Émilie Du Châtelet
She could have lived a life of luxury and leisure, partying with the rich and royal - but instead, Émilie Du Châtelet fought (sometimes with a fencing sword in hand) to pursue her love of maths and science.
Émilie du Châtelet (Portrait by Nicolas de Largillière)
You’ve been invited to party with Émilie in Paris!
It’s the early 1700’s and you’re off to dinner with members of the French aristocracy. You’ve been helped into your gown and your hairdresser has curled and added extensions to your hair. Smelling a tiny bit like horse after your carriage ride you walk into the candle lit dining room to take your seat.
Sounds lovely.
Settle in to chat about the hot topic of the day: maths.
It’s going to be all maths, maths, maths.
While you might be inclined to think ‘Heck no, I’m out of here, ready the horses, Garçon!’ I’m going to have to ask you to sit your silk-clad butt back down.
While the party raging around you might feel like a modern day maths class to you, for people of that time the topics of discussion were revolutionary and, to be honest, you’re lucky to even be invited considering you are a girl! But this here is the home of the young Émilie Du Châtelet and they do things a little bit differently.
Émilie was the only daughter in a family of 6 children and was fortunate to receive a lot of the opportunities that were given to her brothers (very unusual for the time). Every Thursday her father would invite writers and scientists, the celebrities of their day, to party at their home. Not only was Émilie allowed to hang out, she was encouraged to join in the discussion. For the rest of the week she was tutored in maths, literature and science, along with acting, dancing, horse-riding and fencing.
When she reached the age of 16 she was presented at the Court at Versailles - essentially put on show as a way of saying “Here ya go fellas, this ones ready to be married. Who wants her?”
*eye roll*
Emilie knew how lucky she had been, and that once she was married there was a good chance that her pursuit of knowledge would come to a halt and she would be forced to live the life of a noble woman of the day. So, rumor has it, she did the only thing that made sense: she challenged the chief of the Royal Guard to a duel!
Right there in front of members of the royal court they fought to a draw. Now, while we think that is awesome, the fancy-pants men of the day didn’t. Success! She bought herself a bit more time before anyone would be crushing on her again. Her mum wasn’t impressed either and as a result would no longer let her have any money to buy books.
No sweat, we are dealing with a clever girl here. And in a society that doesn’t expect much from women her mind for numbers became her super power. She took advantage of the hot activities of the day - card games and gambling - and won plenty of money to buy books and scientific equipment to conduct her own experiments.
Émilie Du Châtelet at her desk. Credit: Maurice Quentin de la Tour, Date Unknown, Private Collection, Château de Breteuil, Choisel Wikimedia
It’s lucky she was able to think outside of the box, because in early 18th century France there was only so far her formal education could go. It would be almost 200 years before women were allowed to go to university, or until the education of girls was even mandatory.
She wasn’t even allowed to go into cafe’s!
At the time, cafe’s were more than a place to grab a soy latte and muffin, they were gathering places for people (re: men) to discuss topics like literature, maths, science and politics. She was kicked out of a particular hotspot, Cafe Gradot, when she tried to go in and join the discussion. She was able to make it in eventually - after she dressed-up and disguised herself as a man.
She did end up marrying at round the age of 19 and spent a few years living the life of a socialite, but around the age of 26 when she had her third child it seems like she got a bit bored with it all. She wrote that she had spent too much of her time taking care of her looks but not her mind. So, she asked one of the leading scientists in France at the time to tutor her in advanced mathematics and returned to conducting experiments and writing.
Émilie lived in a time known as The Enlightenment. A era when scientific ideas were emerging and changing the way people saw the world, themselves and each other. A philosopher of that period, Immanuel Kant, describes it as being a time in which people were encouraged to ‘Dare to know! Have courage to use your own reason!’
In other words get out there and learn, find out about stuff, and think for yourself.
But that was easier said than done.
Seventeen years before Emilie was born a book was published full of ideas that are still being taught in schools today; Prinicpia by Isaac Newton. It explained, amongst other things, the solar system and the orbits of planets: it was literally changing how people saw the universe.
Well… people who spoke Latin. And they were a specific kind of people - wealthy, highly educated, and usually male.
Émilie didn’t think that was good enough; she believed everyone should have access to knowledge and so she set about translating the book into French. She was the perfect person to translate not only because of her love and understanding of maths, but also her fluency in multiple languages (she could speak 6 language by the time she was 12!)
But, she was working against the clock. She was in her early 40’s and was pregnant again and she truly didn’t believe she would survive it. So she got to work - 9am to 5am every day, surviving on only 4 hours of sleep a night. Sadly, her prediction was correct… she lived only a week after giving birth to her daughter. But that sense of urgency had served her well because a few days before giving birth she completed her book. She had not only translated Newton’s work but included advancements that had been made since it’s original publication, her own theories and results from her own experiments.
“Above all, let us be certain of what we want to be; let us choose for ourselves our path in life, and let us try to strew that path with flowers.”
WHAT YOU KNOW NOW!
Émilie Du Châtelet was a mathematician, scientists and writer who lived in the early 18th century
Émilie believed everyone had the right to access information and advance their understanding of the world
Émilie helped French speakers access some of the most important scientific theories of the time by translating the works from the original Latin.
References:
Emilie Du Chatelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment
Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil Marquise du Châtelet
Meet Émilie du Châtelet, the French socialite who helped lay the foundations of modern physics
Passionate Minds: Emilie Du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment