"An illustrated buffon, or a natural history of quadrupeds, birds, fish and some reptiles." "Natural History" by Buffon Buffon read natural history

Buffon Georges Louis Leclerc: Buffon Illustrated, or Natural History of Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes and Some Reptiles.

This unique book (the publication of which one could not even dream of) includes articles about animals from the multi-volume “Natural History” of the Count de Buffon, an outstanding French naturalist and writer of the 18th century.

Illustrations by the famous animal painter Benjamin Rabier were made for a publication published in Paris in 1913.

Rabier's dynamic, sharp drawings turned out to be surprisingly consonant with Buffon's leisurely discussions about the impudence of jackals, the meekness of gray lizards, or the pitiful and wretched life of an ordinary heron. The aristocratic and thorough 18th century and the rapid and at that time still very young 20th century met under one cover.

Vivid and heartfelt descriptions of animals (which look amazing today), emotional drawings, voluminous reference material, delicate editorial work and excellent printing.

This is a visual history of the development of science, an amazing collectible book, a gift for children and adults. An incredible book, unlike any other today. About the devotion and affection of dogs and cats, the coldness and deceit of animals. Animals here acquire human characteristics, a wonderful example of belles lettres. The value of the book lies not in the accuracy of the biological descriptions, which change over time, but in the approach. You can see where science began.

The book is very expensive - an option for a memorable gift.

The book is large, size 300x230, 176 pages, hardcover, color illustrations.

“Buffon Illustrated, or Natural History of Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes and Some Reptiles” is, first of all, a unique opportunity to touch the origins of modern natural science and look at the world around us through the eyes of a European of the Enlightenment.

This book differs from the modern zoological atlases we are accustomed to. Although the editors did a great job, trying to bring Buffon's text closer to current knowledge about the world around us. This is ensured by very delicate notes that do not distract attention, but allow parents to avoid awkward situations and answer all questions that arise as they read the book.

For many years in a row, Joseph, servant of Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, owner of Montbard, Marquis of Rougemont, Viscount of Queens, owner of Mairia, Garance, Berg and other lands, director of the Botanical Garden in Paris, member of the French Academy, Royal Academy of Sciences, etc. and so on, woke up his owner exactly at 5 in the morning, not paying attention to the abuse and desperate resistance of the latter. For this, Joseph was entitled to a separate reward. Having awakened, Georges Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon put on his best attire, combed his hair as if he were going to a ceremonial meeting, and went to his office to create in the face of the Universe and his descendants.

For more than forty years he worked on the monumental "Natural History", which was supposed to contain "... everything that is found in the Universe... a monstrous variety of quadrupeds, birds, fish, insects, plants, minerals." He reread what he had written several times and put it aside to rest. “There is no need to rush,” Buffon repeated to his secretary, “in a few days your eyes will be refreshed, you will see everything better and you will always find something to improve.” The famous natural scientist, a member of many academies, cared not only about factual accuracy, but also about the style of his works. Perhaps this is why Buffon's research aroused great interest not only among his colleagues, but also among the general public.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the French publisher Garnier decided to release the most interesting articles of the huge “Natural History”. He invited Benjamin Rabier, a leading animal artist, to illustrate the book. Rabier collaborated with children's magazines, published La Fontaine's fables, and drew his own books.

Rabier devoted several years to working on the grandiose project. He spent hours watching animals in the Paris Botanical Garden and the Vincennes Zoo - because now his task was maximum authenticity! The animals in this book do not cry, do not laugh, and definitely cannot speak, and yet Rabier’s drawings are infinitely far from “reference” illustrations that indifferently record the length of their paws, body structure, and coat color - much more restrained than in children’s books or fables The images convey the temperament and individual traits, albeit not of every animal - of every species.

