Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
English translations appeared between 1775 and 1815: by William
Kenrick (1729-1779) and John Murdock (1747-1824); William
Smellie (1740-1795) who corresponded with Buffon while he under-
took translating the work; and James Smith Barr (fl. 1769-1806) who
published his translation himself. Jeff Loveland of the University of
Cinncinnati has recently remarked that of the three, Barr's was 'parti-
cularly careless in pagination and tables of contents. Misspellings
were also common ...' Perhaps the most fascinating edition of all
was published as recently as 1936. It is illustrated with a series of
etchings by Pablo Picasso commissioned by the publishers Vollard,
and has been described as one of the artistic masterpieces of the
twentieth century.
One reason the series was so successful was that personal paper
menageries were now available to those who could afford to own or
who could borrow the topics. No longer did you have to build up your
own collection of wild animals at great expense: you simply lifted
them down from their 'cages' on the library shelves and released
them when you turned the pages. It must be remembered that the
topics were published at a time before the advent of public zoological
gardens. The word 'zoo' was not coined until 1826 on the establish-
ment of the Royal Zoological Society in London.
Buffon's readable text was wonderfully augmented with engrav-
ings of the animals by the artist Jacques E. de Seve, and these set a style
for many subsequent and similar zoological compendia. De Seve's
animals have an almost statuesque quality: most are pictured on
natural plinths of rock in a rather stony stance, while others such as
some of the cats are posing on top of ornate pieces of furniture.
Whatever we may think of the possible artistic licence taken with
the subjects the images do portray the major characteristics of each
illustrated species.
A great deal of this work was written at Montbard, where he had
established his own private menagerie. These pleasure parks were not
uncommon amongst the nobility, but Buffon's was particularly
important scientifically, given his work. Buffon restored an old castle
