Best known for her translation and commentary on Newton’s principles, Émilie du châtelet also published other works. Born Gabrielle-Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, married to the Marquise du Chastellet and mistress of the French poet Voltaire, Émilie was a mathematician and scientist in France during the Enlightenment. The following image is the title page of a revised French edition of Émilie du Châtelet’s Institutions of Physique, published in 1741 in the Netherlands. the first edition was published the year before and several other editions followed. Émilie wrote this book, in which she assimilated insights from Descartes, Newton, and Leibniz, to teach her thirteen-year-old son new ideas in physics. note that her name is not mentioned on the title page of this edition. there was a 1742 edition also published in amsterdam that was not anonymous.
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the frontispiece is interesting. it shows a person (possibly du châtelet) climbing to reach a glorious temple occupied by “truth” represented as a naked woman. Cherubs hold portraits at the top of the page, possibly representing Descartes, Leibniz, and Newton.
Each chapter begins with a charming graphic that shows math or science in some way. For example, chapter 14 on the phenomenon of gravity has a picture of a device used to demonstrate Galileo’s law of natural motion. the paraboloid apparatus involves dropping balls on a spiral track to show that each turn of the spiral takes the same amount of time (isochronism).
according to the virtual museum of galileo, only two such devices are currently known to exist. the photo below is at the museo galileo in florence, italy, taken by the author during the maa 2012 study tour.
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in her biography of Émilie du châtelet, judith p. Zinsser questions whether these chapter-opening graphics are related to the fact that Émilie wrote the book to teach her son the fundamentals of physics, since “many of the decorative illustrations at the beginning of the institution chapters show a young child in games and activities demonstrating one or the other law of motion: lacrosse, billiards, swinging on a seesaw, shuttlecock, riding a horse, shooting a gun.” (zinsser, p. 165) images of several of these illustrations are shown below.
the reference number for the 1741 revised French edition of Émilie du châtelet’s institutions de physique is qc19.d85 1741.
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Except for the image of the apparatus at the Museo Galileo in Florence which was taken by the author, all other images in this article are courtesy of Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & technology and used with permission. Images may be downloaded and used for research, teaching, and private study purposes, provided the Science, Engineering & from cute hall; technology is credited as the source. for other uses, see lhl’s Image and Reproduction Rights Policy.
To see a portrait of Émilie du châtelet, visit Francesco Algarotti’s Mathematical Treasures page.
references
bodanis, david. Passionate Minds: The Great Love Story of Enlightenment, featuring the scientist Emilie du Châtelet, the poet Voltaire, sword fights, book burnings, assorted kings, seditious verse, and the birth of the modern world. crown publishers, 2006.
“Gabrielle Émilie le tonnelier de breteuil marquise du châtelet.” mactutor history of mathematics archive. http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/biographies/chatelet.html.
tatón, rené. “châtelet, gabrielle-émilie le tonnelier de breteuil, marquise du.” in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by c. c. Gillespie, III: 215-217. new york: scribner, 1972.
galilean virtual museum. “apparatus for demonstrating the isochronism of falls along a spiral”. http://catalogue.museogalileo.it/object/apparatustodemonstrateisochronismfallsalongspiral.html.
zinsser, judith p. emilie du chatelet: bold genius of illustration. penguin books, 2006.
index of mathematical treasures
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