[r00tanon]

In Newton's case, even if there were hints in existing literature available to him at the time of concepts like limit and derivative, which is arguable, he would still have had to connect all the dots and create a workable new mathematics largely on his own, which he did. What's also clear through the examples in his Principia, he was using his Calculus to solve problems no one had solved before.

So, no downvote here, but what's the point? Even if someone had previously invented the Calculus at some point in ancient history, they didn't do anything noteworthy with it, and/or, some catastrophe erased the evidence of their work. Does this in any way diminish Newton's invention?

[wrycoder]

I'll just let Newton and Leibniz argue it out. And I'll go re-read Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy.