A student of geologist and mineralogist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu at the Paris School of Mines,[7] Bory sent his first scholarly publications to the Academy of Bordeaux the same year,[6] and consequently came into contact with many established naturalists.

In 1799, Bory learned about the upcoming departure of a scientific expedition to Australia organized by the government and obtained, thanks to his uncle and to the famous naturalist Bernard-Germain de Lacépède,[9] the position of chief botanist aboard one of the three participating corvettes.

[8][5][9] He continued drawing military maps of Franconia and Swabia and during his visits to Bavaria, Vienna and Berlin, where he found his own works translated into German, he took the opportunity to meet several scientists including the botanists Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin and Carl Ludwig Willdenow, who received him with open arms and presented him with valuable gifts.

He also offered Bory, on 10 October 1814, the service of the ministry's Dépôt de la Guerre (a depository of maps and archives), to which his topographic work entitled him.

[8][5][9] On the return of Napoleon from exile, Bory was elected by the college of the department of Lot-et-Garonne, on 16 May 1815, to the office of representative of Agen at the Chamber of the Hundred Days and sat with the liberals.

[N 2] He proclaimed the constitution, gave a resounding speech before the tribune,[8] and virulently opposed the Minister of Police, Joseph Fouché, Duke of Otranto.

[9] First invited by the King of Prussia (thanks to Bory's friendship with the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt) to stay in Berlin, then in Aachen, he was expelled after eighteen months.

[9] He refused to submit to the decision which assigned him to Königsberg or Prague for his residence,[9] and when he was offered a commission as General in Bolívar's new Republic of Colombia by botanist and friend (and vice-president) Francisco Antonio Zea, he declined.

He finally managed to reach Holland, disguised as a brandy merchant and with a false passport, then Brussels, where he met Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès and where he lived until 1820.

[8][5][9] With Auguste Drapiez and Jean-Baptiste Van Mons, he founded and became one of the scientific directors of the Annales générales des Sciences physiques, edited in Brussels by the printer Weissenbruch from 1819 to 1821.

[9] He was obliged to devote himself entirely to editorial work (on his Annales of Brussels in particular) and he collaborated with various liberal newspapers,[5] including the Courrier français, which reserved for him the drafting of the reports on the sessions of the Chamber of Deputies.

The purpose of the Expédition de Morée[13] was to liberate the area from the Turkish-Egyptian occupation forces and return it to the young independent Greek state; this would be accomplished in just one month.

[11][12] Towards the end of the year 1828, the Viscount of Martignac, Interior minister of King Charles X and the real head of the government at that time (as well as being a childhood friend of Bory in Bordeaux), charged six academicians of the Institute de France (Georges Cuvier, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Charles-Benoît Hase, Desiré-Raoul Rochette, Jean-Nicolas Hyot and Jean-Antoine Letronne) with appointing the chief-officers and members of each section of a scientific committee to be attached to the Morea expedition, just as had been done previously with the Commission of Sciences and Arts during Napoleon's campaign in Egypt.

[14] Bory wrote, "Messrs. De Martignac and Siméon had asked me expressly not to restrict my observations to Flies and Herbs, but to extend them to places and to men later..." .

[14][15] Bory and his team of 19 scientists (including Edgar Quinet, Abel Blouet and Pierre Peytier) representing various scientific disciplines, such as natural history and antiquities (archaeology, architecture and sculpture) disembarked from the frigate Cybèle at Navarino on 3 March 1829 and there joined General Nicolas Joseph Maison, who was commanding the French expeditionary force.

[8] Bory stayed in Greece for 8 months, until November 1829, and explored the Peloponnese, Attica and the Cyclades[14] The scientific work of the commission was of major importance to the increase knowledge of the country.

[16][17][18] The topographic maps they produced, which were widely acknowledged, were of an unprecedented high quality and surveys, drawings, cuts, plans and proposals for the theoretical restoration of the monuments were a new attempt to systematically and exhaustively catalogue the ancient Greek vestiges.

[8] In 1830, while Bory was occupied writing his work on Morea (by ministry order), the July Ordinances promulgated by King Charles X to obtain elections more favorable to the Ultra-royalists, and which suspended freedom of the press, revived his political sentiments.

[16][19] Bory de Saint-Vincent, who had been one of its promoters, became its president as a staff Colonel and went there, accompanied by his collaborators, to conduct his identifications, researches, samplings and scientific explorations.

[22] An indefatigable worker, Bory wrote on several branches of natural history, including the study of reptiles, fish, microscopic animals, plants, cryptogams, etc.

He was the main editor of the Bibliothèque physico-économique, of the Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle en 7 volumes and of the scientific part of the Expédition de Morée.

[26] His Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle already contained information about Lamarck and the species debate, and is notable for a copy of it having been carried by Charles Darwin on the Beagle.

[23][24][27] Bory was also a fervent defender of spontaneous generation (theme of the famous controversy between Louis Pasteur and Félix Archimède Pouchet) and an ardent polygenist.