[1] Hudde studied law at the University of Leiden, but turned to mathematics under the influence of his teacher Frans van Schooten.

La Géométrie (1637) by René Descartes provided an introduction to analytic geometry in French, whereas Latin was still the international language of science.

Schooten and his students including Hudde, Johan de Witt and Hendrik van Heuraet published a Latin translation of La Geometrie in 1659.

Hudde corresponded with Baruch Spinoza and Christiaan Huygens, Johann Bernoulli, Isaac Newton and Leibniz.

Newton and Leibniz mention Hudde many times and used some of his ideas in their own work on infinitesimal calculus.