Marie Meurdrac

Marie Meurdrac ( 1610 – 1680) was a French chemist and alchemist known for writing La Chymie Charitable et Facile, en Faveur des Dames [Easy Chemistry for Women], a treatise on chemistry aimed at common women. Historian Lucia Tosi described Meurdrac as the first woman to publish a book on early chemistry. Though she was reluctant to write, concerned about criticism from those who did not believe women should receive an education, she was a proto-feminist, and believed that "minds have no sex."

Early life

Marie Meurdrac was born around 1610 in Mandres-les-Roses, about southeast of Paris, into a landowning family. Her father, Vincent Meurdrac, was a local notary who died in 1650, and her mother, Elisabeth Dovet, died in 1636. Marie was the elder of two sisters. Catherine, born about three years after her in 1613, later became known as Madame de La Guette and published her Memoirs in 1681.

Little is known about Meurdrac's childhood, but some traces of it survive in the records of Mandres. She was described as more serious than her younger sister, and parish records show that she served as godmother to several children. Other members of the Meurdrac family also frequently served as godparents in the village.

Meurdrac became acquainted with the Countess de Guiche, wife of Armand de Gramont.

Career Meurdrac was self-taught, and learned chemistry using works and experiments from other scientists and by reading theoretical works on alchemy and chemistry. In her studies, she covered items such as lab techniques, properties of medicines, and cosmetics. In her work, she also had a table of weights and 106 alchemical symbols that were used in medicine at the time. Meurdrac had access to a high temperature furnace that she used for her experiments, unusual for the time, as it required special permission from the king. Meurdrac's treatise was one of the first works on chemistry to be written by a woman.

The work, which was approved by the regent masters of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, focused on providing affordable treatments for the poor.

The work was divided into six parts, part 1 focusing on principles and operations, vessels, lutes, furnaces, characteristics, and weights. Part 2 was concerned with medical herbs and medicines made from such plants. Part 3 dealt with animals and part 4 with metals. Part 5 focused on making compound medicines and part 6 was directed to a female audience and covered methods of preserving and increasing beauty.

More than three centuries later, scholars continue to classify Meurdrac's work in different ways. In 2001, historian of chemistry Lucia Tosi described Meurdrac as a Paracelsian chemist. In 2009, scholar Sandy Feinstein examined La Chymie in relation to the libri de segreti, books of practical medical, household and cosmetic recipes. In 2015, Solsona-Pairó examined Meurdrac's work in the history of alchemy.

In 2026, the names of 72 women of science were proposed to be added to the Eiffel Tower. Meurdrac may have been a contender, but the criteria was that they should have lived after 1789, the date of the French Revolution, echoing the rule for the names of the 72 men of science added when the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889.