I recently came across an interesting interview in Quanta magazine with David E. Dunning, a historian of mathematics. In it, John Pavlus and Dunning discuss the relevance of notation in mathematical writing and how it has led to the evolution of ideas. One of the pictures that caught my attention was an image of Leibniz’s handwritten paper on calculus, as seen below.
Dunning mentions how mathematical symbolism in calculus led to the spread of some of the notations that we are familiar with today (such as dy/dx), and contrasts the methods of Newton and Leibniz. He mentions that “Newton understood his calculus to be much more rooted in geometry than Leibniz did.” Whereas “Leibniz wanted a much more algebraic, symbolic, notation-focused calculus.”
There is also a pertinent discussion related to numerals (Hindu-Arabic vis-à-vis Roman variety). Overall, a good read if you are interested in the history of science/mathematics.
Reference:
Pavlus, John. ‘How Writing Changes Mathematical Thought’. Quanta Magazine, 25 March 2026. https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-writing-changes-mathematical-thought-20260325/.