The RGME and
Princeton Bibliophiles & Collectors
present a hybrid meeting
Ronald Smeltzer speaks about
“Émilie du Châtelet, Woman of Science”
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
5:00–6:30 pm EDT (GMT-5)
Princeton Public Library
Conference Room
Witherspoon Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In Person and By Zoom
Registration Required
[Posted on 8 April 2025, with updates]
Partnership for the Meeting
Frontispiece to the Institutions de Physique (1740). Image Public Domain.
Co-sponsored by the Princeton Bibliophiles & Collectors
and the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
This special event produces a Hybrid Visit in partnership between the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (RGME) and the Princeton Bibliophiles & Collectors (PB&C), an affiliate of the Friends of the Princeton University Library (FPUL).
The meeting will take place in the Conference Room of the Princeton Public Library, Witherspoon Street, Princeton 08540. Parking is available in the Spring Street Parking Lot nearby.
The PB&C, led by Ronald Smeltzer, and the RGME, directed by Mildred Budny, have collaborated before with some RGME Symposia held at Princeton University (2018, 2019) before the Covid Pandemic. Now we move forward with a new form of collaboration.
With this event, the Meetings of the PB&C resume after a hiatus. The RGME shares the organizational tasks, manages the registration, and adds an online functionality for a fully hybrid event. This practice reflects RGME practices for its online events since 2021 and developments since 2024 for its In-Person Visits, with a hybrid feature, to Special Collections of various kinds, both private and public. This meeting represents the first in this year’s RGME In-Person Visits, for which several are scheduled for later this year.
The meeting will take place, as customary in recent years for the PB&C, at the Princeton Public Library, for which the Conference Room has been reserved. The RGME will bring the online function, through an interactive Zoom Meeting. This step corresponds with the RGME’s tradition since 2021 of providing online access for our events. This meeting also represents a development in Princeton for the RGME to hold an In-Person Visit — with online access for a fully hybrid occasion — to Special Collections of various kinds, private and public, as we resumed in November 2024.
The Speaker and Subject
Private Collection, Choisel, Château de Breteuil. Portrait of Emilie du Chatelet st her desk by Maurice Quentin de la Tour (1704–1788). Oil on canvas, 1750. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Ronald K. Smeltzer will describe highlights of his years’-long interest in collecting and researching materials relating to Émilie du Châtelet (1706–1749), French mathematician and physicist. Some results of this work have appeared in the landmark exhibition at the Grolier Club,
- Extraordinary Women in Science & Medicine: Four Centuries of Achievement, co-curated by Ronald K. Smelzer, Robert J. Rubin, and Paulette Rose (2013).
Now, Ronald will speak informally about reflections on this subject, with a view to Du Châtelet’s life, life’s work, collaboration with Voltaire (1694-1788), and early death at the age of 42. Among her many scholarly accomplishments are the Instutitions du Physique (Paris, 1740, with a second edition in 1742, translated also into German and Italian in 1743) and her translation into French of the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton (1643-1727).
Ronald’s collecting interests and discoveries concern a variety of published and unpublished materials, gathered over many years. Ronald’s collecting interests and discoveries concern a variety of published and unpublished materials, gathered over many years. His talk illustrates merits of gathering into one collection an ensemble of materials about a particular subject, including different copies of a given edition, which may, upon inspection and comparison, exhibit significant differences. As he says about the discoveries, “It is important to look.”
At our meeting, we have the opportunity to hear from the scholar-collector about his experiences in forming the collection and bringing their discoveries to wider knowledge. Among the sources are manuscript materials. It might be possible, in person, to see several examples from the collection. Here we might learn more about them, in person and online, from Ronald himself.
Please join us if you can. We look forward to welcoming you.
Thanks
We thank the Friends of the Princeton University Library and also the Princeton Public Library for help with arranging and hosting this landmark event for the RGME in association with the PB&BC.
Registration
Please register to attend the event. There are two registration portals, for attendance in person or online.
Registration to Attend IN PERSON
Space is limited for the In-Person Event.
Please be sure to register so that we can know whom and how many to expect to attend in person. Registration is free. We invite Voluntary Donations for the RGME, a Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization principally run by volunteers.
Registration to Attend ONLINE
After registration, the RGME will send the Zoom Link to registrants a few days before the event. To safeguard the security of our online events, the Zoom Link will not be sent by Eventbrite or by Zoom. Please do not share the Zoom Link with others; ask them to register for their own Zoom Link, so that we can keep track of attendance and monitor access to the Zoom Waiting Room.
If you have issues with the registration or Zoom Link, please turn to us for help. Send your questions to [email protected].
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Frontispiece to the Institutions de Physique (1740). Image Public Domain.
Image: Frontispiece for the First Edition of the Institutions de Physique (Paris, 1740), center, with an image of female figure in classical dress climbing to the Temple of Truth. Image Public Domain.
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Image: Title Page for the First Edition of the Institutions de Physique (Paris, 1740). Image Public Domain.
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Private Collection, Choisel, Château de Breteuil. Portrait of Emilie du Chatelet st her desk by Maurice Quentin de la Tour (1704–1788). Oil on canvas, 1750. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Image: Portrait of Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet (1706-1749), French mathematician and physicist. Oil on canvas. By Maurice Quentin de La Tour – http://enlenguapropia.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/emilie_chatelet.jpg viahttps://gallica.bnf.fr/essentiels/du-chatelethttp://classes.bnf.fr/pdf/Chatelet.pdfhttps://web.archive.org/web/20211016012211/http://classes.bnf.fr/pdf/Chatelet.pdf, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29159624
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