Émilie du Châtelet at her desk

Q: Cheryl: As a mathematician and historian of maths and physics yourself, what initially drew you to write about Émilie du Châtelet?

Robyn: In the 1970s and 80s, there weren’t many living role models for young women wanting to be mathematical physicists or to take on other non-traditional careers – so feminist scholars went looking for “foremothers,” historical role models who had been written out of history. Little potted biographies of women scientists started coming out at this time, but the most they said about Émilie’s work was that she left a translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Principia – the magnum opus in which he created the theory of gravity. This was thrilling to me, because at that time, I wanted to start a PhD on relativity theory, Einstein’s theory of gravitation, but I lacked confidence because women were still assumed to be inferior to men in such things. So Émilie was a guiding light, because she’d shown that women could understand something as mathematically complex as Principia. Later, I was impelled to study her work for myself – and I was amazed by it. So, then I wanted to share it with readers in a way that was both accessible and rigorous, to do her justice.

Q: Cheryl: In 2006 the Biblothèque Nationale in Paris honoured Émilie with an exhibition to celebrate her 300th birthday, where some of her manuscripts were on display. Have you seen her original manuscripts, and how did that feel?

Robyn: Newton’s Principia is possibly the most important book in the history of science, and Émilie’s was the first rigorous translation of it (from the Latin). And I’ve held her handwritten manuscript in my own hands at the Biblothèque Nationale! It was thrilling and profound, because I’d read some of her letters and I knew how difficult this work was for her. My goodness, I knew how difficult it is for most of us just to read parts of Newton’s Principia, let alone translate (and explicate) it. But Émile was also pregnant, at 42, and romantically unhappy. You can see the enormity of the intellectual task in the manuscript’s numerous amendments pasted in or crossed out, and you can see the traces of aristocratic gold edging on the paper. But you cannot see her emotional pain, or her hope that this work would be her scientific legacy – a hope that had sustained her in her unhappiness and her fear that she would not survive childbirth. Her legacy lives on in the published version, including her excellent commentary.

Q: Cheryl: Émilie was a mathematician and physicist but wrote on many subjects. Her publications even included a dissertation on happiness! Which work would you recommend as her most important legacy to readers today?

Robyn: From a mathematical point of view, her Principia translation into French, and especially her commentary on Newton’s method, stands out. Newton’s book is notoriously hard to read, but in her commentary, she explained his reasoning, she included new applications of his theory by leading physicists, and she translated some of his obscure proofs into more modern mathematical language. Then there is her book combining Leibnizian philosophy with Newtonian physics, and her essay on the nature and propagation of ‘fire’, which are of great value to historians and philosophers. And, of course, her wonderful book on happiness was a pioneer in the self-help genre that is so incredibly popular today – and Émilie’s advice still holds. For example, she urges women to make sure they don’t give all their energy to other people, but to find their own purpose too (she recommends study as the best way to do this). I’m also impressed with her French version of the sociopolitical Fable of the Bees, and her emphasis on the moral double standard that men applied to women.

Sep 4

3 min read

A while ago I took a champagne break with Robyn Arianrhod, a world expert on Émilie du Châtelet's scientific achievements. Here is our conclusion of the interview.

Cheryl: As a mathematician and historian of maths and physics yourself, what initially drew you to write about Émilie du Châtelet?

Robyn: In the 1970s and 80s, there weren’t many living role models for young women wanting to be mathematical physicists or to take on other non-traditional careers – so feminist scholars went looking for “foremothers,” historical role models who had been written out of history. Little potted biographies of women scientists started coming out at this time, but the most they said about Émilie’s work was that she left a translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Principia – the magnum opus in which he created the theory of gravity. This was thrilling to me, because at that time, I wanted to start a PhD on relativity theory, Einstein’s theory of gravitation, but I lacked confidence because women were still assumed to be inferior to men in such things. So Émilie was a guiding light, because she’d shown that women could understand something as mathematically complex as Principia. Later, I was impelled to study her work for myself – and I was amazed by it. So, then I wanted to share it with readers in a way that was both accessible and rigorous, to do her justice.

Cheryl: In 2006 the Biblothèque Nationale in Paris honoured Émilie with an exhibition to celebrate her 300th birthday, where some of her manuscripts were on display. Have you seen her original manuscripts, and how did that feel?

Robyn: Newton’s Principia is possibly the most important book in the history of science, and Émilie’s was the first rigorous translation of it (from the Latin). And I’ve held her handwritten manuscript in my own hands at the Biblothèque Nationale! It was thrilling and profound, because I’d read some of her letters and I knew how difficult this work was for her. My goodness, I knew how difficult it is for most of us just to read parts of Newton’s Principia, let alone translate (and explicate) it. But Émile was also pregnant, at 42, and romantically unhappy.

You can see the enormity of the intellectual task in the manuscript’s numerous amendments pasted in or crossed out, and you can see the traces of aristocratic gold edging on the paper. But you cannot see her emotional pain, or her hope that this work would be her scientific legacy – a hope that had sustained her in her unhappiness and her fear that she would not survive childbirth. Her legacy lives on in the published version, including her excellent commentary.

Cheryl: Émilie was a mathematician and physicist but wrote on many subjects. Her publications even included a dissertation on happiness! Which work would you recommend as her most important legacy to readers today?

Robyn: From a mathematical point of view, her Principia translation into French, and especially her commentary on Newton’s method, stands out. Newton’s book is notoriously hard to read, but in her commentary, she explained his reasoning, she included new applications of his theory by leading physicists, and she translated some of his obscure proofs into more modern mathematical language.

Then there is her book combining Leibnizian philosophy with Newtonian physics, and her essay on the nature and propagation of ‘fire’, which are of great value to historians and philosophers. And, of course, her wonderful book on happiness was a pioneer in the self-help genre that is so incredibly popular today – and Émilie’s advice still holds. For example, she urges women to make sure they don’t give all their energy to other people, but to find their own purpose too (she recommends study as the best way to do this).

I’m also impressed with her French version of the sociopolitical Fable of the Bees, and her emphasis on the moral double standard that men applied to women.

I'm grateful to Robyn for these succinct and telling comments about a great scholar and writer of the Enlightenment. I'm so devoted to the memory of Émilie myself that I've dared to make her a consultant detective in my crime series, the Victor Constant investigations. To meet her in Murder at Cirey, click on the Amazon icon at the foot of this page.

CHERYL SAWYER

Émilie du Châtelet at her desk

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