Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

Scientific correspondence was essential; more than publications, letters were what journals are
in our present day. One can see Christiaan’s preference for the “letter-publication” (and the
first signs of the transition from letter to journal) by his many contributions to the brand-new
Journal des Sçavants from its inception in 1665 onwards. It was Constantijn Sr. who informed
Christiaan about its commencement 249 and who gave the Journal Christiaan’s first international
publication in five years: “Extrait d’une letter du 26 février à Const. Huygens père,” about the
“sympathie des horloges.” 250
In courtly surroundings, moreover, scientific books often seemed to function as a
“closure” of an ongoing or even earlier debate, rather than the standard means of innovation.
For instance, Galileo’s publication “Il Saggiatore” formed the closure of an ongoing debate at
the court in Florence; 251 and, as Pierre Petit wrote to Christiaan in January 1665, he had
written his treatise “On the Nature of Comets” 252 “for the Court & the ladies more than for
Mathematics.” 253 One can clearly distinguish the book publication as a means of social visibility
here, a way of self-fashioning.
Christiaan was confronted with the importance of integrating laudatory poems into
one’s scientific work when he was asked by his sick father to edit his new collection of poems,
“Cornflowers” (see Chapter IV, section iii). On his father’s instigation Christiaan arranged the
contributions of a range of important poets as prefaces to Constantijn Sr.’s bundle. When
Christiaan published his “Horologium Oscillatorium” in 1673 he had a long introductory poem
added from Hadrianus van der Wall, a Dutch poet for which he had started the “negotiations”
with the poet in 1665 already. 254 If Christiaan could learn one thing from his father about
publishing books, it was that it was important whom you gave them to. Constantijn Sr.
249 HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. V, 1311 – Christiaan to Moray (Jan. 16, 1665): “Mon Pere
m’envoie par sa derniere le premier eschantillon d’une nouuelle gazette Française qu’on appelle le
Journal des Scavants. Elle seroit pour faire scavoir toutes les semaines les Livres nouueaux
considerables qui se mettent au jour, et le sommaire de leur contenu. Les nouuelles decouuertes en
physique et Inventions de Mechanique, decisions celebres des Tribuneaux seculiers et Ecclesiastiques,
et en fin tout ce qui se passe dans l’Europe, digne de la curiositè des gens de lettres. Il me semble que le
dessein est tres bon et utile et pourveu qu’il ne soit point gastè par la faute de ceux qui l’entreprennent
j’en espere le succes”.
250 Ibid., Vol. XXII, p376-81
251 BIAGIOLI, M. (1993) Galileo, courtier : the practice of science in the culture of absolutism, Chicago,
University of Chicago Press., chapter 5.
252 Dissertation svr la Natvre des Cometes. Av Roy. Auec vn Discovrs sur les Prognostiques des
Eclipses & autres Matieres curieuses. Par P. Petit, Intendant es Fortifications, &c A Paris, chez Thomas
Jolly, Libraire Juré, au Palais, en la Salle des Merciers à la Palme, & aux Armes d’Hollande.
M.DC.LXV. Avec Privilege du Roy. In-4°
253 HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. V, No. 1316 (Jan. 23, 1665)
254 Ibid., Vol. V, No. 1366-8 (March 1665)
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