Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

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Portrait by Christoph Bernhard Francke, oil, c1700.
Born July 1, 1646(1646-07-01)
Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire (today Germany)
Died November 14, 1716(1716-11-14) (aged 70)
Hanover, Electorate of Hanover, Holy Roman Empire (today Germany)
Web Aaaaarg, Wikipedia, Academia.edu, Open Library, Project Gutenberg

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German polymath and philosopher. Trained as a jurist and employed as a counsellor, librarian, and historian, he made contributions to logic, mathematics, physics, and metaphysics, yet viewed his own aspirations as ultimately ethical and theological, and married these theoretical concerns with politics, diplomacy, and an equally broad range of practical reforms: juridical, economic, administrative, technological, medical, and ecclesiastical.

Chronology[edit]

From Maria Rosa Antognazza, Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography, 2009, pp xvii-xxvii.

  • 1 July (21 June [O.S.]) 1646: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is born in Leipzig (Saxony).
  • July 1653–Easter 1661: Leibniz attends the Nikolaischule, one of Leipzig's two main Latin schools and one of the best preparatory schools in Saxony.
  • April 1661: Leibniz begins his studies at the University of Leipzig.
  • 2 December 1662: Bachelor's degree in philosophy.
  • 9 June 1663: Discussion of the dissertation written for his Bachelor's degree in philosophy (Disputatio Metaphysica de Principio Individui).
  • 20 June 1663: Enrolment for the summer semester at the University of Jena (Saxony).
  • October 1663: Return to Leipzig for the beginning of the winter semester.
  • 7 February 1664: Master's degree in philosophy.
  • December 1664: Discussion of the dissertation written for his Master's degree in philosophy (Specimen Quaestionum Philosophicarum ex Jure collectarum).
  • 24 July and 27 August 1665: Discussion of the first and second parts of his dissertation on conditional judgements in law (De conditionibus) for his Bachelor's degree in law.
  • 28 September 1665: Bachelor's degree in law.
  • 1666: Dissertatio de Arte Combinatoria. Discussion on 17 March 1666 of its first part under the title of Disputatio arithmetica de Complexionibus for Leibniz's habilitation in the faculty of philosophy.
  • End of September 1666: Leibniz leaves Leipzig.
  • 4 October 1666: Enrolment in the law faculty of the University of Altdorf, situated within the territories of the imperial free city of Nuremberg.
  • 15 November 1666: Discussion of the thesis for the licence and the doctorate in law (Disputatio de Casibus perplexis in Jure).
  • 1666–7: Leibniz's first paid position: secretary of a Nuremberg alchemical society.
  • Autumn of 1667: Leibniz leaves Nuremberg, intending to undertake a European grand tour via the Rhine and Holland.
  • November 1667: Leibniz in Frankfurt; visit to the nearby Catholic archiepiscopal seat in Mainz.
  • End of 1667: Publication of the Nova Methodus Discendae Docendaeque Jurisprudentiae.
  • End of 1667–early 1668: First encounters with Baron Johann Christian von Boineburg.
  • 1668: Employment by the elector and prince-archbishop of Mainz, Johann Philipp von Schönborn, as collaborator on the reform and reorganisation of the corpus juris; Confessio Naturae contra Atheistas.
  • 1668–9: Demonstrationum Catholicarum Conspectus.
  • April 1669: Letter to his former teacher, Jakob Thomasius.
  • 1669–71: Elementa Juris naturalis.
  • 1670: New edition (with introduction by Leibniz) of Mario Nizolio, Antibarbarus seu de veris principiis et vera ratione philosophandi contra pseudophilosophos.
  • 1670–1: Theoria motus abstracti and Hypothesis physica nova.
  • 1671: Grundriß eines Bedenkens von aufrichtung einer Societät in Deutschland zu aufnehmen der Künste und Wissenschaften.
  • May 1671: Letter to Magnus Wedderkopf.
  • 20 June 1671: Letter from Pierre de Carcavy to Leibniz, containing the first known mention of Leibniz's calculating machine.
  • 1671–2: Directiones ad rem Medicam pertinentes.
  • 19 March 1672: Departure for Paris, where Leibniz arrives at the end of March.
  • Autumn of 1672: First meeting with Christiaan Huygens. Intensive mathematical work, especially on the summation of series.
  • Autumn of 1672–early 1673: Confessio Philosophi.
