immediately after his lifetime, with additional volumes completed by his collaborators after his death. It was the first major modern attempt to bring together knowledge of natural history, geology, and humanity into a single, unified narrative.
[More below on [Histoire Naturelle%]
Unlike many natural historians of his era, Buffon was not primarily interested in creating a rigid system of classification. Instead, he sought to understand nature as a historical process. Buffon argued that the Earth had undergone a long history of transformation rather than existing in an unchanging state since Creation. (See The Epochs of Nature)
The work also reflects the global ambitions of the Enlightenment. Drawing on specimens, reports, and observations gathered from across Europe and its colonial networks, Buffon attempted to describe nature on a planetary scale. Yet he presented this material not as a catalog of static objects but as a living history of animals, landscapes, climates, and human societies. See this source for more on HIstoire Naturelle
Photographed onsite between 2019 and 2024 by Dianna Frid.
The book is in the collection of the Burgoa Library and was photographed with permission.