Fembio Special: Famous Women Mathematicians
Emilie du Châtelet
born on December 17, 1706 in Paris
died on September 10, 1749 in Lunéville
French mathematician, physicist and philosopher
275th anniversary of death on September 10, 2024
Biography
She was Voltaire’s intellectual equal, companion and lover for 16 years. But the Marquise du Châtelet deserves recognition beyond her association with a famous compatriot. Born into an aristocratic family and with an irrepressible thirst for knowledge, Emilie enjoyed a broad education that started in childhood. She learned modern and ancient languages, mathematics, physics and philosophy, and she received instruction in fencing and riding. By the age of 15 she had developed from a rather plump and unattractive child into a beautiful, tall girl with a propensity for extravagance, festivities and flirtations with her many admirers. She devoted herself to her scientific education with equal passion.
Her search for a suitable husband resulted in 1725 in her marriage to the Marquis Châtelet-Lomont, a successful military man with whom she had three children. The marquis was indulgent towards his extravagant, demanding wife; starting with her first affair - with Richelieu, a great-nephew of the famous cardinal – he tolerated her liaisons. He supported her in her studies and arranged opportunities for her to converse with well-known scholars, who were glad to receive invitations to discussions in the couple’s illustrious salon. When the liaison with Richelieu ended, a friendship that was beneficial to both remained.
Emilie caused a sensation everywhere she went. She gained access to Parisian clubs and cafés where officially only male scientists were allowed. Parisians delighted in gossiping about her various escapades and the relationship she began with Voltaire in 1733 made her talk of the town. Voltaire was known for his dramas and scathing pamphlets that criticized the church and the royal family, and she helped him to avoid arrest by the secret police by offering him refuge at her Cirey Castle near the Dutch border. Emilie and Voltaire lived there together for years after the dilapidated castle had been renovated with great zeal and taste (and Voltaire's money) and transformed into a dream home.
Emilie worked tirelessly. She translated Newton's works from English, Virgil's Aeneid from Latin and carried out physics experiments in her own laboratory. She viewed every hour of sleep as a loss which had to be compensated for by increased activity. Constant intellectual exchange was essential for the couple. From time to time, however, Emilie gave in to her longing for a more glamorous social life and traveled to Paris. For years, her jealousy prevented Voltaire from accepting the Prussian king's pressing invitations as they never included his mistress; he only accepted and spent several years in Sanssouci after Emilie’s death.
Eventually their relationship cooled. Emilie fell in love with the guard officer Jean-François de Saint-Lambert, ten years her junior, became pregnant and died at the age of 43 shortly after giving birth to a daughter. She was much mourned by Voltaire. An epigram (author unknown) made the rounds in Paris after her death:
Let us hope that this is the last of her whimsies. To die in childbirth at her age - only someone who wants to be different from everyone else at all costs does that.
(Text from 2005; translated with DeepL.com; edited by Ramona Fararo, 2024.
Please consult the German version for additional information, pictures, sources, videos, and bibliography.)
Quotes
The following excerpt from a letter Emilie wrote to Frederick the Great is an excellent testimony to her considerable self-confidence:
Judge me by my merits or by the lack of them; but do not regard me merely as the disciple of, say, this great general or that deserving scholar, this star of the French court or that famous poet. I am my own person, bearing sole responsibility for everything I am or do. There may be metaphysicists and philosophers whose knowledge is greater than mine; I have not yet met them. But even they are only weak, flawed human beings, and if I add up my talents, I may indeed state that I am inferior to no one.
Voltaire's opinion of Emilie:
Emilie is truly the divine mistress - endowed with beauty, wit, compassion, and all the other feminine virtues. But I often wish she were less learned, her mind less keen, her longing for love less excessive; and above all, I would be happy if she sometimes had the desire and the ability to hold her tongue.
If you hold the rights to one or more of the images on this page and object to its/their appearance here, please contact Fembio.
