Pierre Remond de Montmort

Pierre Remond de Montmort was a French mathematician, born in Paris in 1678, whose name was originally just Pierre Remond until an inheritance from his father let him buy an estate and take the name de Montmort. He travelled in England and Germany, was friendly with notable mathematicians, especially Nicholas Bernoulli, who collaborated with him, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1715 and joined the French Academy of Sciences in 1716. He is known for his book on probability and games of chance, Essay d analyse sur les jeux de hazard, which first introduced the combinatorial study of derangements, and he also worked on finite differences.