Friedrich Wilhelm Bierling (1676–1728) was a professor at the University of Rinteln, a little West of Hanover. He had a high reputation as a scholar, and he initiated a correspondence with Leibniz in order to pick his brains. He sent Leibniz a book he had written on a proposed syllabus for a universal education, and Leibniz replied with some detailed comments. I have included just a couple of sentences from Leibniz’s letter of 7.7.1711, since they are profoundly revealing of his attitude towards Pythagoras.

What he says is also a good joke. In antiquity, a hecatomb (a sacrifice of a hundred oxen) was a standard way of celebrating a major public event. But Pythagoras was a vegetarian, since he believed in the transmigration of souls, which meant that you might find yourself eating your ancestors.

The correspondence was in Latin, and I have translated from the edition by Gerhardt in Philosophischen Schriften, Vol. 7.

Go to the Index to Leibniz’s correspondence with Bierling