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Comte de Buffon, also known as Georges-Louis Leclerc, was a renowned French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and natural historian. He is widely recognized for his extensive contributions to the field of natural history during the 18th century. Buffon authored the monumental work "Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière," a comprehensive encyclopedia of natural history that greatly influenced scientific thought and knowledge of the natural world at the time.