This book has been reaching the Russian reader for more than a century. We tried to translate it as it would have been done at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, to convey the charm of Buffon's style. Having sifted through mountains of reference books and textbooks on zoology, countless “Pictures from the Life of Animals,” even books on hunting, we compiled something like a “Russian-Russian” dictionary: what phrases were used then when talking about the habits or lifestyle of animals? About their voice? Appearance? We learned that in those days birds and animals had “gastronomic whims of taste”, that the bream “is of a quiet and very meek disposition”, the badger “keeps its hole in unusual order”, sea magpies “strictly maintain politeness among themselves and for non-observance of decency they produce a desperate fight,” sparrows can be tall, “the gluttony of the young brings a lot of trouble to their parents,” and the hare is “remarkably sensitive, cunning, angry and fertile.” Every now and then we called on the National Corpus of the Russian Language for help, asking whether this or that expression could have been used at the end of the 19th century. In general, it was difficult, but interesting. And we really hope that reading this book will be no less exciting than working on it.

The book includes articles about animals from the multi-volume Natural History of Count de Buffon, an outstanding French naturalist and writer of the 18th century. Illustrations by the famous animal painter Benjamin Rabier were made for a publication published in Paris in 1913. Rabier's dynamic, sharp drawings turned out to be surprisingly consonant with Buffon's leisurely discussions about the impudence of jackals, the meekness of gray lizards, or the pitiful and wretched life of an ordinary heron. The aristocratic and thorough 18th century and the rapid and at that time still very young 20th century met under one cover. Vivid and heartfelt descriptions of animals, emotional drawings, voluminous reference materials, delicate editorial work and excellent printing performance.

BUFFON Georges Louis Leclerc

(Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc)
(1707-1788), French naturalist, popularizer of science. Born September 7, 1707 in Montbard (Burgundy). He studied jurisprudence first at the Jesuit College in Dijon, then at the University of Dijon. Later he studied at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Angers. Traveled extensively in France and Italy, sometimes in the company of the English Duke of Kingston and his mentor N. Hickman. It was the latter who aroused Buffon's interest in natural history. In 1735, under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences, Buffon's translation of the work of the English researcher S. Geils Vegetable Staticks was published. This important work, summarizing the results of the author’s many experiments in the field of plant physiology, was a rare exception against the background of the overwhelming majority of botanical research of that time, which boiled down to attempts to systematize plants. Buffon, in the preface he wrote to the translation of Geils's book, sharply criticized the narrowness of this approach. In 1738, Buffon completed the translation of Newton's work on the fluxion method (differential and integral calculus). This work was published by the Academy in 1740. In the same year, Buffon was elected a member of the Royal Society of London and until the end of his days he maintained close contacts with British science. From 1739-1788 he was director of the Botanical Garden in Paris. Buffon died in Paris on April 16, 1788. Buffon's main work is General and Particular Natural History (Histoire Naturelle, gnrale et particulire); 36 of its volumes were published during the scientist’s lifetime (the first of them began to appear in 1749), and 8 were published posthumously. This work opens with the theory of the evolution of the Earth, which was intensively discussed at that time. The Earth, according to Buffon, was formed from that part of the Sun that broke away from it after the collision of the Sun with a comet. First, the gaseous cloud condensed, then continents began to form, and this process continues to this day. Buffon's views were so harshly condemned by theologians that he was later forced to present his theories more carefully. The second volume, devoted to man, discusses in detail the observations of many travelers and explorers, indicating that the diversity of customs, beliefs, physical characteristics of people and the color of their skin is due primarily to the natural action of “climate”. At the same time, “climate” meant not only conditions determined by the geographical latitude of a given area and altitude above sea level, but also its openness to winds, proximity to large bodies of water, not to mention average temperature, precipitation and humidity. The several hundred pages devoted to this topic, together with an extensive appendix, provide a good overview of 18th-century anthropology. The nature of the entire publication undertaken by Buffon is most fully reflected in the volumes devoted to the world of animals and plants. He not only described many animals and plants, but also expressed the idea of ​​​​the variability of species (as opposed to the views of K. Linnaeus), about the unity of the animal and plant worlds. This work put Buffon in the first rank of Charles Darwin's predecessors. According to Buffon, organisms that have common ancestors undergo long-term changes under the influence of the environment and become less and less similar to each other. In 1778, Buffon's book On the Ages of Nature (Les poques de la nature) was published, covering a wide range of problems - from cosmology and anthropology to world history; it was addressed to the general public. Buffon's concern with the form of presentation of scientific issues was reflected in his work Discours sur le style (1753), dedicated to his election to the French Academy. Buffon made a bold criticism of the language that was then adopted in science, and advocated for a simple and understandable form, most suitable for the clear presentation of thoughts. Style, according to Buffon's definition, is “the man himself,” and not some kind of external decoration. In his scientific passions, Buffon followed his age: from mathematics and physics to the natural sciences. However, Buffon's sphere of interests did not include chemistry, which at that time was experiencing a period of rapid development, mainly thanks to the works of Priestley and Lavoisier. About Buffon's attitude to chemistry, T. Jefferson wrote in his letter to Madison in 1788: “He is inclined to regard it as a simple concoction.” This remark in its own way characterizes Buffon well: he could write an impressive work within the framework of what was already well known by that time, but he did not always know how to appreciate the successes of his contemporaries. During Buffon's lifetime, scholars regarded him with reverence and conservative theologians with suspicion. The general public read his works. Later, preference began to be given to other authors, but Buffon’s authority among natural history lovers remained unquestioned for a long time.
LITERATURE
Buffon J. General and private natural history, parts 1-10. St. Petersburg, 1802-1827 Kanaev I.I. Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon. M. - L., 1966

