Why a Bernoulli Edition?

The Bernoulli Family

Works and correspondence

The scientific legacy

The Edition (about us)

Links

Contacts:
P. Radelet : General Editor
F. Nagel : Editor responsible for Correspondence
B. Gaino : Secretary

NICOLAUS II (1695–1726)

The eldest and favourite son of Johann I, he was a child prodigy who very early showed his exceptional ability even against the background of this particularly well-endowed family. At eight years of age he had mastered four languages, and on the basis of his achievements and through his father's influence, he was permitted to register in the University of Basel at the age of thirteen. Three years later he had his Master's degree: pursuing a course in law, he had qualified Licencié in Jurisprudence by the age of twenty. He was soon appointed to the Chair of Law in the University of Berne in 1723.

Meantime he had been cultivating his mathematical talents and in the years 1715–20 there appeared over his name a series of publications in both Geometry and Mechanics, which shows a concentration on questions related to the theory of Orthogonal Trajectories. At the same time he was the chief support of his father in his extensive correspondence, particularly in that dealing with his support for Leibniz in the controversy with Newton.

During this period he made sojourns in Italy, first in 1715–17 and again in 1720–22.

It has been shown recently by U. Bottazzini that it was about the year 1724 that Nicolaus obtained the correct solution for Riccati's Equation. The following year, both Nicolaus and Daniel accepted invitations to the St. Petersburg Academy (1725). But less than a year later (1726) Nicolaus died of a fever at the age of thirty-one. On the order of Czarina Catherine I, he was given a state funeral.

Ó Mathúna, 1999