Moivre, the son of provincial surgeon, was born in Vitry-le-François in France and raised as a Huguenot (French Protestant) in an ever growing atmosphere of Roman Catholic intolerance. When the Edict of Nantes (a 1598 decree granting a measure of religious freedom to Huguenots) was revoked by Louis XIV in 1685, Moivre was imprisoned for several months. Upon his release he left France, for England where he remained for the rest of his long life. In England, Moivre became a close friend of Isaac Newton, whose great work, Principia, Moivre mastered by ripping out individual pages of the text, according to contemporary accounts, in order to be able to carry them around and study them in his spare moments. Moivre's mathematical acumen was also admired by Edmond Halley who read Moivre's first paper on Newton's calculus to the Royal Society. Halley's support of the young mathematician ensured Moivre's...