Émilie du Châtelet: Translating Newton for France

Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, the Marquise du Châtelet, was one of the most capable mathematicians and physicists of the 18th century. Barred as a woman from universities and academies, she studied privately with leading scientists and set up a laboratory and library at her château at Cirey, which she shared with Voltaire. In 1738 she entered the Académie des sciences' prize competition on the nature of fire, and her essay was published by the Academy.

Her Foundations of Physics (1740) tried to combine Newton's physics with Leibniz's metaphysics. Her greatest achievement was a French translation of Newton's Principia with an extensive commentary explaining its mathematics, completed shortly before her death in 1749 and published in full in 1759. Her career illustrates both the opportunities the Enlightenment opened to talented women and the barriers that confined them to private, informal routes.