A foreigner or a noble provincial who came to Paris at the end of the 18th century and wanted to get acquainted with its sights, sought first of all to see Count Buffon. Still would! After all, this name is known throughout Europe, and how could one visit Paris and not see the one whose books are read like the most popular novels?

However, not everyone was able to see Buffon. The monument is welcome, look at it as much as you like (a monument was erected to him during his lifetime - is it a joke?!), but Buffon himself is not: the count is already old, he values ​​​​every hour, he writes... Buffon has been writing for almost forty years now, and The reading public in Europe has been captivated by his books for almost four decades. What lucky chance brought him on this path, who inspired him to take up the pen? After all, he never dreamed of becoming what he eventually became - a famous naturalist writer, one of the most popular people not only in France, but also abroad.

For most of his life, Buffon was called Georges Louis Leclerc. Only when he was already famous did the king grant him the title of count and he became Count de Buffon.

He did not write novels or poems, and did not intend to write them. He was attracted to science. He firmly decided to write scientific works. About what? For the young Leclerc, this did not matter: he remembered his studies in mathematics and wrote a number of mathematical treatises, remembered medicine and law - he wrote on these topics, and described his observations of nature made during his travels. And Leclerc carefully sent all this to the Academy of Sciences.

Either the academicians did not read the works sent and they were amazed by the number of articles, studies, and memoirs of Leclerc, or these works really had some scientific value (their author was, after all, a far from ordinary person), but one way or another, very soon Academicians accepted twenty-six-year-old Leclerc into their ranks, electing him a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences.

Now let's start doing something seriously. But that’s what Leclerc didn’t know.

Chance helped - an acquaintance of the Leclerc family, a former physician of the king, was in charge of the Royal Garden at that time. Actually, the name did not fully reflect the essence of this garden: there were a wide variety of plants, and it would be more correct to call it the Botanical Garden (later it actually turned into the Paris Botanical Garden). The head, or, as they called it then, the intendant, was ill and invited Georges (fortunately, he was a corresponding member of the academy) to take his place. The future count agreed, and the appointment soon took place. This happened in 1739, Leclerc was then thirty-two years old.

The year Leclerc assumed the post of intendant of the Royal Garden, which, in addition to the botanical garden, also had a good menagerie, can be considered the year of birth of the naturalist Buffon. Moreover, in addition to the intendant of the garden, he was also the head of the “king’s office” - the museum-cabinet of curiosities. Leclerc-Buffon, in addition to an ardent love of knowledge, was naturally endowed with brilliant abilities - an inquisitive and sharp mind, phenomenal memory, colossal capacity for work, the ability to compare facts, select them, make generalizations, and he also wrote beautifully. All this, combined with the rich factual material that Buffon had at hand, gave excellent results. However, the results did not become visible immediately - ten years passed before the intendant of the Royal Garden and Study-Museum published his first book. It was published in 1749 and was called “Natural History, General and Particular, Together with a Description of the King’s Cabinet.”

