Enlightenment · Europe · Science

1696

Calculus War Erupts Between Newton and Leibniz

1696

The simmering priority dispute between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the invention of calculus burst into open acrimony when followers of each accused the other of plagiarism. The quarrel, fought through pamphlets, intermediaries, and the Royal Society, would poison Anglo-German scientific relations for a generation and impoverish both men's late years.