Take a look at a couple of entries from the Vatican Observatory Faith and Science pages, both pertaining to the Institutions de physique written by Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet. Du Châtelet wrote the book for her son (who of course then had to read a physics book his Mom wrote—homeschooling Moms, take note!). It is an early physics textbook, so to speak, that covers Newtonian physics (she published it in 1740). It also contains material related to astronomy. And Du Châtelet made the second chapter of Institutions on the existence of God—not something you are likely to find in a physics textbook today.
Click here and here for the Faith and Science entries on Du Châtelet, including a partial translation of that second chapter proof of the existence of God.
Left – frontispiece illustration from Institutions de physique. Center – Du Châtelet. Right – illustration for the second chapter on the existence of God.A group of faculty and students at the University of Notre Dame have been working for four years to create a complete translation of Institutions. A conference was held at Notre Dame this year to celebrate completion of their work. The complete translation (in various formats—not published) is available through the website of Katherine Brading, who led this project (but is now at Duke University). Click here for their complete translation of the second chapter.
