Georges Louis Leclerc
(1707-1788)

Died aged c. 81

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French: [ʒɔʁʒ lwi ləklɛʁ kɔ̃t də byfɔ̃]; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent French scientists Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. Buffon published thirty-six quarto volumes of his Histoire Naturelle during his lifetime, with additional volumes based on his notes and further research being published in the two decades following his death. Ernst Mayr wrote that "Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century". Credited with being one of the first naturalists to recognize ecological succession, he was later forced by the theology committee at the University of Paris to recant his theories about geological history and animal evolution because they contradicted the Biblical narrative of Creation. Buffon held the position of intendant (director) at the Jardin du Roi, now called the Jardin des Plantes.

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Commemorated on 1 plaque

Georges Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon ne a Montbard le 7 septembre 1707 Intendant du Jardin Royal des Plantes depuis 1739 est mort dans cette maison le 16 avril 1788

English translation: Georges Louis Leclerc Count of Buffon ne a Montbard September 7, 1707 Intendant of the Royal Garden of Plants since 1739 died in this house on April 16, 1788 [AWS Translate]

26 rue Buffon, in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, France where they died (1788)