Another woman who wasn't taken seriously because
of her interest in science was the Marquise du
Chatelet, who was fascinated by the calculus. That
was in the next century, though.
Dear Vonda
You probably know Nancy Mitford's charming (though I'm not sure how C18h
scholars regard it!) biography of du Chatelet, 'Voltaire in Love'. Voltaire
certainly took her scientific interests very seriously. It's possibly her
relationship with him (and other men: she died in childbirth having become
pregnant by a much younger man) rather than her sex as such which has led to
her neglect? Also perhaps the fact that she was an aristocrat and thus (esp
post-Revolution) subsumable to a model of the dabbling dilettante (whatever
her actual commitment to science). I gather (from conversations rather than
reading) that a lot of work is being done at the moment on the role of women
and salons (or similiar informal gatherings, friendship/kinship networks etc)
on the development of science in the late C17th-C18th.
Lesley
Lesley_Hall@classic.msn.com
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