Many women have played a crucial - yet often overlooked - role of literary translators. Meet three such women who have made profound contributions to intellectual and cultural exchange in their societies, translating key texts into their respective languages as well as advancing intellectual thought or defending the rights of women. Their lives and work continue to inspire today.
Birgitte Thott: feminism and translating classics
Birgitte Thott (1610–1662) used her remarkable linguistic abilities to bring foreign knowledge to her native Denmark.
She was fluent in multiple languages including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and English. Thott is most renowned for her translation of Seneca’s Philologus, a 1,000-page work that introduced Stoic philosophy to Danish readers.
This work broadened Danish thought, while also enriching the Danish language by introducing new terms and expressions. Thott's achievement is even more impressive given that she did this in an era when women were seldom educated, let alone recognised for their scholarly work.
Women’s access to education
Beyond her translation work, Birgitte was one of the first defenders of women's rights in Scandinavia. In her unpublished manuscript Om et lyksaligt liv (On a Happy Life), she argued that women should have access to education and that translations could help bridge cultural and linguistic divides for those who did not have the opportunity to study other languages.
She wrote passionately about how young girls were rarely encouraged to any intellectual pursuits:
No one whets their appetite to the sweetness found there. No one tells them what delicious food there is for the soul…
She also finds it strange that most people would exclude:
half of humankind, this being the whole of womankind, from the opportunity to learn foreign languages and be instructed in any form of knowledge and subject areas (...) By this, I think, women are done the greatest injustice.
Thott’s intellectual achievements earned her recognition among Europe’s learned women, including the first woman to unofficially study at a Dutch university Anna Maria van Schurman. Schurman referred to Birgitte as the 'tenth muse' - a term reserved for the most distinguished female scholars of the time.
Sarah Austin: popularising German literature
Sarah Austin (1793–1867) was an English translator and editor who played a pivotal role in introducing British audiences to German authors. Sarah’s translations were linguistic accomplishments and also acts of cultural mediation, helping to bridge intellectual divides between Britain and continental Europe.
Translating not only words but ideas
Sarah’s most famous work is her translation of Characteristics of Goethe from the German of Falk, Von Müller, and others, which she enriched with valuable commentary. Sarah also translated works like Leopold von Ranke’s History of the Popes (1840) and Victor Cousin’s Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia. In the preface of the latter, she argued for the needs of national education in Britain:
'Society is no longer a calm current, but a tossing sea; reverence for tradition, for authority, is gone. In such a state of things who can deny the absolute necessity of national education?'
Her translation efforts went beyond language. She sought to convey the underlying ideas and cultural context of the works she translated. She adopted a high standard for herself as a translator - in her own words:
'It has been my invariable practice as soon as I have engaged to translate a work, to write to the author of it, announcing my intention, and adding that if he has any correction, omission, or addition to make, he might depend on my paying attention to his suggestions.'
Sarah’s translations were appreciated by her contemporaries and her work was an important source of income for her family. Both her daughter, Lucie Duff Gordon, and her granddaughter, Janet Ross, followed in her footsteps developing successful literary careers, while also translating.
Émilie du Châtelet: scientific debates across languages
Émilie du Châtelet (1706–1749) was a French natural philosopher and mathematician.
Her most recognised achievement was translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. The translation from Latin, published posthumously, remains the standard French edition and played a key role in the spread of Newtonian physics in France and beyond.
Improving the original
Émilie’s translation of Newton’s Principia was far more than a simple linguistic task. She included detailed commentary and corrections, showcasing her deep understanding of physics and her own contributions to Newtonian mechanics.
In addition to her translation work, Émilie wrote Institutions de Physique (1740). It was presented as a review of new ideas in science and philosophy to be studied by her 13-year-old son, but it also aimed to reconcile complex ideas from the leading minds of the time. She synthesised the ideas of Gottfried Leibniz and Isaac Newton, offering a fresh perspective on their seemingly opposing theories. Her work demonstrated her intellectual independence and her ability to stand as an equal among the greatest minds of the Enlightenment.
Despite often being overshadowed by her collaboration and romantic relationship with Voltaire, Émilie’s contributions to science are undisputed.