Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

within the Dutch aristocracy through their shared membership and participation in l’Ordre de
l’Union de la Joye contacts that reached in the highest echelons of Dutch aristocracy. 219
When Constantijn Sr. came to understand Christiaan’s unusual talent for mathematical
and natural philosophical matters, he made some nonchalant remarks on this in his
correspondence with Marin Mersenne, leading to a challenging correspondence between
Christiaan and the reverend. 220 Mersenne, like Constantijn Sr. a node in an international
network of intellectuals and courtiers, was quick to recognize Christiaan’s exceptional talent
(he warned Constantijn Sr. that Christiaan might surpass Archimedes if he continued his work
in this direction 221 ) and he was instrumental in spreading Christiaan’s name via his net of
contacts. Constantijn Sr. was also instrumental in showing people of significance Christiaan’s
accomplishments as he still is a young man – for instance Princess Elizabeth Palatine, the
secretary J. J. Stöckar of city of Schaffhausen and J. Ph. Von Schönborn, 222 to whom he sent
Christiaan’s books and promises to keep informed. 223
A wide range of other people who in some way or another had been in previous
contact or acquainted with Constantijn Sr. would fill Christiaan’s list of illustrious
correspondents – and, to a greater or lesser extent, friends. Of the French intellectual-courtly
Montmor-group 224 that had formed an Académie since 1657 and met on Tuesdays in the hôtels of
its members, 225 several members had been in contact with Constantijn Sr. before. Amongst the
many others whom Constantijn Sr. had been in some form of contact with before his son did
were three rather significant men at the court in Versailles: ministère Hugues de Lionne
219 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., p185-6. On l’Ordre de l’Union de la Joye more below, see
Chapter VI. On obtaining privileges, see Chapter VIII.
220 See Chapter V, iv. Changing tactics.
221 HUYGENS, C. (1911) BW., Vol. IV, No 4510 – Mersenne to Constantijn Sr. (Winter 1646)
222 MATTHEY, I. (1973) De Betekenis van de Natuur en de Natuurwetenschappen voor Constantijn
Huygens. IN BOTS, H. (Ed.) Constantijn Huygens. Zijn plaats in geleerd Europa. Amsterdam, University
Press Amsterdam., p384; HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. I, No. 210 – Constantijn Sr. to Princess
Palatine (Dec. 25, 1654)
223 In HUYGENS, C. (1911) BW., Vol. V, No. 5592 – Constantijn Sr. to the King of England (Oct. 14,
1658), Constantijn Sr. offers the King Christiaan’s telescope. In HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. IV,
No. 996 (Mar. 15, 1662) Christiaan tells his brother Lodewijk that he has also donated a telescope to the
Elector and will be offering one to the Louvre (or rather, he does the distinguished guess that his
telescope will be “confiscated”!). Constantijn Sr., as we will see, was Christiaan’s main contact with the
highest offices at the Louvre, so it seems safe to assume that the father offered the telescope to the
French King, and, in the same manner, to the Brandenburger noble – though it is unclear exactly when.
224 SHAPIN, S. & SCHAFFER, S. (1985) Leviathan and the air-pump : Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental
life : including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris by Simon Schaffer, Princeton,
N.J., Princeton University Press., p229, 265
225 HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. V, No. 1260 – P. Petit to Christiaan (17 Oct. 1664)
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