Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was one of the most important naturalists in the eighteenth century. He is most famous for his extensive Histoire Naturelle, published in 36 volumes during his lifetime. The work was continued by his friend Bernard Germain de Lacépède, who published a further eight volumes following Buffon’s death in 1788, taking the total number to 44.

Born to a modest family of civil servants, after securing his inheritance of a fortune bequeathed to him by his godfather, in 1732 Buffon travelled to Paris. His early work there concerned the study of different timbers used in the construction of ships, efforts which earned him the position as head of the Jardin du Roi, the major botanical garden in the city, a post he held until his death.

It was at the Jardin du Roi that Buffon began his natural history career in earnest, collecting vast numbers of botanical and zoological specimens with the intention of turning the gardens into a major research institute. In 1749, he began publishing the Histoire Naturelle. The work was an enormous effort and required assistance from several prominent naturalists with whom Buffon maintained correspondence. Starting with three volumes of a general natural history, he then published 12 volumes concerning quadrupeds (1753-67), nine on birds (1770-83) and five on minerals (1783-8) with an additional seven supplemental volumes published from 1774 to 1788. Lacépède added a further two volumes on reptiles (1788-9), five on fish (1798-1803) and a final volume on cetaceans (1804).

The work was comprehensive, and copies were purchased by naturalists and wealthy amateurs both in France and in Britain for inclusion in their libraries. However, the text used flowery language and overblown descriptions, leading to a mixed reputation from contemporaries. In his work on minerals, Buffon was criticised by clergy for suggesting that the world was much older than the 6,000 years as was commonly believed. He was also attacked for criticising the sexual system of classifying plants as proposed by Linnaeus (a system which would fall out of favour the following century) and caused a controversy in North America when he claimed that American wildlife was inferior to that of Europe. These accusations so incensed Thomas Jefferson who subsequently spent much time trying to disprove the assertion, commissioning expeditions to find and send spectacular specimens of moose and extinct megafauna to European institutions.

The Royal Library holds multiple sets of the Histoire Naturelle. These include six folio volumes consisting of Buffon’s history of birds, bound for the library of George III at Windsor (1771-9, RCINs 1052152-7; Windsor Library inventory, fol. 91), and the full 44-volume quarto edition, apparently bound for William IV (RCINs 1088472-1088509 and 1089340-5). However, a set of the quarto edition is also listed among the books owned by George III in his library Windsor (Windsor Library inventory, fol. 89) and the books are not recorded as being disposed on the creation of the Royal Library in the 1830s. It may be therefore, that they were plainly bound, as many of George’s books were, and William’s cypher was added on the inclusion of the set in the Library. A 65-volume 18mo continuation of Buffon's work, known as the Série, published between 1798 and 1802 from the library of George IV at Carlton House, is also found in the Royal Library’s collection (RCINs 1089362-1089426).