Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

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I. Introduction: Louis XIV’s Gifts – Badges of Honor My Father notifies me that, at his latest audience, he has demanded the Privilege from the King, who has accorded it quickly enough, and if he [Constantijn Sr.] is not forced to leave too early I hope that he will be accelerating the certificate there. 1 Christiaan Huygens to Robert Moray – Oeuvres Complètes, Vol. V, No 1345 – March 6, 1665 It was on 15 February 1675 that Christiaan Huygens Jr. (Born The Hague, April 14, 1629, died July 8, 1695), the forty-five-year old natural philosopher who was one of the founders of the Royal French Académie des Sciences and its second highest paid member, at the height of his international fame, received a privilege for his horologium oscillatorum (a spring watch) at the hands of Louis XIV’s (1638 – 1715; effective reign 1661 – 1715 2 ) first minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619 – 1683). The privilege entailed a monopoly on the production and distribution of Christiaan Jr.’s horologium oscillatorum throughout the French Kingdom for a comfortable period of twenty years. It had taken exactly ten days for Huygens to procure this remarkable privilege. 3 Despite the astonishing swiftness of Colbert’s decision – for these requests could take months and involve bitter disputes between competing parties – the fact is not that surprising, considering Christiaan Jr.’s central position at the Académie, his loyalty to the crown, and the greatness of his reputation at the time. More striking, even, was the privilege that Christiaan Huygens Jr. had received from the same hands almost ten years before in 1665 for his pendulum clock. It is remarkable that Christiaan Huygens Jr., only six years after the publication of the work that introduced him to a Europe-wide intellectual and courtly public – Systema Saturnium (1659) – received such a token of the French King’s appreciation. Privileges for books were quite normal at that time, but patenting of scientific instruments – according to the available records – was a rather new phenomenon. Though a privilege was sometimes called a patent (named after the “letter patent,” the document that contained the privilege), it was something different than our 1 “Mon Pere me mande qu’il a demandè a sa derniere audience le Privilege au Roy, qui l’avait accordè aussi tost, et s’il n’est contraint trop tost a partir j’espere qu’il en sera expedier la depesche.” My translation. 2 With Louis XIII’s (born 1601) death in 1643 Louis XIV rose to the throne. However, he would not reign France effectively until the death of the prime minister, Cardinal Jules Mazarin (born 1602) in 1661. 3 BIAGIOLI, M. (2006a) From Print to Patents: Living on Instruments in Early Modern Europe. History of Science, 44, 139-213., p143 4
present-day patent (the monopoly on the production of the instrument). 4 A 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.” 5 By many, a privilege was appreciated more as a “badge[..] of honour.” 6 Christiaan Jr. was informed by a protégée of the French first minister Colbert that the King, “is again about to give you [Christiaan Jr.] a new mark of his esteem by the offering of the Privilege.” 7 The privilege, then, was a gift by the King (not a right that Christiaan Jr. had earned), by the acceptance of which Christiaan strengthened his ties to him – for it was not the first gift that Louis XIV bestowed to Christiaan Jr.. In 1663 Christiaan Huygens Jr. had already been included on a list of illustrious men – including the poets Jean Chapelain, Jean Racine, Nikolaas Heinsius, Pierre Corneille, and Molière, the savants Samuel Sorbière and Valentin Conrart and the men of the sciences Pierre de Carcavy, Gerardus Johannes Vossius and Johan Hevelius (see Appendix C) – to receive the considerable pension (also: regale) of 1200 livres. The stipend had been presented in the same manner: a gift from the King to Christiaan Jr. The King of France, represented by Colbert, drew the young Dutch-born mathematician-inventor closer to the French Court through increasing gifts; first the pension in 1663, then the privilege for Christiaan Jr.’s pendulum clock in 1665, and finally the membership of the Académie Royale des Sciences, under Colbert’s patronage. How did Christiaan Huygens Jr. become involved at the French Court? How did he manage to obtain such gifts from the French King, and how did he secure the high social position that was needed in order to acquire the King’s tutelage? Was there any role perhaps for his family in this socio-political process? 4 Ibid., p140. “Early modern tools for the protection of inventions, books, prints, and music were remarkably different from those provided by modern patent and copyright law. There was, in fact, no intellectual property rights doctrine in seventeenth-century Europe, only so-called privileges. (The term ‘patent’ comes from the letter patent on which the privilege was made public.) Legally defined as expressions of the sovereign’s will, privileges came in a wide range of shapes. But despite the different applications and administrative frameworks that shaped them in different countries, all privileges shared one feature: they provided monopolies.” 5 Ibid., p147 6 Ibid., p143 7 HUYGENS, C. (1888) Oeuvres complètes, La Haye, M. Nijhoff., after this: HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC. Vol. V, No. 1349 (March 10, 1665). Letter of the courtier Jean Chapelain (1595 – 1674) to Christiaan Jr.: “[le Roi] a si noblement preuenu de ses graces, et qui vient tout fraischement de vous donner vne marque nouuelle de son estime par la concession du Priuilege […].” 5
Page 1 and 2: Christiaan Huygens - A family affai
Page 3: Abstract Christiaan Huygens - A fam
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 and 32: Council of States (Raad van State)
Page 33 and 34: From Huygens’s defense it shows t
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
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knowledge of the natural sciences.
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Constantijn Sr. used in his writing
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make “dry” matter more interest
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emphasized by Erasmus and Castiglio
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the seemingly dominant position for
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prominent role in the rest of their
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within the Dutch aristocracy throug
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Importantly, Constantijn Sr. made s
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applications he would later give th
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Marquis de Chambonière, Vicquefort
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donated his books to many of his no
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Christiana presented his evidence o
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VI. Zulekoms at Court Three galas i
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the father’s plans for Christiaan
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It seems likely that the father sti
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the summer of 1655 - first to Paris
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laudatory verse of Constantijn Sr.
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and sharing them with his brothers.
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appearances. Widely available and m
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than its literary value, may explai
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VII. The Business of Instruments -
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at many points the whole family Huy
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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
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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
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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
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SLIVE, S. & REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON V
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Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

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