Buffon - Oeuvres complètes par M. A. Richard - 1854

A splendid panorama of the animal world of the 19th century – Buffon’s famous Natural History in a rare, richly illustrated Parisian complete edition.

Publisher: Paris, Dufour, Mulat et Boulanger, 1854. Volumes 1 through 10 with 100 colored steel-engraved plates and an engraved portrait. Later cloth-bound volume, 28 × 19 cm, 8 kg.
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Extensive and impressively equipped complete edition of Buffon’s natural history works, one of the most influential naturalists of the Enlightenment. The richly illustrated volumes present the animal world in that characteristic combination of scientific observation, narrative elegance, and decorative book art that made Buffon’s works famous across Europe as early as the 18th century.

Of particular note are the numerous colored steel-engraved plates depicting exotic mammals, birds, and other animals. The finely executed illustrations show, among others, big cats, apes, owls, waterfowl, hummingbirds, and horses in moodily composed landscapes, lending the edition a distinctly representative character. The plates combine scientific accuracy with the aesthetic standards of 19th-century French book illustration.

The edition edited by M. A. Richard also integrates insights from comparative classification by Cuvier and other naturalists, thus vividly documenting the transition from classical natural history to modern zoology. Consequently, the work possesses not only bibliophile value but also scientific and cultural-historical significance.

Monumental natural history complete edition with splendid colored animal depictions – a decorative and at the same time scientifically significant work of 19th-century French book art.
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Occasionally lightly browned, otherwise very clean and well-preserved lot