Jean-Louis Leclerc, comte de BUFFON (1707-1788). P.S., Paris December 20, 1781; 2 1/2 pages in-fol. Interesting memoir concerning the enlargement of the Jardin du Roy. Buffon has exchanged a plot of land belonging to him with the canons of Saint-Victor for a thirteen-acre plot of land "for the enlargement of the Jardin du Roy [...1 M. de Buffon agrees to value it only at the denier vingt, i.e. at 178,280ll because he prefers to his own property that of the Jardin du Roy, which he has not ceased to look after for the 42 years that this establishment has been entrusted to his care". He asks for payment for this land "which he will cede to His Majesty's domain to be united to the Jardin du Roy in all the space that extends from the terrace of this Garden, to the Quay St Bernard". Buffon recalls that this had always been the wish of Louis XIV and Louis XV; this reunion "has been long awaited and desired, and will not only be very useful for the progress of science and the arts, but will also greatly embellish the City of Paris"... Former André Bertaut collection (December 14-15 1983, no. 47).