Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
1707 – 1788 · aged 81
French natural historian (1707-1788)
- Born
- 7 Sept 1707 · Montbard
- Died
- 15 Apr 1788 · Paris
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 7 Sept 1707BornBorn in Montbard
- 1738 – 1788RoleDirector of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
- 1740AwardFellow of the Royal Society
- 1753 – 1788RoleMember of the Académie française
- 1782AwardFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 15 Apr 1788DiedDied in Paris
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1707 – 1788).
- 1756 – 1763Seven Years' War
- c. 1760 – 1840Industrial Revolution
- 1765 – 1783American Revolution
Biography
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French: [ʒɔʁʒ lwi ləklɛʁ kɔ̃t də byfɔ̃]; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, and cosmologist. He held the position of intendant (director) at the Jardin du Roi.
Buffon's works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent French scientists Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. Buffon published thirty-six quarto volumes of his Histoire Naturelle during his lifetime, with additional volumes based on his notes and further research being published in the two decades following his death.
Ernst Mayr wrote that "Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century". Credited with being one of the first naturalists to recognize ecological succession, he was forced by the theology committee at the University of Paris to recant his theories about geological history and animal evolution because they contradicted the biblical narrative of creation.
Text from the Wikipedia article Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, CC BY-SA 4.0
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