How Leibniz tried to tell the world he had squared the circle

Strickland, Lloyd ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2560-6909 (2023) How Leibniz tried to tell the world he had squared the circle. Historia Mathematica, 62. pp. 19-39. ISSN 0315-0860

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Abstract

In 1682, Leibniz published an essay containing his solution to the classic problem of squaring the circle: the alternating converging series that now bears his name. Yet his attempts to disseminate his quadrature results began seven years earlier and included four distinct approaches: the conventional (journal article), the grand (treatise), the impostrous (pseudepigraphia), and the extravagant (medals). This paper examines Leibniz’s various attempts to disseminate his series formula. By examining oft-ignored writings, as well as unpublished manuscripts, this paper answers the question of how one of the greatest mathematicians sought to introduce his first great geometrical discovery to the world.