Mathurin Jacques Brisson

Biography

Brisson studies 1737 with 1738 with the college of Fontenay and prepares a baccalaureat of theology to Poitiers. But it is not made for a life in the orders and, thanks to its relationship with Rene-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683-1757), it launches out in the Natural history. He teaches the physique with the Collège of Navarre and between with the Academy of Science in 1759. He becomes the conservative of the Cabinet of curiosities of Réaumur. This one, wishing to compete with the Natural history Buffon (1707-1788), undertakes the publication of a great work. It translates the System of the Animal kingdom of Jakob Theodor Klein (1685-1759) into 1756, but it is especially its Ornithologie , in 1760, which marks a big step in the scientific study of the birds. This work appears before the Natural history of the oyseaux of Buffon.

Ornithology

The Ornithologie in six volumes is the largest catalog of a cabinet of curiosities never carried out. It presents a system of classification of the birds which will be used during nearly one hundred years. It uses the rich person collection of Réaumur but also comprises the study of other private collections.

Brisson fully carries out the gaps of the work of Carl von Linné (1707-1778). It tries, in spite of the lack of information on the behavior of the birds, to as precisely describe as possible the species, where Linné is satisfied with a brêve presentation. Brisson defines 115 kinds gathered in 26 orders.

Brisson is perhaps the first zoologist to use the standard concept of even if it does not use this term. Its works are particularly required by the collectors. In 2001, a whole of 590 original drawings was allocated at the time of an auction to Neuilly for 270.200 €.

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