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Mathematical Tourist Index

Our Calculus Heritage
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A Calculus Collection - Leibniz

Selections from the 1684 volume of "Acta

Eruditorum."

Leibniz's paper comprises pp. 467-473 and Plate

12. This was the first publication of the rules for
finding a derivative.

The symbol for equality (=) was not in common

usage at that time. In the following rules Leibniz
used the Latin abbreviation "œqu" for "aequales"
meaning the modern (=) symbol and (--) for
subtraction. Look for . . .

Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642)
These images and links are taken from his original
publication:

The Derivative
Addition and Subtraction

René Descartes
(1596 - 1650)

Multiplication

Division
Pierre de Fermat
(1601 - 1665)

Full Page View

Plate 12
Page 467 Note the article is simply signed "GGL."

Letter from Leibniz to James Bernoulli Blaise Pascal

Leibniz and Geometry (1703) (1623 - 1662)

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31/01/2011 Leibniz: First Published Rules for the Der…

L'Hospital on Leibniz
L'Hospital on Leibniz:

Leibniz
"I must here in justice own, (as Mr. Leibnitz (sic) himself
(1646 - 1716)
has done in Journal des Scavans for August, 1694) that the Starting with
learned Sir Isaac Newton likewise discovered something like the study of
the Calculus Differentialis, as appears by his excellent tangents to
Principia, published first in the year 1687 which almost curves, all of
wholly depends upon the use of the said Calculus. the men
represented
But the method of Mr. Leibnitz's is much more easy and on this web
expeditious, on account of the notation he uses, not to page made
mention the wonderful assistance it affords on many significant
occasions." contributions Jacob Bernoulli
to the initial (1654 - 1705)
Editor of Acta Eruditorum
Marquis de l'Hôspital formulation
(1661 - 1704) of what
today we
call The
Calculus.

See the
Acta
Eruditorum
of 1697.
Leonhard Euler
(1707 - 1783)

Johann van Waveren Hudde

(1628 - 1704)

The Acta Eruditorum images are

reproduced by permission of The
Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Students of mathematics are most grateful
for the opportunity to view original
sources.

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