Historedia
No locationEvent

Posthumous publication of Newton's Method of Fluxions

When
1736
Where
Unspecified
Episodes
1

Isaac Newton's Method of Fluxions, completed in 1671 as the earliest written formulation of modern calculus, was posthumously published in 1736. This release occurred decades after Newton's death and followed the independent development of calculus by Gottfried Leibniz.

Episodes

  1. 1736 · UnspecifiedPosthumous Publication

    Newton's Method of Fluxions was formally published in 1736, following his death in 1727.

Background and detail

Background. Newton developed the method of fluxions at Woolsthorpe Manor between 1665 and 1667 during the closure of Cambridge caused by the Great Plague. The treatise, completed in 1671, served as the earliest written formulation of modern calculus, preceding Jacob Bernoulli's 1691 publication on the subject.

Publication. The work remained unpublished during Newton's lifetime. It was formally released posthumously in 1736, more than a decade after his death in 1727. This publication occurred after Gottfried Leibniz had independently developed his form of calculus around 1673, sparking a rivalry over priority.

People involved

Sources

  1. Method of Fluxions Wikipedia, revision of 2025-04-21
  2. Isaac Newton Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-26

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.