  • November 1672: Supervision of the education of Baron Boineburg's son.
  • 15 December 1672: Death of Leibniz's patron, Baron Boineburg.
  • End January–end February 1673: First visit to London. First personal encounter with Heinrich Oldenburg, secretary to the Royal Society.
  • 1 February 1673: Demonstration of Leibniz's calculating machine at a meeting of the Royal Society.
  • Beginning of March 1673: Leibniz back in Paris.
  • 19 April 1673: Leibniz elected Fellow of the Royal Society.
  • 13 September 1674: Leibniz dismissed by the widow of the late Baron Boineburg.
  • 21 January 1675: Leibniz accepts the offer of Duke Johann Friedrich of Hanover to enter his service.
  • October 1675: Invention of the infinitesimal calculus, prepared by a series of mathematical studies and results achieved after his return from London.
  • 1675–6: De Summa Rerum (including the dialogue Pacidius Philaleti).
  • Summer of 1676: De Arcanis Motus.
  • 4 October 1676: Leibniz leaves Paris.
  • 18–29 October 1676: Second visit to London.
  • November 1676: Leibniz in Holland; extended conversations with Baruch Spinoza in The Hague.
  • Mid-December 1676: Arrival in Hanover to assume the duties of court counsellor and librarian to Duke Johann Friedrich.
  • May 1677: Letter to Duke Johann Friedrich: justice as caritas sapientis ("charity of the wise").
  • June–October 1677: Caesarini Fürstenerii de Jure Suprematus ac Legationis Principum Germaniae.
  • August 1677: Leibniz suggests the investigation of a possible link between the Guelf house and the ancient Italian noble family of Este.
  • 1678–9: Leibniz relaunches his encyclopaedic plan of the Demonstrationes Catholicae (letter of the autumn of 1679 to Duke Johann Friedrich); introduces the idea of a scientia generalis and a demonstrative or inventive encyclopaedia; writes a ground-breaking study on the notion of force in which he quantifies force as the product of mass (m) and the square of speed (v2) (De corporum concursu, January 1678); starts developing a characteristica geometrica or analysis situs and a dyadic or binary arithmetic; writes a cluster of key logical papers providing the basis of a logical calculus (April 1679); lays the foundations for an advanced philosophy of probability (De incerti aestimatione, September 1678); proposes the creation of new ways of organising scientific research and learned societies to collaborate on the encyclopaedic task.
  • Autumn of 1678: Beginning of his involvement in the Harz mines.
  • 28 December 1679: Death of Duke Johann Friedrich. The duchy of Hanover passes to the late duke's youngest brother, Ernst August, married to Sophie von der Pfalz.
  • 1680–83: Series of practical proposals to Ernst August, including the introduction of an official medical system and state provision of education.
  • 1680–86: Heavy involvement in the Harz mines: Leibniz makes thirty-one separate trips to the Harz and spends at least 165 weeks there out of a total of 365.
  • 1683: Hanoverian negotiations on reunification between Catholics and Protestants, led by Bishop Cristobal de Rojas y Spinola and Gerhard Wolter Molanus. By this time Leibniz has proved Fermat's little theorem.
  • August–September 1683: Mars Christianissimus seu Apologia armorum Regis Christianissimi contra Christianos.
  • January 1684: Invention of determinants and discovery of their properties.
  • October 1684: Publication in the Acta Eruditorum of the Nova Methodus pro Maximis et Minimis (that is, Leibniz's first public presentation of the infinitesimal calculus); later complemented by De Geometria Recondita et Analysi Indivisibilium et infinitorum, published in the Acta Eruditorum of July 1686.
  • November 1684: Publication in the Acta Eruditorum of the Meditationes de Cognitione, Veritate et Ideis.
  • April 1685: Collapse of the Harz project.
  • June 1685: Leibniz charged with writing the Guelf history.
  • Autumn 1685: First memorandum for Ernst August providing historical and legal arguments in support of the duke's claim to electoral status.
  • 1686: Leibniz writes four fundamental texts in physics, metaphysics, theology, and logic: (1) Brevis demonstratio erroris memorabilis Cartesii et aliorum circa legem naturae; (2) Discours de Métaphysique; (3) Examen Religionis Christianae; (4) Generales Inquisitiones de Analysi Notionum et Veritatum.
  • 1686–90: Correspondence with Antoine Arnauld on the topics discussed in the Discours de Métaphysique.
