Geschichte des Kontinuumproblems or Notes on Fromondus’s Labyrinthus?

Abstract

In 1996, Manuel Luna Alcoba published a transcription of LH XXXVII, IV, 57 r°-58v°, a manuscript written by Leibniz after 1693 and containing historical and systematic reflections on the problem of the continuum. The present article shows that the manuscript, to which Luna Alcoba attributed the title “Geschichte des Kontinuumproblems,” consists mainly of excerpts from, paraphrases of, and comments on the Labyrinthus sive de compositione continui (1631), a book by the Louvain philosopher and theologian Libert Froidmont to which Leibniz often referred in his writings. By comparing LH XXXVII, IV, 57 r°-58v° with the Labyrinthus, I try to understand which parts of Fromondus’ book attracted Leibniz’ attention and why the latter, as late as 1693, still found it worth brooding over an Aristotelian treatise on the composition of the continuum.