Subject: Old book from the 18th century. Text in French. Natural History. Sciences - Georges Louis Leclerc, Count of Buffon.
Publication: Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1749 - 1767. First edition.
Description: 4th (26 cm). 15 volumes. Full vintage leather binding with ribs, gilding and stitches on the spine.
Volume I: 1749. Cover, dedicatory, table, 612 pages, 2 plates, 2 maps. "Theory of the Earth."
Volume II: 1749. Cover, table, 603 pages, 8 plates, some of them foldable. "Natural history of the human."
Volume III: 1749. Cover, table, 530 pages, 17 plates, some of them foldable. "Natural history of the human."
Volume IV: 1753. XVI pages, including cover and table, 544 pages, 23 plates. "Quadrupeds I".
Volume V: 1755. Cover, table, 311 pages, 52 plates, 1 table ("l'ordre des chiens"). "Quadrupeds II".
Volume VI: 1756. VI pages, including cover, table, 344 pages, 57 plates. "Quadrupeds III".
Volume VII: 1758. Cover, 2 table sheets, 378 pages, 1 sheet, 48 plates. "Quadrupeds IV".
Volume VIII: 1760. Cover, 2 table sheets, 402 pages, 1 sheet, 54 plates. "Quadrupeds V".
Volume IX: 1761. Cover, 2 table sheets, 375 pages, 41 plates. "Quadrupeds V".
Volume X: 1763. Cover, 2 table sheets, 368 pages, 1 sheet, 57 plates. "Quadrupeds VI".
Volume XI: 1764. Cover, 1 table sheet, 450 pages, 1 sheet, 43 plates. "Quadrupeds VII".
Volume XII: 1764. Cover, 2 table sheets, XVI pages, 451 pages, 58 plates (plate no. XXVI incorrectly placed). "Quadrupeds VIII"
Volume XIII: 1765. Cover, 2 table sheets, XX pages, 441 pages, 1 sheet, 59 plates. "Quadrupeds IX".
Volume XIV: 1766. Cover, 2 table sheets, 411 pages, 41 plates. "Quadrupeds X".
Volume XV: 1767. Cover, 2 table sheets, 207 pages, 18 plates, CCCXXIV pages ("Concordance et table alphabetique des noms pour les animaux quadrupedes"). "Quadrupeds XI".
Conservation: Very good condition. Completely reviewed. In general, very clean paper and engravings with wide margins. Volume X with the slightly different binding.
Notes: This encyclopedia includes all the knowledge of the time concerning the "natural sciences", a broad term, also grouping together scientific disciplines on materials, physics, chemistry or technology. The attention that Georges Louis Leclerc gives to internal anatomy places him among the precursors of comparative anatomy: "L'intérieur, dans les êtres vivants, est le fond du dessin de la nature" (the interior, in living beings, is the basis of nature's design), he writes in Quadrupèdes. The 580 magnificent intaglio engravings that comprise these 15 volumes were made by Jacques de Sève regarding quadrupeds.
Other information: Beautiful Ex libris of the Duke of Híjar and at the bottom of the spine gilt iron with the surname "Ulloa".
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