1667-1748

Swiss Mathematician

So great was the reputation of the Bernoulli family, and so numerous its members—a condition not unlike that of their German contemporaries the Bachs—that historians often have a hard time sorting out the various personalities. Thus Johann Bernoulli was also known as Jean, while his equally famous older brother Jakob (1654-1705) has been variously identified as Jacques, James, or Jakob I to distinguish him from other Bernoullis of that name. Another abiding characteristic of the Bernoulli family was a tendency toward rivalries, conflicts that always seemed to center around Johann—who struggled first with his brother, and later with his son Daniel (1700-1782), most notable among a prominent line.

Johann originally studied medicine, but from the beginning of his academic career, his passion was mathematics. Thus his doctoral dissertation was a mathematical treatise presented as a study of muscle contractions. By...