As we have noted above, Abel was also making fundamental contributions and to some extent a competition had developed between the two. Legendre expressed this clearly in a letter he wrote to Jacobi early in 1829:
Nagu me eespool märgitud, Abel oli tegemist olulise panuse ning mõningal määral konkurentsi oli arendada nende kahe vahel. Legendre väljendas seda selgelt kirjast, mille ta kirjutas Jacobi alguses 1829: