The play treats the historical controversy between Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von Leibniz over the development of the infinitesimal calculus. Its author, Carl Djerassi, tells the story through entertaining dialogues between contemporary witnesses of the Leibniz-Newton conflict. By engaging with the historical controversy, he raises questions that are still valid today: What is inventorship? What does it mean to be an inventor? How do scientists behave towards each other?

It is the year 1710. Sir Isaac Newton accuses Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von Leibniz of plagiarism. A heated quarrel breaks out over who is the inventor of the infinitesimal calculus, resulting in one of the greatest scandals in the history of science. The scene of the quarrel is the London-based Royal Society, an assembly of the most renowned scientists of their day. But the members of the Royal Society in London become powerless spectators, skillfully manipulated by Newton.

The staged reading will be followed by a discussion with Carl Djerassi, Eberhard Heinrich Knobloch and Jürgen Mittelstraß.