Science in the 18th century had not yet escaped the web of the clergy, but nevertheless it was already making great strides. Buffon could choose any direction in science, especially since there were already such scientists as the Englishman Harvey and the Italian Redi, the Dutchman Swammerdam and the Swiss Gesner... It was possible to study anatomy or physiology, a microscope or systematics. But no, all this did not interest Buffon. He liked Gesner. Or rather, not what he did, but he liked the path along which the Swiss walked. And the future count decided to continue and deepen the work begun by Gesner. Moreover, a lot has changed in two centuries!

Buffon left a huge literary and scientific heritage - he wrote 44 volumes (about 2 thousand large format pages). 36 volumes were published during his lifetime, the rest - after his death. In addition to books on natural history, he wrote a number of works on geology, a science that was just beginning to emerge, and expressed many very interesting and bold thoughts in them. For example, Buffon believed that the earth is a cooled “droplet” of the sun and in its history there are seven periods, each of which, in turn, lasts many centuries.

He was interested in the problem of the origin of life, and he also paid a lot of attention to this problem, again showing sufficient courage and insight for his time.

Finally, he was interested in animal psychology, and here he rose to the occasion.

Undoubtedly, Buffon's work was affected by the general situation in France at that time. After all, he was a contemporary of such brilliant people as Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau. Their thoughts, their ideas then dominated the minds of the progressive people of Europe, the air of France was electrified - the bourgeois revolution of 1789 was approaching, and behind it the terrible days of 1793 were already looming.

Buffon was an apolitical man; revolutionary, as well as counter-revolutionary, ideas did not interest him. But the general situation, the progressive ideas in the air, could not help but affect his work.

Buffon, of course, was an amateur. That is, he had no special training, did not take a course in natural sciences at the university. But he was nevertheless a deeply educated, well-read, thoughtful man. And the mistakes in his works are not due to illiteracy - he could just as well have made them with special training. True, many errors in Buffon’s works appeared due to excessive gullibility - Buffon believed too much in authorities and repeated their mistakes. And if Buffon had been more demanding, he could have avoided them. Yes, there were mistakes. But the point is not in mistakes, but in those correct thoughts and ideas that he expressed, which were ahead of their time and which scientists of a later time could safely subscribe to.

However, it was not his work on geology and philosophy that brought him such fame. Buffon earned his fame with books about animals.

He described animals with passion, described them beautifully, elatedly. And the public liked it. I liked the truth, not jokes and miracles. True, the reading public has changed - after all, this was already the era of materialist philosophers, the era of the Enlightenment. “Physiologist” could no longer be listed. And yet, it is Buffon’s considerable merit that the public fell in love with true stories about animals.

His books come out one after another - fifteen volumes devoted to mammals, ten to birds. He could have published more books - he loved to write, he knew how, he wanted and was ready to do it around the clock. But Buffon understood that these are different times, different requirements, and it is no longer possible to simply describe animals; it is necessary to talk about the anatomical structure. But Buffon did not like dissecting terribly. Well, you don’t have to do this yourself - perhaps the work will go even more successfully if you have a reliable assistant. Buffon had such an assistant - he anatomized animals, described their structure, while Buffon collected and summarized facts.

In describing animals, Buffon did not adhere to any system, and if he did, it was very conditional: he described domestic and wild animals separately and distributed them among countries. However, such unsystematic nature did not bother Buffon’s readers - they greeted each of his new books with delight. These books were instantly sold out not only by naturalists and nature lovers. The books were reprinted, translated into many languages, and with each new volume Buffon's fame grew.

True, this does not mean at all that the life of Buffon the naturalist was completely cloudless. For example, Linnaeus, or rather Linnaeus’ system, caused him a lot of grief.

