X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Comte de Buffon


Jacques de Sève

He was commissioned by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon to provide the quadruped illustrations for Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (1749-1778, in 36 volumes) (François-Nicolas Martinet did the birds) and then Buffon's Receuil de Vingtquatre Plantes et Fleurs (1772).

Rameau's Nephew

Society does not allow the talented to support themselves because it does not value them, leaving them to beg while the rich, the powerful and stupid poke fun at men like Buffon, Duclos, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire, D'Alembert, Diderot.


Sumxu

In volume 4 of his Histoire Naturelle (c. 1767), Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, mentioned the pendulous-eared cats of Pe-chi-ly in China and he was unsure whether the black or yellow sumxu was a cat or some other domesticated animal used to control rats.


see also

Thomas-François Dalibard

Dalibard & Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, translated Franklin's proposal into French and in May 1752 they performed an experiment using a 40-foot-tall metal rod at Marly-la-Ville.