Text prepared, introduced and annotated by Stéphane Schmitt with the collaboration of Cédric Crémière
Buffon, faithful to the principles enunciated in the First Discourse of 1749, begins by treating the species most useful to man, that is to say, from the point of view of a great lord of the eighteenth century, We hunt. Five of them are in this volume : deer, deer, deer, hare and rabbit. Each offers an opportunity for the writer to seduce a large audience by the quality of style, and to the scientist and philosopher to raise the spirit of the collection of facts to the general reflections on nature.
The accuracy of Daubenton’s descriptions, and the richness of the illustration, testify, on their part, to the dual design of the enterprise, agreeability and instruction.
Stéphane Schmitt is director of research at CNRS (SPHERE, UMR 7219, Paris). His research focuses on the history of the life sciences of the eighteenth to the twentieth century, particularly on the development of anatomy and embryology in connection with the development of theories of evolution.
Cédric Crémière, heritage curator and director of the Museum of Natural History of Le Havre, is particularly interested in the history of anatomy and collections.
: : Champion
: : Collection "Age des Lumières", n° 0060
: : 504 pages
: : September 2011, Paris
: : ISBN : 9782745321503
