Historical Figures

Emilie du Châtelet, translator of Newton

Emilie du Châtelet is a mathematician and physicist whose French translation of Newton's Principia Mathematica is still authoritative today. She is also known for her Discourse on Happiness.

Early Intelligence

Daughter of Louis Nicolas Le Tonnelier, Baron de Breteuil, born December 17, 1706, Gabrielle Emilie has been bathed since childhood in an open, knowledgeable and cultured environment. Her parents receive poets and scholars and allow Emilie, very young, to participate in conversations with the guests. Her father himself provided her with an education that girls very rarely benefit from:she learned Latin, Greek, German, music and theatre. Very quickly, she turns out to be gifted in studies.

Presented at court at the age of sixteen, she was quickly seduced by this life and yielded to the extravagance of luxury and appearances. At eighteen, she was married to the Marquis Florent Claude du Châtelet who, aware of his wife's intellectual abilities, let her live as she saw fit.

A brilliant mathematician

With her husband, Emilie du Châtelet has three children but leads a fickle life. She is notably the mistress of Voltaire, who has a great influence on her by encouraging her to deepen her knowledge of physics and mathematics, almost exclusively male fields in which he considers her superior to him. In every way, he considers her his equal and praises her great intelligence.

Emilie studied Leibniz and frequented the great scientists of the time. Following Voltaire's advice, she undertakes to translate Isaac Newton. This translation is still authoritative. She also leaves theories and writings on the philosophy of Leibniz and the nature of fire or even reflections on religions and divinities.

Emilie du Châtelet died in childbirth in 1749, aged 43.