  • End of October 1687: Departure for southern Germany.
  • November 1687: Two-week stay in Rheinfels, visiting one of his most trusted friends and correspondents, Landgraf Ernst von Hessen-Rheinfels.
  • January 1688: Leibniz hosted for several days by Christian Knorr von Rosenroth in Sulzbach.
  • End of March 1688: After a number of stops and detours (including a meeting in Graupen, Bohemia, with his long-standing friend, Johann Daniel Crafft, and two weeks in Regensburg), Leibniz arrives at his original main destination: Munich.
  • April 1688: Leibniz finds proof of the dynastic connection between the Este family and the Braunschweig-L üneburg house in a manuscript codex in Augsburg.
  • End of April 1688: Leibniz decides to visit the Este archives in Modena (Italy). On
  • 29 April he leaves Munich for Vienna.
  • 8 May 1688: Leibniz arrives in Vienna where he stays until February 1689; audience with Emperor Leopold I (October 1688) and several meetings on ecclesiastical reunification with Bishop Rojas.
  • Autumn–winter of 1688–9: Mars christianissimus ou Reflexions sur la declaration de la guerre, que la France fait à l'Empire.
  • February 1689: Publication in the Acta Eruditorum of the Tentamen de Motuum caelestium Causis.
  • 16 January 1689: Leibniz receives permission from the duke of Modena to visit the Este archives.
  • 11 February 1689: Departure for Italy.
  • 4 March 1689: Leibniz in Venice until the end of the month.
  • 14 April 1689: Leibniz arrives in Rome.
  • Beginning of May 1689: Leibniz visits Naples.
  • Mid-May 1689: Leibniz back in Rome, where he stays until 20 November 1689; participation in meetings of the Accademia Fisico-Matematica.
  • Second half of July 1689: Phoranomus seu de potentia et legibus naturae.
  • August 1689–90: Dynamica de Potentia et Legibus Naturae Corporeae.
  • Spring–autumn of 1689: Tentamen de Physicis Motuum Coelestium Rationibus and Principia Logico-Metaphysica (also known as Primae Veritates).
  • November 1689: Departs Rome for Florence, where he meets Rudolf Christian von Bodenhausen; first appearance of the word ‘dynamica' in his correspondence with Bodenhausen (31 December 1689).
  • 22 December 1689: Leibniz leaves Florence for Bologna.
  • 28 December 1689: Leibniz leaves Bologna, finally headed for the official destination of his Italian trip: the Este court in Modena.
  • January 1690: Consultation of the Este archives. Leibniz leaves Modena on 2 February.
  • 10 February 1690: Visit to the tombs of the ancient Este family in the monastery of Vangadizza at Badia Polesine, near Rovigo. Leibniz discovers the exact connection between the Este and Guelf houses.
  • February–March 1690: Leibniz in Venice. Meetings with Michel Angelo Fardella.
  • Leibniz leaves Venice on 24 March.
  • End of April–mid-May 1690: Leibniz in Vienna.
  • Mid-June 1690: Leibniz back in Hanover.
  • 1690–91: Correspondence with Paul Pellisson-Fontanier on religious toleration.
  • Autumn 1690–92: Several outlines of the Guelf history, notably a Brevis synopsis historiae Guelficae. Leibniz plans to complete the history by 1693.
  • 14 January 1691: Leibniz assumes additional duties at the court of Wolfenbüttel as director of the impressive ducal library; in the second half of 1691 he supervises the creation of a new catalogue (completed by 1699). Wolfenbüttel becomes his second regular place of residence, where he maintains permanent quarters.
  • 15 February 1692: Letter of Nicolas Fatio de Duillier to Huygens, claiming that Leibniz has derived his calculus from Newton without acknowledging his debt.
  • March 1692: Emperor Leopold I grants the status of ninth electorate to the territories of Calenberg (Hanover) and Celle, crowning years of efforts by Leibniz in preparing historical and legal documents in support of Duke Ernst August's electoral claim.
  • May 1692: Leibniz declines an invitation, received via Jacob Auguste Barnabas Comte Des Viviers, to join the service of Louis XIV.
  • 1692–6: Renewed involvement in the Harz mines.
  • 1693: Publication of the Codex Juris Gentium Diplomaticus.
  • March 1694: Publication in the Acta Eruditorum of De Primae Philosophiae Emendatione, et de Notione Substantiae.
  • End of 1694: The Protogaea (Leibniz's treatise on the origin and history of the earth) is complete but remains unpublished.
