How did Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz use the term combinatorial in mathematics?

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz first used the term "combinatorial" in the modern mathematical sense in his 1666 work, Dissertatio de Arte Combinatoria ("Dissertation Concerning the Combinational Arts").1

In this text, Leibniz explored the goal of discovering truths by methodically combining concepts into judgments and assessing their validity. This approach was influenced by the program of the philosopher Ramon Llull, which sought to exhaustively combine concepts to reach logical conclusions.2

Leibniz envisioned that this new discipline would have applications across the entire range of sciences. His work in this area laid the foundation for his broader logical research, including his pursuit of a "calculus of reason" (calculus ratiocinator) and a "universally characteristic language" (lingua characteristica universalis), which aimed to make reasoning mechanical and algorithmic. While his specific combinatorial methods were part of his early philosophical and logical program, they established the terminology that would eventually be developed into a formal branch of mathematics by later figures such as Leonhard Euler.12