Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

texts and inventions did vary a great deal across early modern Europe [they] shared a key
common denominator: privileges and payments to inventors were gifts, not rights.” 406 In
Mario Biagioli’s words, the privilege could entail a patent, “but also other benefits like the
authorization to set up business in a certain place, the granting of honorific titles, pensions,
cash awards, free housing, capital investments in the invention, the permission to immigrate
and assume citizenship, or the exemption from taxes, militia duty, and guilds regulations.” 407
The intimate bond between patronage and privilege entailed a requirement for ambitious
inventors to participate actively in the higher social layers – though the threshold was high, the
reward could supersede it.
Christiaan Huygens Jr. was not different from others in pursuing profitable
patronage-relationships and privileges for his inventions – though he was much more
successful in his endeavors than most. While Christiaan Jr.’s main efforts in obtaining
privileges for his pendulum clocks were directed at the courts of Paris, London and at the
Dutch States General, he speculated on getting privileges or recompenses for his invention in
Spain, Denmark and Sweden, countries where he knew “people that I will be able to
employ.” 408
The process of seeking for privileges for his inventions was one of speculation, a
constant weighing of his possibilities, contacts and social position. “The right time” to ask for a
privilege was dependent on a complex of sometimes-conflicting elements: the need for
technical superiority and novelty of his instrument, the desire to have primacy and priority, the
strength of his patronage and the occurrence of an favorable opportunity to ask for the
privilege. On the one hand, Christiaan wanted to make sure that his pendulum clocks were as
accurate as possible, “wanting to be sure about my statement before making noise about it.” 409
On the other hand, he had to make an assessment of the strategic situation: did he have
enough high contacts to realize the privilege and would it give him more advantage than just
(financial) recompense?
During his consecutive stays in Paris, London and The Hague, he laid contact with
and obtained the patronage of important people, not just in order to obtain privileges at these
406
BIAGIOLI, M. (2006a) From Print to Patents: Living on Instruments in Early Modern Europe.
History of Science, 44, 139-213., p147
407
Ibid., p147. See quote above in Introduction.
408
In a letter to Moray, Christiaan wrote: “Pour l’Espagne, le Danemarc et la Suede je scay des gens que
j’y pourray emploier.” HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. IV, No. 1165 (Nov. 11, 1663). His most
important contact for the court of Spain was Thevenot: Vol. IV, No. 1116 (May 25, 1663)
409
Ibid., Vol. V, No. 1266 (Oct. 31, 1664): “Je differe tousjours et trop peut estre a la demander,
voulant estre seur de mon fait devant qu’en faire du bruit.”
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