The paper addresses the first phase in the reception of Leibniz’s Monadology, starting with Johann Christoph Gottsched’s dissertation of 1721, until the publication of the essays presented for the prize question on monads proposed by the Berlin Academy of Sciences 25 years later. A critical edition of Gottsched’s “Dubia circa monades Leibnitianas quatenus ipsae pro elementis corporum venditantur” is added as an appendix.