Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon - Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux - 1783-1786

BUFFON (Georges-Louis Leclerc de)

Natural History of Minerals.

Paris, by the Royal Printing House, 1783-1786.

4 volumes (of 5) in-4 (25.5 x 19 cm), full mottled calf (period binding), spine with raised bands elaborately decorated, 2 title pages and 1 table of contents in morocco, triple gilt border on the covers, double gilt border on the edges, marbled edges, monogram HL on the upper boards repeated for each volume, [4]-557-[1]-xl ; [4]-602-xxvi ; [6]-636-xix ; [6]-448-xxxix pages (complete volumes). Volume V missing (Treatise on the Magnet and its uses) as well as 3 title pages and 2 table of contents, heads, corners and hinges rubbed, nick on 2 head caps, upper hinge of volume I cracked, a beginning split at the lower head hinge of volume II, some foxing (especially at the beginning of the volumes) and browned leaves. Otherwise in good general condition.

First edition of the Histoire naturelle des minéraux published separately.

The work first appeared within volumes XXV to XXIX of the Histoire naturelle générale et particulière, with the description of the King’s Cabinet which appeared between 1749-1788.
Buffon develops in this work his revolutionary theories on the formation of minerals and the geological history of the Earth, breaking free from the religious constraints of his time to propose a dating based on the cooling of metals.
This is Buffon’s last work, who died in 1788.

PROVENANCE: collection monogram of Hector-Martin Lefuel (1810–1880). Major French architect of the Second Empire, mainly famous for directing the monumental completion of the Louvre Palace and its reunion with the Tuileries Palace under Napoleon III.

A pleasant copy.