Epilogue

We have seen that Leibniz was unable to obtain a permanent position in Paris after the death of his employer the Elector of Mainz Johann Philipp von Schönborn, and so for want of other options had to enter the service of the Duke of Hanover Johann Friedrich of Brunswick-Lünberg and to accept the Duke's request that he reside in Hanover. Until his death in 1716 he was the ducal librarian employed in an extraordinary number scientific, genealogical, political, and historical researches, most of which have long been forgotten. At the same time he was able to pursue a vast correspondence with practically every major (and minor) intellectual figure in Europe, refine his calculus, formulate dynamical theories from a point of view quite different from Newton's, and develop the intricate philosophy of monads for which he is primarily remembered today. Although he was soon recognized as a European philosopher and mathematician of the first rank, we shall see that this was accompanied by a gradual loss of status and increasing neglect at home…