Author Mathurin-Jacques Brisson was born in 1723 in Fontenay-le-Comte, Vedée, France to a noble family. Though he initially studied theology and intended to join the clergy, in 1747 he instead decided to

pursue the study of natural history. In October of that year he was hired by the naturalist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683–1757), to whom he was related by marriage, to be the caretaker to his collection of natural history specimens, a large proportion of which was preserved

skins, eggs, and nests of birds from around the world. Brisson began a detailed, systematic study of the birds in the collection, and his position gave him access to the private collections of others. The resulting sixvolume Ornithologie, comprising some 4,000 pages, was very influential on the developing discipline of ornithology. It would, however, be Brisson’s only contribution to the study of birds. After

Réaumur’s death in 1757, his collection—which had been bequeathed to the Académie des Sciences—became part of the royal collection at the Jardin du Roi, overseen by Réaumur’s rival Georges Louis Leclerc, le comte de Buffon. Brisson consequently lost his position and instead pursued a career in physics, teaching at the Collège de Navarre in Paris. He died in 1806.