Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

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He had always “ trotted” with great pace … when it has been a matter of obeying the honor of the commandments of a Lord and Master of whom I really want that it is known that I have not merely served a great Prince, but more a Father, and a Father of the Fatherland, I say from affection and duty. 93 In other words, Constantijn Sr. fulfilled Messer Federico’s desire in “Il Cortegiano”, that … in addition to making it evident at all times and to all persons that he is as worthy as we have said, I would have the [perfect] Courtier devote all his thought and strength of spirit to loving and almost adoring the Prince he serves above all else, devoting his every desire and habit and manner to pleasing him. 94 Huygens indicated that the prince’s recognition of Huygens’s love for and dutiful and complete affection to him had created such a powerful connection that it could and should not be broken by Amalia now that the prince had died and his son was not yet in power. Huygens’s strong outcry for recognition of his honor 95 and service and the restoration of the reciprocal trust-relationship with the House of Orange shows a proud, yet subservient Huygens, fighting to preserve his position as a princely “favorite” – feeling little for the dangerous spectacle of the “fall of the favorite.” 96 Eventually the storm blew over, as Willem II did restore the old relationship “clos[ing] the irons” with inherited love. 97 93 Ibid., Vol. IV, Lett. 4538 – Constantijn Sr. to Amalia (1647), p384. Italics added. “[sinon que, comme j’avoy un carosse à la main, en ces deux allées et venues je ne marchqy jamais qu’au grand trot, qui a tousiours esté mon pas,] quand il a esté question d’obeïr à l’honneur des commandemens d’un Seigneur et Maistre à qui je veulx bien qu’on sache que je n’ay pas seulement servi comme à un grand Prince, mais de plus comme à un Pere, et comme à un Pere de la Patrie, je dis d’affection et de debvoir.” My translation. Huygens on Frederik Hendrik as pater patriae and a second father in: HUYGENS, C. & BLOM, F. R. E. (2003) Mijn leven verteld aan mijn kinderen in twee boeken (De vita propria sermonum inter liberos), Amsterdam, Prometheus., p133. 94 CASTIGLIONE, B. & JAVITCH, D. (2002b) The book of the courtier: the Singleton translation: an authoritative text, criticism, New York, W.W. Norton., p80-1 95 Many Dutch historians of literature tend to project the picture of a quintessentially “Dutch” Huygens. One of many characteristics in which Huygens provides us with evidence to substantially relativize this categorization is his seeking for honor. As Temple stated in the late 1660s: “To conclude this Chapter: Holland is a Countrey where the Earth is better than the Air, and Profit more in request than Honour.” TEMPLE, W. (1972) Observations upon the United Provinces of The Netherlands, Oxford,, Clarendon Press., p97. 96 Constantijn was told by his friend de Wilhem after the first attack on the former’s position that: “Il vous suffist que Madame persiste avec ardeur en ceste bonne volonte et que Monseig.r le Prince Guillaume vous favorise en ce que vous jugez estre de vostre droit et honneur.” HUYGENS, C. (1911) BW., Vol. IV, Lett. 4401 – De Wilhem to Constantijn Sr. (1646). See: BIAGIOLI, M. (1993) Galileo, 32
From Huygens’s defense it shows that there was a certain issue that may have caused some jealousy with other courtiers. Constantijn Sr. wrote to Amalia that: [o]ne will find that I have gained some commodity [in the service of His Highness], but at the expense of my sight, and well below the level that many imagine it to be, who would find it hard to believe that much more often I have refused and sometimes given than received, and, at the least, they will never prove, that I have enriched myself either at the expense of H[is] H[ighness]’s glory or wallet, as many others do, who have not been chastised for it. 98 The “love” between the Stadholder and his secretary had not been purely platonic. As Castiglione had taught, the Courtier’s unconditional love for his prince would eventually result (in the case of a good prince) in well-deserved “favors” of the patron to the Courtier. Constantijn Sr.’s rebuttal could not disguise that his prince had been more than generous to him – a crucial element of the “unconditional” love. 99 ii. Seeing through linguistic fog Thus, language, however important, was only language. Though by Greenblatt’s standards “self-fashioning is always, though not exclusively, in language,” 100 in the end what made it such an interesting enterprise were the “real” effects it accomplished. Courtly language was directly intertwined with professional power, social prestige and material wealth for the courtier and his family, and, if they preferred, a possibility to do good for the public cause. “Sympathy” and “love” were terms with a much wider recollection of courtier : the practice of science in the culture of absolutism, Chicago, University of Chicago Press. chapter 7, on “fall of the favorite.” 