I'm a massive fan of James Gleick and really enjoyed his biography of Isaac Newton, though it's a fair few years since I read it.<p>Recently I've been interested in the influence of Leibniz, particularly as I'm working with calculus so much more than I used to!<p>Does anyone know of an authoritative or at least engaging biography of this "last universal genius" (as the wikipedia article puts it, quoting an online article)?<p>I'm a big fan of reading offline when I can so am looking for a book, rather than lots of online materials. ;)<p>Thanks HN (figured this would be the best place to ask...)