Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (1740-1799), an eighteenth century aristocrat from Geneva, was the first scientist to become passionate about Mont Blanc. An illuminist in his encyclopaedic and multidisciplinary approach to science, he was a geographer, botanist, mineralogist, geologist and ethnologist. He encouraged the conquest of Mont Blanc and accomplished his famous climb in 1787. The story, published in “Voyages dans les Alpes”, rendered Mont Blanc famous in all of Europe.