ABSTRACT
In 1680 at the age of 26, Jacob traveled to Paris , where he arranged to meet with several philosophers and mathematicians. He was particularly impressed with Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715), a nobleman who was a priest and a philosopher and whose library included the works of François Viète (1540-1603) and René Descartes (1596-1650). Malebranche had spent much of his life studying Descartes , concentrating on both his philosophic works and his mathematics . Malebranche was the kind of scholar Jacob had been hoping to meet.
