"In general the French writers... paid no attention to any of the laws except that of multiplication, while the German writers, following the lead of Stifel, took the broader view of the theory. ...[I]n general the German writers were in the lead. ...particularly This is particularly true of Simon Jacob (1565), who followed Stifel closely, recognizing all four [fundamental] laws [of logarithms], and... influencing Jobst Bürgi. These writers did not use the general exponents essential to logarithms, but the recognition of the four laws is significant."