How Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, became one of the leading scientists of the Age of Enlightenment.
A contemporary of Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu, Georges Louis Leclerc (7 September 1707, Montbard – 15 April 1788, Paris), known as the Comte de Buffon, was one of the most important scientists of the Age of Enlightenment.
This period, which is probably one of the most prolific in history, is marked by profound questions and upheavals in the literary, cultural and scientific fields. Buffon is known for his work and especially for his words. Today Diderot is more famous than Buffon, but this was not the case in the 18th century.
In Burgundy and in Paris
Destined for a career as a magistrate like his father, Buffon chose to devote himself to the sciences, starting with mathematics. In 1733, he was elected to the Académie royale des Sciences, a position that gave him financial stability and allowed him to devote himself to his research.
This position also helped to build his growing reputation within the royal court. His research on the improvement of wood for shipbuilding led to his appointment as Intendant du Jardin et du Cabinet du Roi in August 1739.
However, he did not abandon his Montbard properties, where he developed an experimental garden. He set up a royal nursery with plant species from all over the world.
He thus had the opportunity to analyse these species and extend their cultivation to the Jardin du Roi. This work marked the beginning of his career as a naturalist.
The Histoire naturelle
Taking advantage of the emergence of interest in science, Buffon devoted much of his life to natural history, which he helped establish as a major discipline. He formed unique collections, gathering the largest number of mineral, plant and animal specimens from all over the world.
This is the basis of his Histoire naturelle, the objective of which is to study all the products of living things. He named the species and classified them, had them drawn and shared the fruit of this work. He disseminated his results from 1740 onwards. This took the form of 36 volumes entitled Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière.
The collections were kept in the Jardin du Roi. In this process, royalty played an important role since Buffon benefited from its support. Moreover, it was within the Imprimerie royale (the Royal Print Office) that each of the volumes were published and completed by their illustrations. The paper used, which was of high quality, had a royal watermark to attest to their provenance.
He worked on this project with many scientists, including Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton (1716-1799), also a native of Montbard.
The origins of astrophysics: how old is the Earth?
Among the questions that haunted Buffon was the one about the age of the Earth. He wanted to provide a scientific age for the planet, at a time when it was religions that answered this question.
To achieve this, he became interested in astronomy, the origin and shaping of the Solar System. In fact, he contests – without being explicit – the holy texts that still had a strong influence on the sciences in the 18th century.
Setting a theoretical framework that was rather convincing for the time, he carried out experiments in his forges. Built in 1768, Buffon’s forges became, in a way, the first planetology laboratory.
This work allowed him to estimate the age of the Earth at 74,832 years. This is based on the fact that the Earth was born from the collision of a comet and the Sun. Although the initial premise proved to be inaccurate, the approaches he put in place laid the foundations of laboratory astrophysics – a discipline that would not be born until 150 years later.
One of the fathers of modern science
Respected by his contemporaries, Buffon's research generated scientific emulation that allowed the development of new disciplines, particularly in the life sciences. Among them were specialties such as zoology, paleontology and anthropology, disciplines that offered new perspectives from the beginning of the 19th century.
The Friends of the European Heritage is a French charity dedicated to history and arts. Its ambition is to build up a digital cabinet of curiosities, a global and virtual museum where are gathered objects, people, stories, and ideas from all over Europe.
Throughout 2025, there will be an online residency of the Musée et parc Buffon on www.ladpe.fr, with the presentation of 12 items of its collections, starting with the official portrait of the comte de Buffon by Drouais.