L'Hôpital's Rule/Historical Note

Historical Note on L'Hôpital's Rule

While attributed to Guillaume de l'Hôpital, who included it in his $1696$ work L'Analyse des Infiniment Petits, published anonymously, this result was in fact discovered by Johann Bernoulli in $1694$.

After L'Hôpital's death, Bernoulli claimed that most of the content of L'Analyse des Infiniment Petits, including L'Hôpital's Rule, was in fact his own work.

However, it was discovered in $1955$, on the publication of correspondence between L'Hôpital and Bernoulli that there had been an agreement between them to allow L'Hôpital to use Bernoulli's discoveries however he wanted.

Hence L'Hôpital was vindicated, and his name continues to be associated with this result.

Sources

• 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {A}.20$: The Bernoulli Brothers
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Jean Bernoulli (1667-1748; also known as John or Johann)
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): L'Hôpital (or L'Hospital), Guillaume François Antoine, Marquis de (1661-1704)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Jean Bernoulli (1667-1748; also known as John or Johann)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): L'Hôpital (or L'Hospital), Guillaume François Antoine, Marquis de (1661-1704)