Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

knowledge of the natural sciences. True as this generally may be (though probably untrue for
optics as will be seen in Chapter VII), it has however caused many historians to belittle
automatically his possible stimulating influences on his son’s work or that of others. 178 It seems
to me that this view is no longer accurate: there is more in history that has constituted “the
sciences” than merely brilliant, purely scientific thoughts. In many ways, Constantijn Sr. seems
to have been Christiaan’s publicity-agent, his negotiator and his patron or powerbroker, and
together with Christiaan’s brothers, he was a non-negligible factor in the establishment of his
son’s work.
This part will start out with the most obvious way in which Constantijn Sr. gave direction to
the life and endeavors of his second oldest son, Christiaan Jr. – that is: the education he gave
to Christiaan Jr. and his brothers.
178 Andriesse, for one, dismisses him as a “propagandist” who did not participate, choosing a role as
“witness” rather than “judge or patron.” Ibid., p55-6
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