Being an artistic person, Buffon could not stand any schemes, especially if they try to squeeze living nature into these schemes. Buffon believed that nature was being humiliated by this. Therefore, he did not recognize the classification. And since he, without false modesty, considered himself the first naturalist in the world, he was convinced that no one could challenge his opinion. There is no classification and there should not be. And suddenly it turns out that there is a classification - it was invented by some Swede Linnaeus. Buffon could not stand this and rushed into battle. However, he was unable to fight Linnaeus - the Swede was already recognized by all scientists, his system was coming into practice.

Linnaeus did not consider it necessary to enter into a scientific dispute with his French colleague. But he did not ignore his attacks: giving a name to some very poisonous plant, he called it buffonia.

But if the dispute with Linnaeus, a lost dispute, only hurt Buffon’s pride, then the dispute with the clergy could have cost him much more.

However, there was no dispute - there was a scandal caused by the appearance of the books “History of the Earth” and “Ages of Nature”.

After reading these books, the theological faculty of the Sorbonne became furious: who dared to claim that the earth is a piece of the sun? Doesn’t the scripture say: God created her out of nothing? What are these seven periods of the earth that last for thousands of years? Isn't it known that God created the earth in six days?

And Buffon gave many other reasons for the indignation of theologians with his books. The matter could have ended badly - theologians did not forgive this! But on the other hand, you can’t put in prison one of the most popular people in France, a man respected abroad and valued at court!

The clergy found a way out - they declared Buffon's books to be senile nonsense. Well, Buffon didn’t object: if it’s more convenient for them, so be it.

He did not argue with his colleagues, who did not recognize his books because they were written in too popular, bright, light, and not dry, as befits scientific works, language. Why argue, waste time on this, when there is still so much to tell people?!

And Buffon worked, worked tirelessly, overcoming fatigue, worked almost until the last day of his life. But Buffon lived a great life - he died at the age of 81.

Buffon did a lot as a scientist. But he did much more as a popularizer of science. And he deserved a monument during his lifetime precisely as a popularizer. Some scientists - Buffon's contemporaries and later ones too - were contemptuous of such activities; they believed that a scientist should serve “pure science.” Buffon thought differently: the more people know about animals, the richer they will be spiritually, the brighter and more colorful they will see the world. However, not only this - animals and people are inseparable. And a person must know those whom he cannot do without, who have served him for thousands of years. To know in order to treat them better, in order to more successfully protect and protect them.

This is what “Pliny of the 18th century” was, as Buffon was called - a scientist, a popularizer, a humanist.

The book includes articles about animals from the multi-volume Natural History of Count de Buffon, an outstanding French naturalist and writer of the 18th century. Illustrations by the famous animal painter Benjamin Rabier were made for a publication published in Paris in 1913. Rabier's dynamic, sharp drawings turned out to be surprisingly consonant with Buffon's leisurely discussions about the impudence of jackals, the meekness of gray lizards, or the pitiful and wretched life of an ordinary heron. The aristocratic and thorough 18th century and the rapid and at that time still very young 20th century met under one cover. Vivid and heartfelt descriptions of animals, emotional drawings, voluminous reference materials, delicate editorial work and excellent printing performance. Publisher: "Labyrinth" (2014)

Other books on similar topics:

