Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707-1788), naturalist

After the Jesuit College in Dijon, he entered the Faculty of Law, which had just opened, in 1723 but once he had obtained his degree (1726) he left to devote himself to mathematics and science. In Paris, he came into contact with influential people, including Voltaire, which allowed him to become Intendant of the King’s garden (1739) and to undertake his great work, the famous Histoire naturelle, the first volume of which appeared in 1749.