Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, was a French naturalist, mathematician, and encyclopedic author whose 36-volume Histoire naturelle attempted to describe all of the natural world. His ideas on the age of the Earth, species change, and biogeography influenced generations of naturalists, including Lamarck and Darwin.

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Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.

Life events

Born in Montbard, Burgundy
7 September 1707

Georges-Louis Leclerc was born in Montbard to a family that had recently acquired wealth and the estate of Buffon.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Studied law at the College of Godrans in Dijon
c. 1723 – c. 1726

Buffon studied law in Dijon at his father's wish before turning to mathematics and medicine at Angers.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Elected to the French Academy of Sciences
1734

Buffon entered the Academie des sciences as an adjunct in mechanics, having presented work on probability including the famous needle problem.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Appointed keeper of the Jardin du Roi in Paris
1739 – 1788

Buffon became intendant of the royal botanical garden, transforming it into a major research centre and museum, a post he held until his death.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published the first volumes of Histoire naturelle
1749

The first three volumes of Buffon's monumental Histoire naturelle, generale et particuliere appeared, beginning a series that ran to 36 volumes in his lifetime.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Married Francoise de Saint-Belin-Malain
1752

Buffon married the young Marie-Francoise de Saint-Belin-Malain; their son Georges-Louis-Marie was born in 1764.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Elected to the Academie francaise
1753

Buffon was elected to the Academie francaise, delivering his celebrated Discourse on Style, containing the line 'the style is the man himself'.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Made Comte de Buffon by Louis XV
1773

The king raised Buffon's estate to a county, making him Comte de Buffon in recognition of his services to science.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published Les Epoques de la nature
1778

In Les Epoques de la nature Buffon proposed that the Earth was far older than church chronology allowed, estimating its age from the cooling of a once-molten globe.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in Paris
16 April 1788

Buffon died at the Jardin du Roi in Paris at the age of 80, shortly before the French Revolution.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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