When leibniz arrived in Paris at the end of March 1672, the French capital was the most sophisticated and advanced centre of European culture. As part of the splendour and power of Louis XIV's monarchy, the French scientific, philosophical, and learned community counted many of the most prominent savants of the time. The young German, who had come to Paris with grandiose plans embracing the reform and advancement of the entire encyclopaedia of sciences for the improvement of the human condition, felt more than a little overwhelmed. As one might expect, it was the blossoming scientific and learned Parisian life and its innovative infrastructure that made the most powerful impression on Leibniz. In a report of 20 December 1672 to Johann Philipp von Schönborn he wrote with undisguised admiration,