Buffon's Natural History - Volume II" from Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon. French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author (1707 - 1788).
This lovely book showcases the delicate copper engravings of birds created by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Compte de Buffon (1707-88), for his masterpiece work Histoire naturelle, gÉnÉrale et particuliÈre. The glorious birds captured within are original reproductions of Leclerc’s art, which depicts the vibrant hues of the birds’ feathers, the varying length of their wings, and their wide eyed expressions as they stand perched, always alert for symbols of danger or other forms of life that might serve as their next meal. Leclerc’s original text from Histoire naturelle is also faithfully reproduced to provide descriptive information on the birds, such as their living locations and their unique physical characteristics. To bring this lovely book into the 21st century, the paperback format and low price make this rare and significant volume accessible and affordable. A DVD is also included with images of the birds to be used by readers at their discretion.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) was a French mathematician who was considered one of the leading naturalists of the Enlightenment. An acquaintance of Voltaire and other intellectuals, he worked as Keeper at the Jardin du Roi from 1739, and this inspired him to research and publish a vast encyclopaedia and survey of natural history, the ground-breaking Histoire Naturelle, which he published in forty-four volumes between 1749 and 1804. These volumes, first published between 1770 and 1783 and translated into English in 1793, contain Buffon's survey and descriptions of birds from the Histoire Naturelle. Based on recorded observations of birds both in France and in other countries, these volumes provide detailed descriptions of various bird species, their habitats and behaviours and were the first publications to present a comprehensive account of eighteenth-century ornithology. Volume 1 covers birds of prey and flightless birds.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, le comte de Buffon's The Epochs of Nature, originally published as Les Époques de la Nature in 1778, is one of the first great popular science books, a work of style and insight that was devoured by Catherine the Great of Russia and influenced Humboldt, Darwin, Lyell, Vernadsky, and many other renowned scientists. It is the first geological history of the world, stretching from the Earth’s origins to its foreseen end, and though Buffon was limited by the scientific knowledge of his era—the substance of the Earth was not, as he asserts, dragged out of the sun by a giant comet, nor is the sun’s heat generated by tidal forces—many of his deductions appear today as startling insights. And yet, The Epochs of Nature has never before been available in its entirety in English—until now. In seven epochs, Buffon reveals the main features of an evolving Earth, from its hard rock substrate to the sedimentary layers on top, from the minerals and fossils found within these layers to volcanoes, earthquakes, and rises and falls in sea level—and he even touches on age-old mysteries like why the sun shines. In one of many moments of striking scientific prescience, Buffon details evidence for species extinction a generation before Cuvier’s more famous assertion of the phenomenon. His seventh and final epoch does nothing less than offer the first geological glimpse of the idea that humans are altering the very foundations of the Earth—an idea of remarkable resonance as we debate the designation of another epoch: the Anthropocene. Also featuring Buffon’s extensive “Notes Justificatives,” in which he offers further evidence to support his assertions (and discusses vanished monstrous North American beasts—what we know as mastodons—as well as the potential existence of human giants), plus an enlightening introduction by editor and translator Jan Zalasiewicz and historians of science Sverker Sörlin, Libby Robin, and Jacques Grinevald, this extraordinary new translation revives Buffon’s quite literally groundbreaking work for a new age.
This lovely book showcases the delicate copper engravings of birds created by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Compte de Buffon (1707-88), for his masterpiece work Histoire naturelle, gÉnÉrale et particuliÈre. The glorious birds captured within are original reproductions of Leclerc’s art, which depicts the vibrant hues of the birds’ feathers, the varying length of their wings, and their wide eyed expressions as they stand perched, always alert for symbols of danger or other forms of life that might serve as their next meal. Leclerc’s original text from Histoire naturelle is also faithfully reproduced to provide descriptive information on the birds, such as their living locations and their unique physical characteristics. To bring this lovely book into the 21st century, the paperback format and low price make this rare and significant volume accessible and affordable. A DVD is also included with images of the birds to be used by readers at their discretion.
“Stress,” “burn out,” “mental overload”: the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have witnessed an unrelenting expansion of the meaning of fatigue. The tentacles of exhaustion insinuated themselves into every aspect of our lives, from the workplace to the home, from our relationships with friends and family to the most intimate aspects of our lives. All around us are the signs of a “burn-out society,” a society in which fatigue has become the norm. How did this happen? This pioneering book explores the rich and little-known history of fatigue from the Middle Ages to the present. Vigarello shows that our understanding of fatigue, the words used to describe it, and the symptoms and explanations of it have varied greatly over time, reflecting changing social mores and broader aspects of social and political life. He argues that the increased autonomy of people in Western societies (whether genuine or assumed), the positing of a more individualized self, and the ever expanding ideal of independence and freedom have constantly made it more difficult for us to withstand anything that constrains or limits us. This painful contradiction causes weariness as well as dissatisfaction. Fatigue spreads and becomes stronger, imperceptibly permeating everything, seeping into ordinary moments and unexpected places. Ranging from the history of war, religion and work to the history of the body, the senses and intimacy, this history of fatigue shows how something that seems permanently centered in our bodies has, over the course of centuries, also been ingrained in our minds, in the end affecting the innermost aspects of the self.
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