From One Marquise to Another. Émilie Du Châtelet and Fontenelle’s Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds’ - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2022

From One Marquise to Another. Émilie Du Châtelet and Fontenelle’s Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds’

Résumé

In the correspondence of Mme Du Châtelet and Voltaire, as well as in their remarks on the dedicatory epistle to Fontenelle of Algarotti’s Il Neutonianismo per le dame, we can discern a profound ambivalence with regard to the model of the Fontenellian marquise of Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes; on the one hand, the virtually explicit order to Algarotti to dedicate his book to the Marquise Du Châtelet, and on the other hand, the rejection of ‘imaginary marquises’ and the distain shown towards this strange ‘medley of buffoonery and sublime truths’ (Letter to Mme Du Châtelet at Maupertuis, 3rd September 1738, D1610) that would be Il Neutonianismo per le dame. This ambivalence allow us to gauge both the persistent power of the model of the Fontenellian marquise, which is clearly not that easy to get rid of, and that which, in this instance, seems to have become unacceptable for both Voltaire and his ‘true marquise’.
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-03950030 , version 1 (21-01-2023)

Identifiants

Citer

Christophe Martin. From One Marquise to Another. Émilie Du Châtelet and Fontenelle’s Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds’. Époque Émilienne, 11, Springer International Publishing, pp.411-424, 2022, Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, ⟨10.1007/978-3-030-89921-9_19⟩. ⟨hal-03950030⟩
18 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Mastodon Facebook X LinkedIn More