Pierre Dénys de Montfort (1766 - 1820) was a French naturalist, remembered today for his pioneering inquiries into the existence of the Giant Squid Archeteuthis, which was thought to be an old wives' tale, and for which he was long dismissed. He was inspired by a description from 1783 of an eight-metre long tentacle found in the mouth of a sperm whale. Dénys de Montfort was author of Conchyliologie systématique, et classification méthodique de coquilles (2 vols., Paris 1808 - 1810) and of Historie Naturalle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques (2 vols., Paris 1801 - 1802, published as an addendum to the comte de Buffon's Histoire naturelle générale et particulière. 1766 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... -1... Species Architeuthis dux Architeuthis hartingii Architeuthis japonica Architeuthis kirkii Architeuthis martensi Architeuthis physeteris Architeuthis sanctipauli Architeuthis stockii Giant squid are marine mollusks of the class Cephalopoda, represented by as many as eight species of the genus Architeuthis. ... Binomial name Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 Sperm Whale range (in blue) The Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest of the toothed whales and is believed to be the largest toothed animal to ever inhabit the planet. ... Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (September 7, 1707 – April 16, 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, biologist, cosmologist and author. ...

He appears also to have been the author of Petit vocabulaire à l'usage des Français et des Alliés, renfermant les noms d'une partie des choses les plus essentielles à la vie en plusieurs langues: français, latin, hébreu, hollandais, allemand, anglais, espagnol, italien, etc par M. Denys de Montfort [1], which appeared in 1815, as Paris filled with the polyglot armies of the Allies, after the fall of Napoleon in 1814.