Jan Hudde

b. Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 1628
d. Amsterdam, 15 April 1704

Jan Hudde studied mathematics under Frans van Schooten. It is probable that it was between the years 1654 and 1663 that he made his contributions to the mathematical sciences. For after this period, he served as a member of the city council of Amsterdam, as juror and as chancellor. He was named one of Amsterdam's four burgomasters in 1672, an office he held every 2 out of 3 years (as required by law) until 1704.

Frans van Schooten included three papers by Hudde in his Exercitationes mathematicae of 1657, and two others in his Géométrie, published in the years 1659-1661. These latter are De reductione aequationum, dated 15 July 1657 and De maximis et minimis, dated 26 February 1658. With the correspondence between Hudde and Huygens of 1665 regarding games of chance, these pieces comprise all of his known mathematical work.