 Peter the Great sent him to France, England, and the Netherlands in 1721, to invite scholars to settle in St. Petersbourg.Laurentius Blumentrost (1692-1755), founder of the academy, made him secretary of the academy in 1724, putting him in charge of the new Academic Library and the Kunstkamera.Meanwhile, a certain number of scholars, among them Bilfinger and Bernoulli, arrived at St Petersburg.