The Buffon Rotunda

Count Buffon commissioned the rotunda in the Botanical Gardens of Paris (Le Jardin des Plantes), designed by Edme Verniquet, architect of the King, and directed by Claude-Vincent Mille, locksmith of the king. The construction took a year, from April 1786 to March 1787.

During the French Revolution, the Latin inscription was destroyed. It read, 'as the Sun brings to life the world of its light and warmth, Louis XVI illuminates his wisdom and righteousness, the men of his kingdom: 1786.’

The rotunda is the oldest metal monument in Paris. It is made from seven metals: gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, and mercury. The frame is iron, transported from Burgundy, with bronze and copper cladding.

At its top is a vane and an armillary sphere, which originally activated a clock mechanism sounding the hour of midday. However, the mechanism has disappeared. An armillary sphere, or astrolabe, is a celestial sphere, representing wisdom and knowledge.

The rotunda was restored in 1951, 1984, and 2018.

Count Buffon (1707-1788), born Georges-Louis Leclerc in Montbard, Burgundy, was a French naturalist, mathematician, and cosmologist. He moved to Paris in 1732 when he was 25 years old, and studied mathematics at the French Academy of Science.

He was the director of the Jardin des Plantes from 1739-1788 – the botanical gardens of Paris – known in his time as The Gardens of the King. He transformed the gardens into a museum and research academy. He also enlarged it and established a zoo on the site, which is still there.

Count Buffon

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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