Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux

Enlightenment intellectual Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, undertook to describe and classify the royal collections of France and to relate his findings to the broader laws of nature. His book Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux was a landmark in the science of ornithology and helped broaden contemporary interest in natural history. François-Nicolas Martinet engraved the plates for this and other works by leading ornithologists of his era.

This charming barn owl was a favorite in the Maximus Gallery exhibit A Parliament of Owls at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The exhibit represented 300 years of owl illustration by important French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, and American artists.

The current exhibit, The Maximus Legacy, showcases the full breadth of the museum’s antique natural-history print collection, which extends to many other aspects of nature and culture.