The problem mentioned in the article (a mathematical apparatus that is completely alien to us moderns) is the opposite of that of contemporary translators. Arou

The problem mentioned in the article (a mathematical apparatus that is completely alien to us moderns) is the opposite of that of contemporary translators. Around 1750, Émilie, marquise du Châtelet, made the first translation into French (which her lover Voltaire called "the everyday language of Europe") As a woman, she didn't have any university education, but that wouldn't have included calculus anyway. Her problem was the modern concepts, not the old "geometric" way of reasoning about quantities. So she had to write a bulky Commentaire that really was her magnum opus As a woman, she was completely accepted as an equal by scientists of her time, but treated rather dismissively by later historians of science. Clearly, history doesn't obey Newtons's first law: it doesn't progress in a straight line.