All the World's Birds : Buffon's Illustrated Natural History General and Particular of Birds

Buffon is best remembered for his great work Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (1749-1778: in 36 volumes) which included everything known about the natural world up until that date. This book is comprised of selections from the volume on birds with period engravings by François-Nicolas Martinet. Buffon is credited as the first modern naturalist who noted that despite similar environments, different regions have distinct plants and animals, a concept that become known as Buffon's Law, widely considered the first principle of Biogeography. He made the radical conclusion that species must have both "improved" and "degenerated" (evolved) after dispersing away from a center of creation. He also asserted that climate change must have facilitated the worldwide spread of species from their center of origin. He is also among the first to have considered the similarities between humans and apes, and the possibility of a common ancestry. Buffon worked in concert with François-Nicolas Martinet who created detailed color panels of the birds Buffon described. Conceived as part of the original work, the illustrations have long been separated from Buffon's text, making this the first time the images and the text have been published together in volume form. These wonderous 18th century depictions of birds are among the earliest scientific attempts to depict birds in all their detail, and these plates are a milestone in the development of ornithological art. Anyone interested in birds or ornithological artwill surely want this book.

Georges-Louis Leclerc (1707–1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, biologist, and author who influenced generations of naturalists, including notably Charles Darwin. Stéphane Schmitt is a researcher at France’s National Research Center. Cédric Crémière is the director of Le Havre’s Natural History Museum. David Sibley is one of the world’s leading ornithologists and author of Sibley’s Guide to Birds.