Buffon’s specimens in the Baillon ornithological collection (La Châtre, France) and their potential connection with Martinet’s Planches enluminées

Zoosystema 48 (13): 335-360, DOI: 10.5252/zoosystema-2026v48a13 ABSTRACT Although the colossal work consisting of Martinet’s Planches enluminées (1765-1780) and Buffon & Guéneau de Montbeillard’s Histoire naturelle des Oiseaux (1771-1783) does not include any scientific names, their importance in avian nomenclature remains paramount.

Several authors subsequently introduced the Linnaean binomens to the French names of the Planches enluminées, thereby making the specimen that served as the model a type. Specimens from the Buffon era, like all bird specimens from before 1800, are very rare in ornithological collections. Nine ‘Buffon’ specimens have been identified in the Baillon ornithological collection (La Châtre, France).