BUFFON Georges Louis Leclerc

(Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc)
(1707-1788), French naturalist, popularizer of science. Born September 7, 1707 in Montbard (Burgundy). He studied jurisprudence first at the Jesuit College in Dijon, then at the University of Dijon. Later he studied at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Angers. Traveled extensively in France and Italy, sometimes in the company of the English Duke of Kingston and his mentor N. Hickman. It was the latter who aroused Buffon's interest in natural history. In 1735, under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences, Buffon's translation of the work of the English researcher S. Geils Vegetable Staticks was published. This important work, summarizing the results of the author’s many experiments in the field of plant physiology, was a rare exception against the background of the overwhelming majority of botanical research of that time, which boiled down to attempts to systematize plants. Buffon, in the preface he wrote to the translation of Geils's book, sharply criticized the narrowness of this approach. In 1738, Buffon completed the translation of Newton's work on the fluxion method (differential and integral calculus). This work was published by the Academy in 1740. In the same year, Buffon was elected a member of the Royal Society of London and until the end of his days he maintained close contacts with British science. From 1739-1788 he was director of the Botanical Garden in Paris. Buffon died in Paris on April 16, 1788. Buffon's main work is General and Particular Natural History (Histoire Naturelle, gnrale et particulire); 36 of its volumes were published during the scientist’s lifetime (the first of them began to appear in 1749), and 8 were published posthumously. This work opens with the theory of the evolution of the Earth, which was intensively discussed at that time. The Earth, according to Buffon, was formed from that part of the Sun that broke away from it after the collision of the Sun with a comet. First, the gaseous cloud condensed, then continents began to form, and this process continues to this day. Buffon's views were so harshly condemned by theologians that he was later forced to present his theories more carefully. The second volume, devoted to man, discusses in detail the observations of many travelers and explorers, indicating that the diversity of customs, beliefs, physical characteristics of people and the color of their skin is due primarily to the natural action of “climate”. At the same time, “climate” meant not only conditions determined by the geographical latitude of a given area and altitude above sea level, but also its openness to winds, proximity to large bodies of water, not to mention average temperature, precipitation and humidity. The several hundred pages devoted to this topic, together with an extensive appendix, provide a good overview of 18th-century anthropology. The nature of the entire publication undertaken by Buffon is most fully reflected in the volumes devoted to the world of animals and plants. He not only described many animals and plants, but also expressed the idea of ​​​​the variability of species (as opposed to the views of K. Linnaeus), about the unity of the animal and plant worlds. This work put Buffon in the first rank of Charles Darwin's predecessors. According to Buffon, organisms that have common ancestors undergo long-term changes under the influence of the environment and become less and less similar to each other. In 1778, Buffon's book On the Ages of Nature (Les poques de la nature) was published, covering a wide range of problems - from cosmology and anthropology to world history; it was addressed to the general public. Buffon's concern with the form of presentation of scientific issues was reflected in his work Discours sur le style (1753), dedicated to his election to the French Academy. Buffon made a bold criticism of the language that was then adopted in science, and advocated for a simple and understandable form, most suitable for the clear presentation of thoughts. Style, according to Buffon's definition, is “the man himself,” and not some kind of external decoration. In his scientific passions, Buffon followed his age: from mathematics and physics to the natural sciences. However, Buffon's sphere of interests did not include chemistry, which at that time was experiencing a period of rapid development, mainly thanks to the works of Priestley and Lavoisier. About Buffon's attitude to chemistry, T. Jefferson wrote in his letter to Madison in 1788: “He is inclined to regard it as a simple concoction.” This remark in its own way characterizes Buffon well: he could write an impressive work within the framework of what was already well known by that time, but he did not always know how to appreciate the successes of his contemporaries. During Buffon's lifetime, scholars regarded him with reverence and conservative theologians with suspicion. The general public read his works. Later, preference began to be given to other authors, but Buffon’s authority among natural history lovers remained unquestioned for a long time.
LITERATURE
Buffon J. General and private natural history, parts 1-10. St. Petersburg, 1802-1827 Kanaev I.I. Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon. M. - L., 1966

in the Labyrinth

“Buffon Illustrated, or Natural History of Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes and Some Reptiles” is, first of all, a unique opportunity to touch the origins of modern natural science and look at the world around us through the eyes of a European of the Enlightenment.

This book differs from the modern zoological atlases we are accustomed to. Although the editors did a great job, trying to bring Buffon's text closer to current knowledge about the world around us. This is ensured by very delicate notes that do not distract attention, but allow parents to avoid awkward situations and answer all questions that arise as they read the book.

The main thing about it is the old-fashioned charm of Buffon’s texts and Rabier’s illustrations, which makes us remember other, seemingly also outdated books: for example, "ABC Benoit" or "Scientific Fun" by Tom Titus. But it is precisely these publications that I want to return to again and again, because the spirit of the times and the happy childhood of past eras lives in them. Such books are literally created for the family library; they will be carefully removed from the shelf, looked at together and amazed at how the world around us is changing.

This is also facilitated by the appearance of the book: a noble cardboard cover, a fabric spine, and aged pages. It's hard to imagine that we are holding the 2014 edition in our hands.