  • 1695: Publication of the first part of a Specimen Dynamicum in the Acta Eruditorum (April); publication of the Système nouveau de la nature et de la communication des substances in the Journal de sçavans (June and July); first appearance of the expression ‘pre-established harmony' and of the term ‘monad', used to indicate ‘real unities' or ‘simple substances'.
  • Mid-1690s: Mémoire pour des Personnes éclairées et de bonne intention.
  • 5 February 1695: Antonio Alberti (alias Amable de Tourreil) informs Leibniz that he could be offered the custodianship of the Vatican Library if he converts to Catholicism. Leibniz declines.
  • July 1696: Elevation to the position of privy counsellor of justice (Geheimer Justizrat).
  • 1696–7: Unvorgreiffliche Gedancken betreffend die Ausübung und Verbesserung der Teutschen Sprache.
  • 23 November 1697: De rerum originatione radicali.
  • 1697: Publication of the Novissima Sinica; especially from 1697 onward Leibniz's focus shifts from the reconciliation of Catholicism and Lutheranism to the reunion of Lutherans and Calvinists, Evangelicals, and Reformed.
  • 1697–1700: Leibniz comments on the dispute between John Locke and Edward Stillingfleet.
  • Early 1698–early 1699: Unvorgreiffliches Bedencken über eine Schrift genandt "Kurtze Vorstellung", written in collaboration with Molanus.
  • 2 February 1698: Death of Ernst August. His oldest son, Georg Ludwig, becomes the new Elector and Duke of Hanover.
  • September 1698: Publication of De ipsa natura in the Acta Eruditorum; Tentamen Expositionis Irenicae.
  • November 1698–February 1705: Leibniz spends extended periods of time in Berlin (some twenty-four months in total), establishing an exceptionally close bond with Sophie Charlotte, electress of Brandenburg and sister of Georg Ludwig.
  • December 1698–January 1706: Correspondence with Burchard de Volder.
  • 1698 and 1700: Publication of two volumes of Accessiones Historicae and of a Mantissa Codicis Juris Gentium Diplomatici.
  • 1699: A mathematical treatise by Nicolas Fatio de Duillier raises the suspicion that Leibniz plagiarized his calculus from Newton.
  • 1699–1705: Leibniz writes to Gilbert Burnet asking for the support of the English church on the issue of Protestant reunification (January 1699); commentary on Article 17 of Burnet's Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England.
  • February 1700: Leibniz elected foreign member of the Parisian Académie Royale des Sciences.
  • 19 March 1700: Friedrich III of Brandenburg approves the foundation of the Berlin Society of Sciences under Leibniz's presidency; on 11 July 1700 the Elector signs the Society's Stiftungbrief (decree of foundation); on 12 July 1700 Leibniz is officially named President of the Society and privy counsellor of justice (Geheimer Justizrat) in Brandenburg.
  • End of October–mid-December 1700: Leibniz in Vienna following a summons from Emperor Leopold for further talks on the reunification of the Catholic and Protestant churches.
  • 18 January 1701: The Brandenburg elector crowned Friedrich I, King in Prussia.
  • 8 August 1701: Annotatiunculae Subitaneae ad Tolandi Librum De Christianismo Mysteriis Carente.
  • 14 August 1701: The Act of Settlement is presented to the dowager Electress Sophie, sanctioning the Protestant succession to the English crown through the Hanoverian line.
  • 11 June 1702–May 1703: Leibniz in Lützenburg and Berlin. During the summer of 1702, discussions in Lützenburg with Sophie Charlotte and her entourage provide the basis for the Theodicy.
  • 1702: Lettre touchant ce qui est independant des Sens et de la Matiere, addressed to Sophie Charlotte.
  • April 1703: Explication de l'Arithmetique Binaire commenting on the parallel between the hexagrams of the I Ching and Leibniz's dyadic, discussed in his correspondence with Joachim Bouvet.
  • Beginning of June 1703: Leibniz back in Hanover.
  • Summer of 1703–summer of 1705: Nouveaux Essais.
  • Summer of 1703: Méditation sur la notion commune de la justice.
  • 30 January–2 February 1704: Leibniz in Dresden to promote the idea of founding a Society of Sciences in Saxony.
  • 12 April 1704: Death of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, with whom Leibniz intermittently corresponded from 1679 onward on the issue of ecclesiastical reunification.
  • 27 August 1704: Arrival at Lützenburg for a sojourn in Brandenburg of more than six months; Leibniz meets Wilhelmine Caroline von Ansbach.
