Family Name: Paulze
First Name: Marie-Anne Pierrette
Birth Date: Thu, Jan 19, 1758
Birth Place: Montbrison
Death Date: Tue, Feb 09, 1836
Death Place: Paris
Main places of activity:
Place From To
Paris 1770 1835
Personal info:
Education

She was the daughter of a rich tax farmer, and as a child she was educated in a convent. After her marriage she studied chemistry and languages with various teachers. She studied drawing under David.
Career

She married Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier in 1771 and from then on collaborated with him on his chemisry experiments, writing down the notes and helping in the publications. She also provided some of the illustrations. She ran a salon which attracted scientists and intellectuals from all over Europe. After Lavoisier's execution, together with her father, in 1794, she was also briefly imprisoned from 24th June to 17th August 1794 and all her property was confiscated. She then wrote a denunciation of the unjust executions of tax farmers in the name of their widows and children. She published Lavoisier's final memoirs on chemistry and continued her salon. In 1805 she married Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford but they separated in 1806 and divorced in 1809.

Financial Situation

She was born into a rich family, as was her husband. She was made destitute in 1794 when all their property was confiscated and she was helped by a former servant. She managed to recuperate her property and belongings, and re-established her finances thanks to revenue from her estates and lived very comfortably afterwards.
Translations

translations activities

Marie-Anne Paulze mainly translated chemical works from English and Italian (in particular Priestley, Cavendish, Henry, Kirwan, and Dandolo) so that her husband could read them and in order to make foreign chemical work known in France. Her translation of Kirwan, in particular, allowed the French chemists to attack Kirwan's work. Not all of her translations were published.

secondary bibliography references

Jacques Ruelland, "Maire-Anne Paulette Paulze-Lavoisier, comtesse de Rumford (1758-1836): lumière surgie de l'ombre", Dix-huitième Siècle, 36 (2004), 99-112.

Cassandra T. Eagle, Jennifer Sloan, "Marie Anne Paulze Lavoisier: the Mother of Modern Chemistry", The Chemical Educator, 3 (1998), 1-18.

Keiko Kawashima, "Madame Lavoisier et la traduction française de l'Essay on Phlogiston de Kirwan", Revue d'histoire des sciences, 53 (2000), 235-64.

Translations

  • An Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids

  • Translation Title: Essai sur le phlogistique et sur la constitution des acides, traduit de l'anglais de M. Kirwan, avec des notes de MM. de Morveau, Lavoisier, de la Place, Monge, Berthollet & de Fourcroy
  • Original Author: Richard Kirwan
  • Original title: An Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids
  • Publ. Year From: 1786 to:
  • lang: English
  • Note:

    The translation contains a Preface by Marie-Anne Paulze and notes by several French chemists, indicated on the title page of the book.
  • Translation: Essai sur le phlogistique et sur la constitution des acides, traduit de l'anglais de M. Kirwan, avec des notes de MM. de Morveau, Lavoisier, de la Place, Monge, Berthollet & de Fourcroy
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1787
  • Lang: French

  • The Strength of Acids and the Proportion of Ingredients in Neutral Salts

  • Translation Title: De la force des acides et de la proportion des substances qui composent les sels neutres
  • Original Author: Richard Kirwan
  • Original title: The Strength of Acids and the Proportion of Ingredients in Neutral Salts
  • Publ. Year From: 1790 to:
  • lang: English
  • Note:

    The text seems also to have been published in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 4 (1790), 3-89.
  • Translation: De la force des acides et de la proportion des substances qui composent les sels neutres
  • Publisher: Annales de chimie
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1791
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    It was published in Annales de chimie, 14 (1792), 152-211 and 238-86. The translation seems to have been partially corrected by Lavoisier.

  • Trattato elementare di chimica : presentato in un ordine nuovo dietro le scoperte moderne ... / del sig. Lavoisier ... ; recato dalla francese nell'italiana favella e corredato di annotazioni da Vincenzo Dandolo .

  • Translation Title: discours préliminaire Nous ne pensons qu'avec le secours des parolles
  • Original Author: Vincenzo Dandolo
  • Original title: Trattato elementare di chimica : presentato in un ordine nuovo dietro le scoperte moderne ... / del sig. Lavoisier ... ; recato dalla francese nell'italiana favella e corredato di annotazioni da Vincenzo Dandolo .
  • Publ. Year From: 1791 to:
  • lang: Italian
  • Translation: discours préliminaire Nous ne pensons qu'avec le secours des parolles
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    This manuscript containing a translation of Dandolo's notes on Lavoisier's 'Discours préliminaire', translated around 1795, is in the Archives de l'Académie des sciences, Paris, Dossier Lavoisier 102.

calamaio

By:

  • Ann Thomson