DUCHÂTELET (Émilie). Institutions de physique. ÀParis, chez - Lot 40

DUCHÂTELET (Émilie). Institutions de physique. ÀParis, chez Prault fils, 1740. In-8, (8dontont les 2e,4eet 6eblanches)-450-(26)pp., errata leaf missing, the 4 appendices of privilege and catalog bound in disorder (contemporary binding). First edition. Copper-engraved illustrations: 11 folding plates out of text; 23 plates in the text illustrating the theme of each chapter. Without the allegorical frontispiece, as is often the case. A brilliant exposition of the theories of Newton and Leibniz. Initially intended for his son, this treatise is an attempt to reconcile Newtonian and Leibnizian doctrines, with the desire to philosophically found an empirical science. The Marquise DuChâtelet even dared to make a (justified) criticism of the theory of forces put forward by the perpetual secretary of the Académie des Sciences, Dortous de Mairan. An Enlightenment scholar and Voltaire's mistress, the Marquise DuChâtelet, Gabrielle-Émilie LeTonnelier de Breteuil (1706-1749), studied with Maupertuis and Clairaut, and was in contact with numerous scientists, including Bernouilli and Euler. She was introduced to Newtonian theories by her lover Voltaire, collaborating with him on his Éléments de philosophie de Newton (1738), and produced an annotated French translation of Newton's Principia mathematica (1759, posthumous), the only complete one to date.