Swiss mathematician Jakob Bernoulli (1654-1705) devoted his career to the study of calculating complex numerical formulas. Sometimes called Jacques or James Bernoulli to distinguish him from other prominent family members, he was the first in a long line of Bernoulli mathematicians that furthered the discipline greatly during the Age of Reason. He and his younger brother Johann engaged in a spirited, if not sometimes malicious, professional rivalry. Both, noted in an essay in DISCovering World History, "contributed to these sometimes-peevish arguments and mild polemics that nevertheless broadened the scope of calculus."

Earned Theology Degree

Jakob Bernoulli was born in Basel, Switzerland, on January 6, 1654. The Bernoulli family was originally of Belgian origin and had been spice merchants in the Spanish Netherlands for some time before 1583. In that year, Bernoulli's druggist grandfather moved the family to Basel, Switzerland, to escape after anti-Protestant religious persecution by a Roman Catholic ruling dynasty...