An ornithological treatise is sumptuously reproduced

Beautiful book –

An ornithological treatise is sumptuously reproduced

Published between 1770 and 1783 and featuring superb engravings, the nine volumes of Buffon's “Natural History of Birds” have been reissued in a luxury box set.

Published today at 2:13 p.m.

Bohemian Waxwing: “The characteristic attribute that distinguishes this bird from any other is the small red appendages which end several of the medium pinnae of its wings,” we learn from the pen of the French naturalist.

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BotTalk

Here is a bibliophile's treasure now brought together in a superb work. “The natural history of birds”, written at the end of the 17th century by the French scholar George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, was recently reproduced by the publishing house Citadelles & Mazenod in the form of a book of 7.5 kg beautifully illustrated – and very expensive (around 400 francs from a bookseller in Switzerland).

Illustration of an imaginary bird with an elongated, curved beak, pink and white plumage, standing on grassy ground. — Cayenne pink spoonbill: “The American spoonbill is only a little smaller in all its dimensions than that of Europe,” writes Buffon. “It still differs by the pink or crimson color which sets off the white background of its plumage on the neck, back and sides.”
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Composed of nine volumes published between 1770 and 1783, this treatise is part of an ambitious encyclopedic enterprise entitled “Natural History, general and particular, with the description of the King's Cabinet”, which was published in more than 40 volumes – including eight after Buffon's death – extends from 1749 to 1804.

923_BUFFON — Female of Souchet: “The tigernut is remarkable for its large and broad flat beak, rounded and dilated at the tip, like a spoon, which has given it the names of *canard cuillier*, *spoonbill duck*and the nickname of *plarynchios*by which it is designated and distinguished among ornithologists among the numerous species of its genus.
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This literary and naturalist monument, embellished with engravings made by Jacques de Sève for reptiles and quadrupeds as well as by François-Nicolas Martinet for birds, testifies to the importance of the relationship between science and the arts in the Age of Enlightenment.

Illustration of a hoopoe with an outstretched crest, perched on a rock with plants and flowers in the background. — Hoopoe: “The natural situation of this tuft of feathers is to be lying back, either when the hoopoe is flying, or when it is taking its food, in a word, when it is free from any internal agitation,” reveals Buffon .
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Attention to detail

This book reproduces all of the texts and 1008 original illuminated plates from the luxury edition kept in Montbard, the Burgundian estate turned museum where Buffon was born and worked. Produced in a limited edition and sold in separate notebooks, “The Natural History of Birds” was for a long time rarely accessible to the public.

711_BUFFON — Todiers de Santo Domingo (top and right), Todier de Cayenne (left): the first two individuals “were sent to us from Santo Domingo by Mr. Chervain, under the name of *ground parrots*but he only sent us the description of the female. He observes that the male has a rather pleasant little row during the time of his love affairs; that the female makes her nest in dry earth, and preferably in soft tuff.”
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Raptors, gallinaceans, web-footed or wading birds, familiar or exotic specimens, sometimes even extinct, some 1,200 species are studied there with an extraordinary attention to detail and a keen sense of observation.

Illustration of an owl with big yellow eyes, perched on a green branch. — Grand Duke: “The poets dedicated the eagle to Jupiter and the duke to Juno; it is, in fact, the eagle of the night, and the king of this tribe of birds, which fear the light of day, and only fly when it goes out,” describes Buffon. “We easily distinguish the duke by his large face, his enormous head, the large and deep caves of his ears, the two egrets which surmount his head, and which are two and a half inches high.”
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Marking a decisive stage in the birth of ornithological science, this directory no longer meets “modern criteria of rigor”, as science historian Stéphane Schmitt explains in his introduction. Martinet's illustrations are, however, “always considered sufficiently reliable to serve as an element of discussion in scientific debates.”

0520_BUFFON — Brazilian green macaw: “This bird, as beautiful as it is rare, is still lovable by its social morals and by the gentleness of its nature,” underlines the scholar. “He soon becomes familiar with the people he frequently sees; he loves their welcome, their caresses, and seems to seek to return them; but repels those of strangers, and especially those of children, whom he vigorously pursues and on whom he throws himself.”
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“Natural history of birds”, texts by George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon and illustrations by François-Nicolas Martinet, Stéphane Schmitt and Cédric Crémière, Citadelles & Mazenod, 672 p., 400 fr.

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