Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

something we will see in their making of instruments also, should to an important degree be
regarded as fruits of the father’s efforts.
As the previous chapter has shown, Christiaan and his brother learned to speak and
behave in a courteous, civilized way according to the best standards of the time. During their
upbringing – which, I think, did not effectively stop when they left university – special
attention was given to the skill of writing letters. The boys were pushed to write their letters in
French and Latin – the first the language of nobility and the second that of intellectual and
philosophical discourse – and were pushed from an early age on to address each other by their
proper titles and with courteous introduction and closing. Christiaan’s early letters to
Constantijn Jr. were addressed: “To Monsieur Monsieur of Zeelhem in The Hague” or, for a
while, “Monsieur Monsieur Huygens, Secretary of H[is] H[ighness] of Orange.” They closed
with “Your [Votre] very-affectionate brother and servant Chr. Huygens” 231 and “vous” was
used throughout all letters according to the conventions of the nobility. The twenty-year old
Christiaan, on behalf of their father, was reproached by Constantijn Jr. when he wrote his
father and brother too infrequently. Later on, in a letter written two days before Christiaan’s
birthday, Constantijn Jr. stated that “[m]y father, who has a very particular care that we
continue our correspondence” would like to see his sons increase the frequency of their
correspondence – an indication that their father kept following their correspondence until at
least the early 1650s. 232
This fatherly investment in his sons’ correspondence proved to be important –
Christiaan’s correspondence with many mathematicians and courtiers from his day was read
by a critical public that requested civilité and courteoisie. 233 This concern can be seen, for
instance, in a comment of Valentin Conrart (1603 – 1675) on Christiaan’s letters in 1661:
Christiaan is not civil enough in his descriptions of “divertissements” – a concern that is
countered by Constantijn with a polite request to Conrart to “ascribe the trace of incivility in
matters of writing, to the most sublime thoughts, which render him [Christiaan] negligent in
everything that is lower than there where they [the thoughts] are.” His father also expressed
hope that Christiaan’s small lack of civility in these matters would be made up for by the useful
231 “A Monsieur Monsieur de Zeelhem à la Haye;” “Monsieur Monsieur Secretaire de S. Altesse
d’Orange,” and “Votre tres-affectionne frere et serviteur Chr. Huygens.” For instance: Ibid., Vol. I, No
72, 73, 229 (Jul. 23, 1655)
232 Ibid., Vol. I, 55: “[m]on pere, qui a un soin tresparticulier de faire continuer nostre correspondence.”
233 Cf. ROODENBURG, H. (1997) How to Sit, Stand, and Walk. Toward a Historical Anthropology
of Dutch Paintings and Prints. IN FRANITS, W. E. (Ed.) Looking at seventeenth-century Dutch art : realism
reconsidered. Cambridge [England] ; New York, Cambridge University Press., p177 on courteoisie and
civilité.
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