Buffon and Daubenton: divergent traditions within the Histoire naturelle.

W ATITH THE EXCEPTION of two translations and a few articles, the thirtysix volumes of the Histoire naturelle, geane'rale etparticuliere comprise Buffon's oeuvres completes.' They also stand as one of the great intellectual monuments of the French Enlightenment. Considering that they were written by one of the noted stylists of the century, were illustrated with hundreds of engravings, were sumptuously printed by the Imprimerie Royale, and constituted the largest undertaking of its kind since the days of Pliny, it is hardly surprising that the Histoire naturelle swiftly became the most widely read work on natural history in France2 and was the third most popular piece of literature there during the latter part of the eighteenth century.3