  • December 1704–16: Correspondence with Christian Wolff.
  • 1 February 1705: Death of Sophie Charlotte in Hanover, while Leibniz is still in Berlin.
  • March 1705: Leibniz back in Hanover.
  • 2 September 1705: The son and heir of Georg Ludwig, Georg August, marries Wilhelmine Caroline von Ansbach.
  • January 1706–16: Correspondence with Bartholomew Des Bosses, including (from 1712) discussion of the vinculum substantiale.
  • Mid-November 1706–mid-May 1707: Leibniz in Berlin.
  • June 1707: Publication of the first volume of Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium; two further volumes follow in 1710 and 1711.
  • December 1708: Leibniz in Vienna.
  • Early January–early March 1709: Short visit to Leipzig (early January); sojourn in Berlin.
  • 9 March 1709: Back in Hanover.
  • 1710: Publication in Amsterdam of the Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal; publication of the first volume of the Miscellanea Berolinensia by the Berlin Society of Sciences; on 7 August Friedrich I nominates Marquard Ludwig von Printzen as honorary president of the Society, thereby compromising Leibniz's role as president; the Philosophical Transactions for 1708 (actually published in 1710) includes a paper by the Scottish mathematician John Keill in which Leibniz is openly accused of having plagiarized Newton's calculus.
  • October 1710: In a letter to Thomas Burnett, Leibniz presents the Theodicy as the "forerunner" of a broader enterprise reminiscent of the Demonstrationes Catholicae, later reconceived as the scientia generalis, and finally envisaged in this letter as "Elements of general philosophy and of natural theology."
  • 25 February–beginning of May 1711: last sojourn in Berlin.
  • 30 October 1711, 6–10 November 1712: audiences with Peter the Great, tsar of Russia, in Torgau (Saxony) and Carlsbad (Bohemia).
  • 11 November 1712: Leibniz nominated Russian privy counsellor of justice as well as adviser to the tsar on mathematical and scientific matters.
  • 1712: Epistolica de historia etymologica dissertatio.
  • Mid-December 1712–early September 1714: Leibniz in Vienna.
  • January 1713: Publication in London of the Commercium Epistolicum.
  • April 1713: Nomination (back-dated to 2 January 1712) of Leibniz as member of the Imperial Aulic Council (Reichshofrat), one of the two supreme courts of appeal of the Empire.
  • 14 August 1713: Emperor Charles VI names Leibniz director of a planned Imperial Society of Sciences in Vienna, which is never realised.
  • Summer 1713: Leibniz writes the so-called Charta Volans anonymously.
  • 1714: Leibniz writes the Principes de la nature et de la grâce fondés en raison for Prince Eugene of Savoy (completed in Vienna by August 1714) and works in Vienna and Hanover on a paper published after his death as Monadologie.
  • 8 June 1714: Death of the dowager Electress Sophie, Leibniz's long-standing friend and protector in Hanover.
  • August 1714: Death of Queen Anne of Great Britain and Ireland; passage of the throne to Georg Ludwig of Hanover (George I).
  • 3 September 1714: Departure from Vienna.
  • 14 September 1714: Leibniz arrives in Hanover, three days after the elector and his court have left for London.
  • 12 October 1714: Caroline, now Princess of Wales, leaves Hanover.
  • Late 1714–16: Leibniz tries unsuccessfully to secure the office of historiographer of Great Britain in order to follow the court in London; he considers moving to Vienna or Paris; intensive work on the Guelf history (Annales Imperii Occidentis Brunsvicenses).
  • 15 March 1715: Leibniz criticizes Berkeley's philosophy in a letter to Des Bosses.
  • Spring-early summer of 1715: 'Aποκατάσταση.
  • November 1715–October 1716: Correspondence between Leibniz and Samuel Clarke mediated by Princess Caroline.
  • Late 1705–early 1716: Discours sur la Theologie naturelle des Chinois.
  • Summer 1716: Meetings with Peter the Great in Bad Pyrmont (Lower Saxony).
  • 3 August 1716: Leibniz reports satisfactory improvements on the most recent model of his calculating machine.
  • 3 November 1716: Leibniz's last dated letter, conveying his hopes for the flourishing of the Society of Sciences of Berlin.
  • 6–14 November 1716: Leibniz bedridden, plagued by gout and arthritis, and unable to write.
  • Evening of 14 November 1716: Leibniz dies in Hanover, where his funeral takes place on 14 December 1716.

