Little is available in English about the French monk Marin Mersenne.

However, the wide correspondence group he set up in the early 17^th century played an important part in the development of modern science. He exchanged letters with Descartes, Pascal, Fermat, Huygens, Gassendi and many others, also indirectly with Galileo.

“Mersenne: Questions without End. An Introduction to the Correspondance of Marin Mersenne” written by Hugh Crone is an introduction to the 17 volumes of correspondence edited by the French in the last century. It is essential for understanding the various academies set up in continental Europe, and for the later founding of the Royal Society of London.