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It is difficult to frame Leibniz's treatment of imagination in his broader gnoseological theory. On the one hand, some of his texts seem to relate imagination with a poor display of cognitive faculties; on the other hand, there is textual evidence that the imagination plays a major role on his gnoseological theory, as presented in the New Essays. The aim of this paper is to analyze this role in connection with Leibniz's theory of expression and apperception. To do so, I will present first a brief outline of these two latter notions; second, I will relate them to the concept of imagination. Finally, I will give some guidelines to explain the apparent contradictions in Leibniz's writings on imagination, in order to show its epistemological role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]