Works[edit]

Editions[edit]

Latin[edit]

  • Opera omnia, nunc primum collecta, in classes distributa, praefationibus et indicibus exornata, 6 vols., ed. Ludovici Dutens, Genevae, 1768, ccxliv+790 pp, Gallica. (Latin)

German[edit]

  • A Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe, Series I-VIII, ed. Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Darmstadt, 1923ff; Leipzig, 1938ff; Berlin, 1950ff, PDFs. (German)
    • I. Allgemeiner, politischer und historischer Briefwechsel, 25 vols., PDFs.
    • II. Philosophischer Briefwechsel, 3 vols., PDFs.
    • III. Mathematischer, naturwissenschaftlicher und technischer Briefwechsel, 8 vols., PDFs.
    • IV. Politische Schriften, 7 vols., PDFs.
    • V. Historische und sprachwissenschaftliche Schriften.
    • VI. Philosophische Schriften, 6 vols., PDFs.
    • VII. Mathematische Schriften, 6 vols., PDFs.
    • VIII. Naturwissenschaftliche, medizinische und technische Schriften, 1 vol., PDFs.
  • GM Mathematische Schriften, 7 vols., ed. C.I. Gerhardt, Halle, 1849-63; repr., Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1963. (German)
  • G/GP Die philosophischen Schriften, 7 vols., ed. C.I. Gerhardt, Berlin, 1875-90; repr., Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1965. (German)
  • more

English[edit]

  • Confessio Philosophi: Papers Concerning the Problem of Evil, 1671-1678, trans. & ed. Robert C. Sleigh, Jr., Yale University Press, 2005, xli+178 pp, PDF. [1] (English)
  • The Labyrinth of the Continuum: Writings on the Continuum Problem, 1672-1686, trans., ed. & intro. Richard T.W. Arthur, Yale University Press, 2001, lxxxviii+484 pp. [2] (Latin)/(English)
  • Logical Papers, trans., ed. & intro. G.H.R. Parkinson, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966, lxv+148 pp. [3] (English)
  • RB/NE New Essays on Human Understanding, trans. & eds. Peter Remnant and Jonathan Bennett, Cambridge University Press, 1981, xcvi+402 pp, PDF. Trans. of Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain. [4] (English)
  • AG Philosophical Essays, eds. & trans. Roger Ariew and Dan Garber, Indianapolis: Hackett, 1989, xvi+366 pp, PDF. [5] (English)
  • L Philosophical Papers and Letters, ed., trans. & intro. Leroy E. Loemker, 2nd ed., Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1969, xii+736 pp, PDF. [6] (English)
  • Philosophical Texts, eds. & trans. R.S. Woolhouse and Richard Francks, intro. & notes R.S. Woolhouse, Oxford University Press, 1998, vi+313 pp, PDF. [7] (English)
  • Political Writings, trans., ed., intro. & notes Patrick Riley, Cambridge University Press, 1972, vii+206 pp; 2nd ed., 1988, xi+249 pp, PDF. [8] (English)
  • SR De Summa Rerum: Metaphysical Paper, 1675-1676, trans. & ed. G.H.R. Parkinson, Yale University Press, 1992, lxiv+145 pp. [9] (Latin)/(English)
  • H Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom on Man and the Origin of Evil, ed. & intro. Austin Farrer, trans. E.M. Huggard, La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1985, 448 pp, ARG. Trans. from C.J. Gerhardt's edition of the Collected Philosophical Works, 1875-90. [10] (English)
  • WF Leibniz's 'New System' and Associated Contemporary Texts, ed. & trans. R.S. Woolhouse and Richard Francks, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997, xvi+261 pp, PDF. [11] (English)

