Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

Abstract
Christiaan Huygens – A family affair. Fashioning a family in early-modern court-culture.
The name and work of both Christiaan Huygens Jr. and his father Constantijn
Huygens Sr. are well established: the first in the history of science and the second in Dutch
poetry and the history of art and music. These distinct historical disciplines have rendered
Constantijn Sr. and Christiaan Jr. “incommensurable:” Christiaan Jr. is made the “pure”
scientist, secluded and brilliant; Constantijn Sr. the quintessential Dutch poet and, in his spare
time, secretary to the Stadholder. Present-day categorical niches rather than facts nourish
these incongruent images, and they create an unnecessary tension between the worlds and
works of these men.
In a more social historical approach I suggest a synthesis of this seeming tension. The
Huygens family pursued upward social mobility in the competitive layers of aristocratic society
in seventeenth-century Holland. Christiaan Jr.’s scientific accomplishments turned out to fit
Constantijn Sr.’s social ambitions very well – first enabling Christiaan Jr. to attain a high
diplomatic position, and eventually to obtain the highly privileged place at the French Court as
a member of the Parisian Académie des Sciences. Constantijn Sr. helped Christiaan Jr. in many
ways: Constantijn Sr. gave him an education fit for a courtier, encouraged Christiaan Jr. to
frequent aristocratic courts, offered him his diplomatic and courtly contacts and network for
the dissemination of his name and work, and Constantijn Sr. used his own diplomatic influence
to get his son high patrons and important privileges (patents). Also, the whole family worked
as a team in the business of instrument making and showing. In many ways, Christiaan
Huygens Jr.’s scientific work was a family affair.
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