Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de (1707-1788) and Buffon, Georges-Louis-Marie Leclerc, Comte de (1764-1794)

Georges-Louis Buffon:

1. Two letters to Martyn Foulkes (1690-1754), Holborn Antiquary, FRS, 10 August 1739 and 27 July 1742.

2. Letter to M. Doupin, Paris, 27 July 1751.

3. Letter to M. Bourboulon, 7 September 1769.

4. Letter to an unnamed recipient, 14 March 1770.

5. Letter addressed to Madame la Baronne de la Forêt et son Château de Montfort, 11 June 1771.

6. Letter to an unnamed male recipient, 17 June 1775.

7. Letter to M. de Borry, Paris, 16 May 1776.

8. Letter to an unnamed female recipient, 15 March 1778.

9. Letter to an unnamed recipient, 29 March 1778.

10. Receipt signed by Lucarl on behalf of Buffon, acknowledging a dozen specimens of volume seven of des Oiseaux Reliés, 6 February 1779.

11. Deed of transport between La Compagnie d'Epurement and M. Mathieu fils. Signed by Buffon and others, 11 October 1779.

12. Printed circular re. erecting a statue to Buffon in the village of Montbard, 30 April 1840.

13. Letter from Mme de Rochambeau, wife of Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (1725-1807), referring to the editing of Buffon's works, Vendôme, 9 November 1804.

14. Letter from Thouin, presumably André Thouin (1746-1824), botanist, to M. Guillumir, Commissioner of Police, Paris, concerning the Jardin du Roi, n.d.

15. Three letters by persons unknown concerning the editing of Buffon's correspondence, 2 August 1860, 30 December 1861, and 16 March 1866.

Georges-Louis-Marie Buffon:

16. Letter to M. Javon, homme de loi, Paris, 2 September 1791.

17. Letter to Mme. de la Grange, Paris, 10 May.

1739-1866

1 File

Purchased from Charavay, Paris, October 1928 / April 1929 (acc.63700), April 1931 (acc.64715), Desgranges, Paris, May 1932 (acc.65641), July 1932 (acc.65635), Sotheby's, London, November 1932 (acc.58802), probably from Desgranges or Charavay, Paris, circa October 1933 (acc.66365), Desgranges, Paris, January 1934 (acc.66596), and Charavay, Paris, September 1934 (acc. 67126). Provenance information not recorded for all letters.

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) was a French naturalist who was director of the Jardin du Roi from 1739 until his death. He was also a renowned mathematician and cosmologist, and a member of both the Académie française and the Académie des sciences.

In his Historie Naturelle Buffon talked about the possibility of a common ancestry between man and apes, predating Darwin by a hundred years. He believed that species diversified over time due to "organic particles" in the environment, but was unable to provide evidence of this.

The complete works of Georges-Louis Leclerc can be found online at Histoire Naturelle by Buffon: the web edition.

Georges-Louis-Marie Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1764-1793) was the only son of Georges-Louis Leclerc, and the second Comte de Buffon. It was hoped that he would take over as director of the Jardin do Roi from his father, but when Buffon senior became seriously ill in 1772 (when Georges-Louis-Marie was only eight), this was deemed impractical. In compensation, the King raised the Buffon estates in Burgundy to the status of a county.

Although when he was seventeen Georges-Louis Leclerc arranged for his son to travel around Europe with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck on his botanical studies, this did not lead to the expected career as a naturalist. Instead, Georges-Louis-Marie joined the military, initially serving in the Gardes Françaises.

In 1784 he married the daughter of the late Marquis of Cepoy, Margaret Frances, who was sixteen years old. She had a dowry of 450,000 livres, on top of which his father promised to pay a further 20,000 livres. Mme Buffon later became the mistress of the Duke of Orléans. His father insisted that Georges-Louis-Marie resign his post as captain in the regiment of Chartres when news of the affair became public in 1787, as the Duke of Orléans was the colonel of the regiment. Later he served as a major in the regiment d'Agénois.

Georges-Louis-Marie Leclerc was arrested at the beginning of 1794, and accused of participating in the Conspiracy of Prisons. He was executed by guillotine on 10 July.

At Wellcome Collection:

MS.1415, Fragment on les volcans from Oeuvres complètes de Buffon. With holograph corrections and additions by the Author.

MS.1416, Histoire naturelle des animaux terrestres, aquatiques et volatiles.