<P> The calculus controversy ( often referred to with the German term Prioritätsstreit , meaning `` priority dispute '' ) was an argument between 17th - century mathematicians Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz ( begun or fomented in part by their disciples and associates ) over who had first invented the mathematical study of change , calculus . It is a question that had been the cause of a major intellectual controversy , one that began simmering in 1699 and broke out in full force in 1711 . </P>
who were the two mathematicians that invented calculus
Isaac Newton Gottfried Leibniz