51 - BUFFON, Georges-Louis Leclerc de. Natural History of Minerals.

BUFFON, Georges-Louis Leclerc de. Natural History of Minerals. The last work published during Buffon’s lifetime, including the complete volume devoted to the magnet and its uses, preserved in a beautiful porphyry calfskin binding. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1783–1788. 5 volumes in-4 (256 x 205 mm), each bound in full porphyry calfskin, spine with guilloché raised bands, panels decorated with gilt metalwork and a central fleur-de-lis, title labels in red morocco leather and volume number labels in green or honey-colored morocco leather, triple gilt fillet framing the covers with angular fleurons, gilt interior frieze, double gilt fillet on the edges, guilloché caps, marbled edges. [2]-557-XL pp.; [2]-602-XXVI pp.; [4]-636-XIX pp.; [4]-448-XXXIX pp.; VII-208-368 pp. Slight rubbing; five caps slightly worn, one of which has a small loss; a tear starting at the second joint of Volume V (approximately 10 cm). First edition in quarto format, complete in five volumes. This is the last major work published during Buffon’s lifetime (1707–1788). To compile this monumental work, the famous naturalist enlisted the collaboration of Abbé Bexon and Faujas de Saint-Fond. The fifth and final volume contains the sought-after *Treatise on the Magnet and Its Uses*, which discusses, among other things, the navigational compass. “[Buffon] rightly attached great importance to this work [...] which at the time constituted the first major systematic treatise on rocks, minerals, their distribution throughout the world, their methods of extraction, their origin, and their age. ” (Collectif, Buffon, Paris, MNHN, 1952, p. 44). A fine copy, in a beautiful binding.