Bernoulli family

The Bernoulli family (/bɜːrˈnuːli/ bur-NOO-lee; German: [bɛʁˈnʊli];[a] Swiss Standard German: [bɛrˈnʊli]) of Basel was a patrician family, notable for having produced eight mathematically gifted academics who, among them, contributed substantially to the development of mathematics and physics during the early modern period.

[4] The first known member of the family was Leon Bernoulli (d. 1561), a doctor in Antwerp, at that time part of the Spanish Netherlands.

[4] His son, Niklaus Bernoulli [de] (Nicolaus, 1623–1708), Leon's great-great-grandson, married Margarethe Schönauer.

Margarethe and Niklaus had four sons, of whom Johann and Hieronymus became the progenitors of the "greater" and the "lesser" branches of the family, respectively.

The four sons of Margarethe and Niklaus were:[b] In addition to Jacob and Johann, the Bernoulli family of mathematicians is generally taken to include: Several more recent prominent scholars are also descended from the family, including: The surname survives in Switzerland, with 11 entries in the white pages for the city of Basel as of 2024.