Jacob (Van) Gool was born 1596 in The Hague. He studied medicine, mathematics, and astronomy at Leiden (1612). His interest in Greek mathematics led him to enroll a second time and learn Arabic with the famous orientalist Erpenius (1584–1624) and, on his own, to learn Turkish, Armenian, Persian, and Chinese. To improve his knowledge, he became secretary to a Dutch embassy to Morocco (1622–24). At his return he was appointed professor of oriental languages at Leiden. He then obtained permission to make a long journey to the Middle East, from which he returned with more than three hundred Arab, Turkish, and Persian manuscripts, his most sensational discovery being an Arab translation of three missing books of Apollonius's Conica. Back in Leiden (1629) he was offered a second chair, in mathematics and astronomy (the first Leiden observatory was founded by him). After his death in 1667, his manuscripts were bought by Narcissus Marsh (1638–1713), who in turn donated them to the Bodleian Library (lack of funds forced Leiden to be satisfied with copies).

Combining without effort philological and mathematical studies, Golius was one of the main interpreters of Arab science for the seventeenth-century West. Descartes came to know him when, attracted by the news of the lost books of Apollonius, he enrolled at Leiden University in May 1630. Before long the two became friends. Two letters written to Golius in January and February of 1632 show that Descartes gave him the manuscripts of the Dioptrics and the Geometry (AT I 232–35, 236–41). Golius in turn visited the philosopher in Amsterdam (Huygens, Briefwisseling I, 349). Like Constantijn Huygens, Golius urged Descartes to reverse his decision of 1633 to withhold publication of The World and encouraged him to publish the Discourse on Method (1637). Descartes in turn wanted him to sit on the committee that arbitrated between him and Jan Stampioen (see The Stampioen Affair). During the troubles that accompanied the introduction of Cartesianism at Leiden University, Golius's great authority allowed him to play a moderating role.

See also Huygens, Constantijn