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Leibniz-Edition


Links to the project

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) is said to be the last polymath. This is reflected by his diverse and mostly unpublished work. Until today, there is no complete edition which forced researchers to rely on deficient partial editions from the 19th century. The project aims at a complete edition of G. W. Leibniz’ writings and of his letters. The handwritten literary remains are to a large extend stored at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz library in Hannover. It contains approx. 100,000 sheets, including approx. 20,000 letters (including all letters from Leibniz to approx. 1,300 correspondents).


Leibniz-Edition

Leibniz-Edition

Host Academy
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony

Location and federal state
Berlin, Berlin; Hannover, Lower Saxony; Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia; Potsdam, Brandenburg

Type
Editions: Philosophy, History of Science, Linguistics and Literary Studies

Project number
II.B.07-1-4


Around half of this corpus was printed in the academy edition so far. The extent of the historical-critical complete edition, which is structured in eight series, is estimated at 130 volumes and partial volumes. The Leibniz-Archive in Hannover publishes the series I (general, political and historical correspondence), III (mathematical, scientific and technical correspondence), and VII (mathematical writings). The series II (philosophical correspondence) and VI (philosophical writings) are published by the Leibniz-Research Centre in Münster. The Leibniz-Editorial Centre Potsdam publishes the series IV (political writings) and V (historical writings). The series VIII (scientific, medical and technical writings) is published by the Leibniz-Editorial Centre in Berlin.

Additional to the printed version, the edition volumes are accessible via Open Access. Furthermore, on the web pages of the research institutions and on the joint homepage (www.leibnizedition.de), provisional editions and transcriptions as well as some useful digital tools and research results are available, for example the working catalogue (“Ritterkatalog”), the persons and correspondence database (Leibniz-Connection), accumulated register data, and the Briefportal Leibniz (web portal for letters).

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