Châtelet-Lomont

Châtelet-Lomont, GABRIELLE ÉMILIE, MARQUISE DU, a very learned Frenchwoman, notorious for her intimacy with Voltaire, was born at Paris, 17th December 1706. At an early period she displayed a great aptitude for the acquisition of knowledge. She studied Latin and Italian with her father the Baron de Bretenil, and subsequently betook herself with zeal to mathematics and the physical sciences. Distinguished alike for her beauty and talent, she soon found a host of suitors for her hand. Her choice fell on the Marquis du Châtelet-Lomont, but her marriage did not hinder her from forning, in 1733, a tendresse for Voltaire, who came to reside with her at Cirey, a château on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine, belonging to her husband. Here they studied, loved, quarrelled, and loved again, for several years. In 1747, however, she became 'not insensible to the brilliant qualities' of a certain M. Saint-Lambert, a captain of the Lorraine Guards; and the result was, that the philosopher had to make room for the soldier, and content himself for the future with being the 'devoted and indulgent friend' of his former mistress. She died at Lunéville, 10th September 1749, a few days after having given birth to a child. Her first writing was Institutions de Physique (1740), a treatise on the philosophy of Leibnitz. She also translated the Principia of Newton into French, accompanying it with algebraic elucidations. It did not, however, appear till 1756. See VOLTAIRE, and the Life of the Marquise by Capefigue (1868).