French[edit]

  • C Opuscules et fragments inédits de Leibniz: extraits des manuscrits, ed. Louis Couturat, Paris: PUF, 1903, Gallica; repr., Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1961. (French)
  • Textes inédits d'après les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque provinciale de Hanovre, 2 vols., ed. & notes Gaston Grua, Paris: PUF, 1948, vii+936 pp. [12] (French)

Correspondence[edit]

  • Lettres de Leibniz à Arnauld d'après un manuscrit inédit, ed. Geneviève Rodis-Lewis, Paris: PUF, 1952. (French)
  • The Leibniz-Arnauld Correspondence, ed. & trans. H.T. Mason, intro. G.H.R. Parkinson, Manchester University Press, 1967, xlviii+180 pp. (English)
  • The Leibniz-Des Bosses Correspondence, trans., eds. & intro. Brandon C. Look and Donald Rutherford, Yale University Press, 2007, lxxix+477 pp, PDF. (English)
  • Leibniz and Clarke: Correspondence, ed. & intro. Roger Ariew, Hackett, 2000, xv+110 pp, DJV. (English)
  • The Leibniz-De Volder Correspondence: With Selections from the Correspondence between Leibniz and Johann Bernoulli, trans., ed. & intro. Paul Lodge, Yale University Press, 2013, ci+415 pp. (English)
  • Nouvelles lettres et opuscules inédits de Leibniz, ed. A. Foucher de Careil. Paris, 1857; repr., Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1971. (French)

Bibliography[edit]

  • Leibniz-Bibliographie, online.
  • Bibliographie des oeuvres de Leibniz, ed. Emile Ravier, Paris: F. Alcan, 1937; repr., Hildesheim: Olms, 1966.

Selected literature[edit]

Monographs[edit]

  • Gilles Deleuze, Le Pli. Leibniz et le Baroque, Paris: Minuit, 1988, PDF.
    • The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, University of Minnesota Press, 1993, PDF, PDF. (English) Reviews: Buchanan (SubStance), Ebert.
  • Christia Mercer, Leibniz's Metaphysics: Its Origin and Development, Cambridge University Press, 2001, xiii+528 pp, PDF. (English) Reviews: Garber (LR), Leijenhorst (LR, reply), Beeley (NDPR), Hassing (RM), Antognazza (JHP), Murray (PR), Hawthorne (LS), Hassing (ESM), Luchte (HJ).
  • Nicholas Jolley, Leibniz, New York: Routledge, 2005, PDF. Review: Levey (NDPR).
  • Maria Rosa Antognazza, Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography, Cambridge University Press, 2009, xxvii+623 pp, PDF. Reviews: Rée (LRB), Adams (LR), Brown (NDPR), Wright (17th-c. News), more. (English)

Journals[edit]

  • Studia Leibnitiana. Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Philosophie und der Wissenschaften, Steiner Verlag, since 1969. [13] (English),(German),(French)
  • The Leibniz Review, ed. Glenn A. Hartz, since 1991. [14] (English)

Encyclopedic entries[edit]

Societies[edit]

Resources[edit]