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Georges-Louis Leclerc

Born

in Côte-d'Or, France

September 07, 1707

Died

April 16, 1788

Website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges-Louis_Lecl...

Genre

Science, Mathematics, Cosmology

Influences

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, Thomas Jefferson, G ...more

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Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author.

His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. Buffon published thirty-six quarto volumes of his Histoire naturelle during his lifetime; with additional volumes based on his notes and further research being published in the two decades following his death.

Ernst Mayr said that "Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century".

Buffon held the position of intendant (director) at the Jardin du Roi, now called the Jardin des Plantes; it is the French equivalent of Kew Gardens.

Georges Louis Leclerc (later Count d Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author.

His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. Buffon published thirty-six quarto volumes of his Histoire naturelle during his lifetime; with additional volumes based on his notes and further research being published in the two decades following his death.

Ernst Mayr said that "Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century".

Buffon held the position of intendant (director) at the Jardin du Roi, now called the Jardin des Plantes; it is the French equivalent of Kew Gardens.

Georges Louis Leclerc (later Count de Buffon) was born at Montbard, in the Province of Burgundy to Benjamin Leclerc, a minor local official in charge of the salt tax and Anne-Christine Marlin also from a family of civil servants. Georges was named after his mother’s uncle (his godfather) Georges Blaisot, the tax-farmer of the Duke of Savoy for all of Sicily. In 1714 Blaisot died childless, leaving a considerable fortune to his seven-year-old godson. Benjamin Leclerc then purchased an estate containing the nearby village of Buffon and moved the family to Dijon acquiring various offices there as well as a seat in the Dijon Parlement. Georges attended the Jesuit College of Godrans in Dijon from the age of ten onwards. From 1723–1726 he then studied law in Dijon, the prerequisite for continuing the family tradition in civil service. In 1728 Georges left Dijon to study mathematics and medicine at the University of Angers in France. At Angers in 1730 he made the acquaintance of the young English Duke of Kingston, who was on his grand tour of Europe, and traveled with him and a large and expensive entourage for a year and a half through southern France and parts of Italy. There are persistent but completely undocumented rumors from this period about duels, abductions and secret trips to England. In 1732 after the death of his mother and before the impending remarriage of his father, Georges left Kingston and returned to Dijon to secure his inheritance. Having added “de Buffon” to his name while traveling with the Duke, he repurchased the village of Buffon, which his father had meanwhile sold off. With a fortune of about 80 000 livres Buffon set himself up in Paris to pursue science, at first primarily mathematics and mechanics, and the increase of his fortune. ...more

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Georges-Louis Leclerc’s books

Average rating: 3.75 · 150 ratings · 22 reviews · 2,775 distinct works

	Histoire naturelle 3.39 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 1788 — 117 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Discurso sobre el estilo 3.62 avg rating — 13 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Köpek by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Elif Gökteke (Translator) 3.40 avg rating — 10 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Birds: Mini Archive with DVD 3.67 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Epochs of Nature 4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1998 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	368 Animal Illustrations from Buffon's "Natural History" really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1993 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Buffon's Natural History 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2008 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	All the World's Birds: Buffon's Illustrated Natural History General and Particular of Birds 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2007 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Selections from Natural History [Pagini din Istoria Naturala] liked it 3.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1977 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Discurso sobre el estilo 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Georges-Louis Leclerc…

Quotes by Georges-Louis Leclerc (?)

“The style is the man himself”
― Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon

9 likes

“All the work of the crystallographers serves only to demonstrate that there is only variety everywhere where they suppose uniformity ... that in nature there is nothing absolute, nothing perfectly regular.”
― Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon

tags: crystallography, naturalism, nature, regularity, science, uniformity, variety

7 likes

“Never think that God's delays are God's denials.”
― Comte De Buffon

tags: laura-frantz, loves-reckoning

3 likes

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