97 HUYGENS, C. & BLOM, F. R. E. (2003) Mijn leven verteld aan mijn kinderen in twee boeken (De vita propria sermonum inter liberos), Amsterdam, Prometheus., p156-7. In fact, Huygens became Amalia’s and Willem III’s “Counsellor in ordinary and Treasurer, etc.:" ZUYLEN VAN NYEVELT, S. V. (1906) Court life in the Dutch Republic, 1638-1689, London, New York,, J. M. Dent & co.; E. P. Dutton & co., p154-55. 98 HUYGENS, C. & WORP, J. A. (1911) De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens, 1608-1687, 's- Gravenhage,, M. Nijhoff., Vol. 24, No. 4538, p386: “[o]n trouvera que j’y ay gaigné quelque commodité, mais à la sueur de mon visage, et bien au bas du point que plusieurs l’imaginent, qui auroyent bien de la peine à croire que j’en ay souvent plus refusé et parfois donné que receu, et, pour le moins, ne prouveront jamais, que je me soye enrichi aux despens ny de la gloire, ny de la boursse de S. A., comme font bien d’autres, qui n’en sont pas chastiez.” 99 CASTIGLIONE, B. & JAVITCH, D. (2002b) The book of the courtier: the Singleton translation: an authoritative text, criticism, New York, W.W. Norton., p80-1, 83 100 GREENBLATT, S. (2005) Renaissance self-fashioning : from More to Shakespeare, Chicago, University of Chicago Press., p9 33
Page 1 and 2: Christiaan Huygens - A family affai
Page 3 and 4: Abstract Christiaan Huygens - A fam
Page 5 and 6: present-day patent (the monopoly on
Page 7 and 8: Court, Constantijn Sr. requested th
Page 9 and 10: court, diplomacy and natural philos
Page 11 and 12: II. A “Grand Tour” de Force in
Page 13 and 14: opportunity to see the world, learn
Page 15 and 16: A same strategic use of his musical
Page 17 and 18: Constantijn’s objective - putting
Page 19 and 20: authorities out- and inside the Rep
Page 21 and 22: Barendrecht argues, the foreign min
Page 23 and 24: Constantijn Sr. may have encountere
Page 25 and 26: patronage of different ambassadors
Page 27 and 28: could be employed in that context v
Page 29 and 30: involved social and material benefi
Page 31: Council of States (Raad van State)
Page 35 and 36: “honesty”), thus inviting the r
Page 37 and 38: this constituted but a relative sma
Page 39 and 40: 1627 to approximately f 300.000 in
Page 41 and 42: Orange - which itself in turn showe
Page 43 and 44: correspondence with and poems for h
Page 45 and 46: advice to the Stadholder. 139 This
Page 47 and 48: Post) by its natural inclusion in t
Page 49 and 50: Amongst the highest of the bourgeoi
Page 51 and 52: In many ways, Constantijn Sr. was p
Page 53 and 54: and England refused the diplomatic
Page 55 and 56: knowledge of the natural sciences.
Page 57 and 58: Constantijn Sr. used in his writing
Page 59 and 60: make “dry” matter more interest
Page 61 and 62: emphasized by Erasmus and Castiglio
Page 63 and 64: the seemingly dominant position for
Page 65 and 66: prominent role in the rest of their
Page 67 and 68: within the Dutch aristocracy throug
Page 69 and 70: Importantly, Constantijn Sr. made s
Page 71 and 72: applications he would later give th
Page 73 and 74: Marquis de Chambonière, Vicquefort
Page 75 and 76: donated his books to many of his no
Page 77 and 78: Christiana presented his evidence o
Page 79 and 80: VI. Zulekoms at Court Three galas i
Page 81 and 82: the father’s plans for Christiaan
Page 83 and 84:
It seems likely that the father sti
Page 85 and 86:
the summer of 1655 - first to Paris
Page 87 and 88:
laudatory verse of Constantijn Sr.
Page 89 and 90:
and sharing them with his brothers.
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appearances. Widely available and m
Page 93 and 94:
than its literary value, may explai
Page 95 and 96:
VII. The Business of Instruments -
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at many points the whole family Huy
Page 99 and 100:
ii. Making and distributing instrum
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England in November 1658 346 and wa
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clocks. 357 Generally, the role of
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moment for these events. 363 As Huy
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the Zulichems, Father and Son: all
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from a repentant Petit himself, he
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VIII. Patronage and its Privileges
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You have acted wisely by not awaiti
Page 115 and 116:
texts and inventions did vary a gre
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getting a privilege with the French
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operation” of Constantijn Sr. and
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observations. It is not true that C
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Appendix A The following list of bo
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Appendix B The following list of bo
Page 127 and 128:
Folios - imprints of palaces, garde
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dans l’histoire………………
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BRUGMANS, H. L. & HUYGENS, C. (1935
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KAISER, F. (1846) Iets over de kijk
Page 135:
SLIVE, S. & REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON V
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Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

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