Claudine Picardet
| Claudine Picardet | |
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Portrait detail, believed to be Mme. Picardet
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| Born | Claudine Poullet 7 August 1735 Dijon, France |
| Died | 4 October 1820 (aged 85) Paris |
| Other names | Claudine Guyton de Morveau |
| Nationality | French |
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Claudine Picardet (born Poullet, later Guyton de Morveau) (7 August 1735 – 4 October 1820) was a chemist, mineralogist, meteorologist and scientific translator. Among the French chemists of the late eighteenth century she stands out for her extensive translations of scientific literature from Swedish, English, German and Italian to French. She translated three books and thousands of pages of scientific papers, which were published as well as circulated in manuscript form. She hosted renowned scientific and literary salons in Dijon and Paris, and was an active participant in the collection of meteorological data. She helped to establish Dijon and Paris as scientific centers, substantially contributing to the spread of scientific knowledge during a critical period in the chemical revolution.
Poullet was born in Dijon and died in Paris. She was the eldest daughter of a royal notary, François Poulet de Champlevey. In 1755, Poullet married Claude Picardet, a barrister. Claude Picardet served as a councillor of the Table de marbre, and later a member of the Académie royale des sciences, arts, et belles-lettres de Dijon. This gave her a broad entrée to scientific, bourgeoisie and high society circles. She attended lectures and demonstrations and became active as a scientist, salonnière, and translator. She published initially as "Mme P*** de Dijon". The couple had one son, who died in 1776, at age 19.
After she became a widow in 1796, she moved to Paris. In 1798 she married Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, a close friend and scientific colleague of many years. Guyton de Morveau served as a deputy in the Council of five hundred and was director and professor of chemistry of the École polytechnique in Paris. She continued her translations and scientific work and hosted an elite scientific salon. During the reign of Napoleon, she was styled Baroness Guyton-Morveau.
“Madame Picardet is as agreeable in conversation as she is learned in the closet; a very pleasing unaffected woman; she has translated Scheele from the German, and a part of Mr. Kirwan from the English; a treasure to M. de Morveau, for she is able and willing to converse with him on chymical subjects, and on any others that tend either to instruct or please.”
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