Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and author. Today he is often referred to simply as Buffon. His greatest achievement was the publication of Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi published in Paris 1749-1804, in 44 volumes (9 published posthumously). This ambitious project influenced the next two generations of naturalists. Characteristic of the Enlightment period, it was the first complete natural history survey presented in a popular encyclopedic format. He presented several theories that challenged theological dogma, including the suggestion that the earth was older than 6,000 years and that humans and apes might has a common ancestry. Jacques Eustache de Sève was the principal artist commissioned for the Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière. His illustrations, which set the subjects within complete classical landscape backgrounds, influenced later natural history illustrators.

Buffon’s other major natural history publications were Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, published in collaboration with Edme Louis Daubentaon, with illustrations by François-Nicolas Martinet, 1765-1780; and Encyclopedie Methodique, with illustrations by Jacques Eustache de Sève, 1774-1832.

This beautiful hand-colored engraving of a male hairy woodpecker was published as Plate 754 in the Comte de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. Described by Sitwell as "the most ambitious and comprehensive bird book which had appeared at the time of its publication," Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, published in 10 volumes from 1770 to 1786, was an edited version of the nine bird volumes of Comte de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle Generale. It included 1,008 illustrations engraved by Francois-Nicolas Martinet.

References: Sitwell, p. 83.

Condition: A

Original color with a couple of light dampstains confined to the sheet's edges, well away from engraved image.