BUFFON Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707-1788) - Lot 132

Lot 132
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BUFFON Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707-1788) - Lot 132
BUFFON Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707-1788) Naturalist L.A., "Sunday 7 a.m." [Paris ca. 1770?], to Mme DAUBENTON du Patis in Montbard; 1 page in-4, address with black wax seal of arms (foxing). Tender letter to the daughter-in-law of his collaborator Daubenton. "I want my good friend to love me but I don't want her to flatter me, a feeling of her heart is worth more to me than all the praises in the world, I would like to be at her side and share some of her lonely hours. But no matter how eager I am to get out of here, I cannot leave for another seven or eight days. I am sending an address to Mr. your father-in-law, but I have no time to write to anyone but you and have no desire to love anyone more than you. My regards to your dear husband" Buffon and Daubenton, both natives of Montbard, Burgundy, were childhood friends. The two great naturalists worked together on the Histoire naturelle des animaux, before becoming angry in 1772, when Buffon, on the occasion of a republication of the work, removed the anatomical parts. [Buffon was probably in Paris when he wrote to Daubenton's daughter-in-law in Montbard. His biographers are discreet on the subject, but it seems that after the death of his beloved wife in 1769, he had a tender attachment to the daughter-in-law of his friend and collaborator, with whom he fell out in 1772]. At the bottom of the letter, an autograph note signed by the countess de Buffon certifies the authenticity of this letter from her father-in-law.
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