Jacobi, Karl Gustav Jakob:

By: Isidore Singer

German mathematician; born Dec. 10, 1804, at Potsdam; died at Berlin Feb. 18, 1851; brother of Moritz Hermaun Jacobi. He studied mathematics, philosophy, and philology at the University of Berlin, and in 1824 (having embraced the Christian faith) became privat-docent in mathematics at his alma mater. In 1825 he acted in the same capacity at Königsberg, where he was appointed assistant professor in 1827 and professor in 1829. At that period he, together with Abel, made his epoch-making discoveries in the field of elliptic functions. To benefit his health he went in 1843 to Italy. On his return to Germany he established himself as professor of mathematics at the University of Berlin.

Most of Jacobi's papers were published in Crelle's "Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik" and in the "Monatsberichte" of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, of which he became a member in 1836. Of his independent works may be mentioned: "Fundamenta Novæ Theoriæ Functionum Ellipticarum," Königsberg, 1829, and "Canon Arithmeticus," Berlin, 1839. Jacobi's lectures on dynamics were published in Berlin in 1866 (2d ed., 1884). The Berlin Academy of Sciences published his "Gesammelte Werke" (8 vols., including supplement; ib. 1881-91).