Saxony (pp 430–449)

Leaving Leipzig in April 1684, Jack and Eliza join the entourage of a brilliant polymath as he travels through the industrial and mystical landscapes of the German states.

“Saxony” — A powerful electorate within the Holy Roman Empire, Saxony was a center of the Protestant Reformation and famous for the immense mineral wealth of its mountains.

“a stop at the Nicolaikirche so that the Doctor could make devotions” — St. Nicholas Church is one of the primary churches of Leipzig; it later became the starting point for the 1989 “Peaceful Revolution” that helped topple the Berlin Wall.

“noble lady named Sophie” — Sophia of the Palatinate, Electress of Hanover, was a formidable intellectual and the primary patron of Leibniz. She is the crucial link in the Hanoverian succession to the British throne.

“Catholic vs. Lutheran views on transubstantiation” — Transubstantiation was a central theological flashpoint of the era, debating whether the Eucharist literally or symbolically becomes the body of Christ.

“A skeptical Jesuit?” — The Jesuits were a Catholic order renowned for their rigorous scientific and linguistic education, often serving as influential (and controversial) advisors in European courts.

“It is a mathematical technique so advanced that only two people in the world understand it” — The “Doctor” is referring to the Calculus Priority Dispute. In 1684, Leibniz published Nova Methodus, the first public exposition of his system of calculus.

“the other fellow invented it ten years before I did” — The “other fellow” is Isaac Newton, who had developed his own version of calculus (fluxions) in the mid-1660s but refused to publish it, leading to decades of bitter intellectual warfare.

“persuade the Emperor in Vienna to establish a grand library and academy” — Leibniz spent his career lobbying Leopold I and other monarchs to create centralized scientific academies to organize all human knowledge into a single system.

“the daughter of the Winter Queen herself” — This refers to Elizabeth Stuart, whose brief reign in Bohemia sparked the Thirty Years’ War. Her daughter, Sophia, inherited her mother’s intellectual curiosity.

“belong to the same Society” — A reference to the Royal Society of London, the premier scientific institution of the age, which granted Leibniz membership in 1673.

“booksellers at the Leipzig and Frankfurt fairs” — The Leipzig and Frankfurt Book Fairs were the most important trade events in Europe; Leibniz used their catalogs as a basis for his theories on universal bibliography.

“part library, part academy, part machine” — Leibniz was a pioneer of Computing Machines, having built the “Stepped Reckoner” calculator and theorized a “calculus ratiocinator” that could solve logical arguments through math.

“they are about picaroons—that means a sort of rogue or scoundrel” — The Picaresque novel was a popular genre featuring low-born adventurers living by their wits; the Doctor notes that Jack and Eliza are living out a real-world version of these stories.

“Kuxen, in this case?” — Kuxen were specific shares in German mining operations, representing an early form of joint-stock investment in heavy industry.

“rid themselves of the yellow bile” — According to the medical theory of Humorism, an excess of yellow bile caused a “choleric” or angry temperament.

“laden with saltpeter from India, others with brimstone” — Saltpeter and Brimstone (sulfur) are two of the three essential ingredients for gunpowder, making them the most strategic commodities of the 17th century.

“Sophie’s daughter, Sophie Charlotte, was fixing to marry the Elector of Brandenburg” — Sophia Charlotte would become the first Queen in Prussia; she was a brilliant philosopher in her own right and a student of Leibniz.

“the French Pox” — A common euphemism for Syphilis. In the 17th century, nations almost always named the disease after their nearest military or political rivals.

“dividend does to a joint stock corporation” — The Joint-Stock Company was a revolutionary financial structure that allowed investors to pool capital for high-risk overseas trade.

“Joachimsthal” — A famous mining town in Bohemia, Joachimsthal produced the silver for “Joachimsthalers,” the coins from which the word “dollar” eventually derived.

“gunpowder-mills. Here… charcoal.” — Gunpowder Manufacture was a massive industrial undertaking. Charcoal was ground in water-powered mills and mixed with sulfur and saltpeter—a process so volatile that mills frequently exploded.

“it was clear that Harz was a rock” — The Harz Mountains were the industrial heart of northern Germany, famous for deep-shaft mining and legends of witchcraft.

“Their lights were called kienspans” — A Kienspan is a traditional lighting splinter made of resinous “fatwood” from pine trees, used by miners as a cheap alternative to candles.

“The Doctor told him that the pieces of ox-hide were called arsch-leders” — Stephenson’s annotation: ‘Once you know that “arsch-leders” translates as “leather ass”… it really is pretty self-explanatory. This is nothing much more than a piece of tough leather apron (worn backwards) to protect one’s bottom while working in mines.’

“There are shells scattered upon the mountains! … This creature must’ve been buried in mud” — This reflects the birth of Early Paleontology. Leibniz was among the first to argue that fossils were biological remains rather than “jokes of nature” or stones that grew in the earth.

“a curious windmill, spinning round sideways like a top” — Leibniz spent years trying to perfect a Vertical Axis Windmill to power pumps in the Harz mines, though the project was a costly engineering failure.

“how easy would it be to slip a sabot off one’s foot and ‘accidentally’ let it fall into the gears” — While the etymology of Sabotage is often linked to the 19th-century use of wooden shoes (sabots) to wreck machinery, the concept of industrial disruption was already present in the 1600s.

“foul-smelling steam was gushing from the mouths of iron tubs… It smelled like urine” — This describes the Discovery of Phosphorus in 1669 by Hennig Brand, who discovered the glowing element by boiling down thousands of liters of human urine.

“where a letter V had been branded years ago, in the Old Bailey” — The Old Bailey was London’s central criminal court. Branding felons with a “V” for Vagabond or “T” for Tyburn was a standard legal punishment to ensure repeat offenders were recognized.

“vertical post fixed in the ground and half buried in a pile of faggots… the witch was about to be killed” — Witch trials remained a horrific reality in the German states long after they had faded in England; the Harz region was particularly associated with these persecutions.

“going at her feet and legs with the old wedges-and-sledgehammers trick” — This refers to The Boot, a torture device where iron or wooden plates were tightened around the legs and shattered the bones with wedges driven by a mallet.

“passed the loose end of the rope around her neck… strangling the woman probably within seconds” — Garrotting was often performed by executioners as an act of “mercy” to kill the victim before the flames of the stake reached them.

Original annotations by: bornstein, weichert, professorbikeybike