22 September 2006 - 9 April 2007: UM exhibition: L’Histoire Naturelle, comte de Buffon (1707-1788)

Exhibition of a Monumental Masterpiece of the Enlightenment

On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, the University of Maastricht’s library exhibits a large number of editions and volumes of his Natural History.

Buffon (Montbard 1707 - Paris 1788) was one of the most important, famous, and widely read naturalists of the eighteenth century.

With his monumental 36-volume Natural History, published between 1749 and 1789, he is an important example of an Enlightenment naturalist.

Buffon’s ambitions were far reaching: He sought to describe and identify everything related to the earth: quadrupeds, birds, fish, and minerals.

Buffon worked at the service of King Louis XV as the director of the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris, where he compiled a rich collection of preserved and living plants and animals in the King’s Cabinet.

The museum became one of the leading scientific institutes in the world during the second half of the eighteenth century.

Exposition website: www.unimaas.nl/exposities/buffon