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“Il est certain qu’il vaut mieux donner une bonne traduction d’un livre anglais ou italien estimé, que de faire un mauvais livre français.” – Émilie Du Châtelet, 1735 in “Preface Du traducteur” In Translation of Mandeville’s The Fable of the bees.

The critical online edition of the Saint Petersburg Manuscripts of Émilie Du Châtelet now contains her translation of Bernhard Mandeville’s The Fable of the bees (1714) of 1735. Du Châtelet inserted a number of remarks on her own.

The project itself is a cooperation between the Center for History of Women Philosophers and Scientists and the National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg. The aim is to provide the first historical-critical edition of the manuscripts by Du Châtelet preserved in the Voltaire Collection of the National Library of Russia. They compromise a number of her early works.

See Du Châtelet’s Translation of Mandeville’s The Fable of the bees and more about the project here.