Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

(Foreign Affairs), long-time prime-minister of the King, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and, of course,
Louis XIV the King himself.
ii. Using and profiting from international communication-networks
But more than just a huge aggregate of renowned people, Christiaan Jr.’s father
provided important channels of communication. He formed the direct entry to the
communication-network of the Oranges, and he had comprehensive knowledge of and access
to the important other national and international diplomatic and academic webs of
communication (a). Secondly (b), he was an incomparable source of information as how to use
communication and both preserve and enhance its systems. Constantijn Sr.’s many year of
experience with diplomatic networks and the nuances of courtly and political communication
made him very well suited as both a patron for and secretary to his son. Thirdly (c),
Constantijn Sr. knew his way with publishing books – be it in his case mostly poetry – and he
could provide his son with essential support in the tactic of publication.
a. To start with, Constantijn Huygens Sr. had no problems using the princely
“communication-services” for purposes not directly connected to the House of Orange. One of
the reasons that Descartes appreciated the intimate friendship with Constantijn Sr. lay in
Huygens’s active role in sending letters and books all over Europe, to Mersenne and other
philosophers and intellectuals. 226 Huygens would be an intermediary correspondent (a
secretary, in a way) for many others too, sometimes also during controversies. 227 Thus,
challenges became less direct, and a third, independent party could oversee the politeness of
discussion and make sure that the controversy was made public (by circulating copies).
Mediating such debates was advantageous for Constantijn Sr.: he learned a lot from the matter
at hand (including the latest developments) while contributing to the virtual “Republic of
Letters,” it was a means of increasing his network and of being publicly associated with
important discussions and people, and, if nothing else, it was interesting.
Father Huygens’s centrality in the postal network of the Oranges offered Christiaan
Jr. means to reach out over intellectual and courtly Europe, efficiently and inexpensively.
226 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., p375-81. There were more ways in which Huygens helped Descartes: counseling
him with the publication of the Discours de la Methode and correcting the print examples. HUYGENS, C.
(1911) BW., Vol. V, xiii-xiv
227 WALKER, D. P. (1976) Joan Albert Ban and Mersenne's Musical Competition of 1640. Music &
Letters, 57, 233-55. Constantijn Sr. mediated during several other controversies.
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