Project Gutenberg News — May 2026

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Contents

Planning for the Long Term

The basic mission of Project Gutenberg has always been to preserve and distribute – free of charge – literary works. Over the years, the number of works has grown in an amazing way, and has focused on using the Internet to distribute books unrestricted by US copyright laws for free. All along, that work has been made possible by volunteers and by donations by many, many users.

As the collection has grown, the complexity of our software and systems has increased along with those donations, and we no longer depend solely on volunteer labor. We now employ a small but mighty staff who maintain the plumbing that facilitates the work of our many volunteers.

The preserve part of our mission requires a plan for long term finances of the organization. But having the sort of reserves that could assure our long term existence has seemed out of reach. That is now changing. Thanks to a bequest from a long time reader, we have started a modest endowment. We hope that other folks might be interested in joining us to build that endowment into a significant source of funds for our operating expenses. So we’ve started a list of “Legacy Donors”.

Accessibility Requirements

Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act requires that government funded institutions in the US must adapt their websites and electronic resources to meet accessibility standards. These requirements are to be phased in. Apr 24, 2026 was the deadline for providers to report on the accessibility of their resources, and, to have a plan for fixing things that needed fixing. On April 20, the Justice Department announced a one year push-back of that deadline.

Since Project Gutenberg does not receive any government funding, we didn’t think this deadline would apply to us, but there are schools and libraries that link to our books for instruction, course lists, and user enjoyment. Several of them have asked us for accessibility reports to help them comply with the law. In response, this month we posted reports in the VPAT format. VPAT stands for “Voluntary Product Accessibility Template” and the reportsavailable on our new accessibility page.

Just two weeks before the April 24 deadline, our web hosts at the University of North Carolina asked us to assume that the ADA rules applied to us as well. They’ve been wonderful and invaluable hosts, so we were very happy to be able to agree!

300th anniversary of 3rd edition Newton’s Principia

In 1726 Isaac Newton published the third edition of his landmark work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (or The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, known simply as The Principia). But how did it spread?

By the 1730s, thanks in particular to Voltaire and scholars such as Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis interest in Newton was growing. A key figure in this Enlightenment activity was Émilie du Châtelet.

<https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/56975>

Châtelet made Principia truly accessible at a time when Newton’s theories were still sparking debate in France between followers of René Descartes (Cartesians) and Newtonians. From the translation and interpretations provided by Châtelet, along with direct tutoring, Voltaire produced “Elémens de la philosophie de Neuton: Mis à la portée de tout le monde” (1733) which brought Newtonian theories to the Francosphere.

<https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50340>

<https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/image/0ce1fc5f-2e2c-46c3-9914-1c6f1dadb17a-elemens-la-philosophie-neuton-mis-la-portee-tout-monde-1>

Émilie du Châtelet sought to serve as a bridge between leading scientists and the educated public. Her mastery of Latin and her understanding of physics enabled her to make these ideas accessible.

Châtelet’s work was far more than a translation. Châtelet’s work added extensive mathematical commentary and clarified Newton’s geometric proofs through calculus-based methods. She added explanations and personal insights, thereby making an original and modern contribution to the dissemination and understanding of Newtonian theories in France and beyond.

During the last five years of her life, Émilie du Châtelet devoted all her energy to this major work, even going so far as to deposit the final compiled manuscript at the Royal Library the day before her death in 1756.

<https://journals.openedition.org/bibnum/722>

For additional reading in this matter we recommend the following:

Les Institutions de physique de Madame Du Châtelet ou d’un traité de paix entre Descartes, Leibniz et Newton. By Robert Locqueneux:

<https://www.persee.fr/doc/rnord_0035-2624_1995_num_77_312_5053>

Newton’s Principia, by Linda Cantoni
“There goes the man that writt a book that neither he nor any body else understands.”

<https://blog.pgdp.net/2025/08/01/newtons-principia/>

New Releases at Gutenberg.org - April 2026

In the last month PGLAF added another 244 new public domain eBooks to the PG catalog. Of these 143 were added by PGDP. Thank you to all the volunteers who have helped to make these new titles freely available to the world.

The month’s eBooks are listed here (the list was getting too long for the newsletter!):

<https://gutenberg.org/newsletter/202604.html>

A selection of this month’s notable and interesting titles:

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