Martinet “Le Fou tacheté, de Cayenne.” [Cayenne speckled gannet] Plate 986

After Comte de Buffon and others.  Plate 986.  “Le Fou tacheté, de Cayenne.”  Cayenne speckled gannet. From Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon’s Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. 

Paris, [1749-1804].  9 x 8 (image). Engraving by Martinet.   Original hand-coloring.  Old manuscript ink below title.  Very narrow left hand margin.  Else, very good condition.   

The greatest name in France in the field of natural history during the eighteenth century was the Comte de Buffon (1707-1788).  Known best in America as the target of Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia in which the patriotic American scholar argued against a theory that New World species were inferior, Buffon enjoys a much greater reputation in Europe.  He was to France what Linnaeus was to Sweden, and he is best known as the first natural scientist to postulate that man evolved from apes.

His prints from his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, have a delicacy of drawing and engraving that has lead some to claim that they are the finest ever published.  Buffon believed that there were between fifteen hundred and two thousand species of birds in the world, and he was in the forefront in attempting to name them.  He usually gave them colloquial names and left the classification with Latin titles to be done by others.  Drawn by Buffon and other artists, these prints were engraved and hand-colored by Martinet.

Other birds from this series:

Guinea Hen pl. 108

Blue Grosbeak pl. 154

Roller of the Indies Pl. 619

Pied Flycatcher Pl. 675

Louisiana Woodpecker Pl. 692

Female White Cotinga of Cayenne Pl. 794

Senegal Umbrette Pl. 796

Gray Peewit Pl. 854

Cayenne Grebe-coot Pl. 893

Madagascar snipe Pl. 922

North Sea Imbrim Pl. 952

Great Frigate bird of Cayenne Pl.961