Minerva's French SistersThis book presents the stories of six intrepid women of science in eighteenth century France whose lives and accomplishmentsthough celebrated in their lifetimeshave been largely written out of the history of their period: mathematician and philosopher Elisabeth Ferrand, astronomer Nicole Reine Lepaute, field naturalist Jeanne Barret, garden botanist and illustrator Madeleine Franoise Basseporte, anatomist and inventor Marie Marguerite Biheron, and