title: 1696 in science
text: # 1696 in science
  
  The year 1696 in science and technology involved some significant events.
  
  ## History of science
  
  * Daniel Le Clerc publishes Histoire de la médecine in Geneva, the first comprehensive work on the subject.
  
  ## Mathematics
  
  * Guillaume de l'Hôpital publishes Analyse des Infiniment Petits pour l'Intelligence des Lignes Courbes, the first textbook on differential calculus, including a statement of his rule for the computation of certain limits.
  * Jakob Bernoulli and Johann Bernoulli solve the brachistochrone curve problem, the first result in the calculus of variations.
  
  ## Births
  
  * unknown date – Christine Kirch, German astronomer (d. 1782)
  
  ## Deaths
  
  * April 30 – Robert Plot, English naturalist and chemist (born 1640)
  * Jean Richer, French astronomer (born 1630)
  