Jacobus Golius

Jacob Golius, born Jacob van Gool (1596 to 1667), was a Dutch orientalist and mathematician at Leiden University, remembered chiefly as an orientalist. Born in The Hague, he went to Leiden in 1612 to study mathematics under Willebrord Snellius, and in 1618 registered again to study Arabic and other Eastern languages, becoming the most distinguished pupil of Erpenius. In 1622 he accompanied the Dutch embassy to Morocco, succeeded Erpenius as professor of Arabic in 1625, and from 1626 to 1629 toured the eastern Mediterranean to collect Arabic and Persian texts for the Leiden library. He later held the chair of mathematics as well as that of Arabic. His best-known work is the Arabic-to-Latin dictionary Lexicon Arabico-Latinum of 1653. He taught mathematics to the French philosopher René Descartes and later corresponded with him.