Illustrated manuscript copy of part of the Histoire Naturelle.

4to (215 x 165 mm). 6 vols. 252 pp. (2), 440 pp. (2), 613 pp. 475 pp. (1), 332 pp. (8), 132 ff. With 322 pencil illustrations after the original engraved plates. Contemporary boards with original ties. An unusual manuscript rendition of parts of Buffon's monumental "Histoire naturelle", containing many fine pencil drawings after Buffon's plates, the subjects almost all mammals, including monkeys, hoofed quadrupeds, bats, seals, stoats and shrews, etc. The volume concerning working animals also features an extensive description of horses (pp. 109-235), including 4 drawings (showing a hunter, anatomic details and the skeleton of a horse) as well as a report on horse breeding in the Arab World: "[ ] les arabes du desert et les peoples de libye levent une grande quantit de les cheveaux pour la chatte; ils ne s'en servent ni pour voyager ni pour combattre, ils les font pa tre lorsqu'il y a de l'herbe; et lorsque l'herbe manqu , ils ne les nourissent que de dattes et de lait de chameaux, ce qui leur rend nerveux, l gers et maigres [ ]" (p. 181). - Some dampstaining, mainly to the text.