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Apart from his doctoral thesis in law and the commissioned work on the history of the House of Welf, Leibniz published almost exclusively under his name during his lifetime contributions in learned journals. He became, therefore, a renowned mathematician and philosopher for his articles in scholarly periodicals. Scholarly journals were a new literary genre, founded in 1665 with the publication of the Journal desSçavans in Paris and two months later of the PhilosophicalTransactions in London. The Journal des Sçavans, which became a standard reference, distinguished two categories of articles: reviews of new books (always published anonymously) and scholarly news (original contributions, reports about scientific discoveries and projects, as well as news from scholars and scholarly institutions). By using in particular digitised periodicals and databases, I have been able to identify 192 scholarly news and 100 book reviews written by Leibniz. Leibniz did not use journals only for reputation considerations, but also for scientific and methodical purposes. He conceived book reviews as milestones in a dynamic history of the sciences (historia literaria). His scholarly news relied on a conception of the scientific method as an open process, which allowed reactions and corrections by addressees and readers. This is the context in which scientific discussions were held.
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