Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

appearances. Widely available and much-read literature on these subjects filled several rows in
Christiaan’s bookcase, showing his close awareness to these matters – and on several points in
his correspondence the importance of this attention for his career shows.
If the “Grand Tour” helped the young men in anything, it was in the understanding
that other cultures embraced other ways of dressing and rules of comportment and behavior.
The brothers were concerned with the fashion at court – clothing at the French Court
according to Christiaan was neither “assured nor universal,” one needed to stay in tune with
the latest mode: which was, for example, primarily gray in the winter of 1660. 310 In specific,
wigs became a topic of discussion in the brothers’ correspondence from 1650 onwards, and
were a recurring theme throughout the years that one or more of the brothers resided in the
direct vicinity of a court – Versailles especially. Apparently, these expensive hairpieces
(between forty and sixty livres – paid for by their father) were too important to be left to their
assistants, for in many letters they were discussed at length – their making, costs and quality
(they needed to be “frisée naturallement,” “naturally curled”) – the same letters in which,
scientifically speaking, other much more interesting subjects were treated. 311 Christiaan also
was very conscious about the required gestures – while Christiaan was in The Hague he urged
his brother Lodewijk in Paris never to forget to kiss the hands of Chapelain, “that good
soul.” 312
According to courtly standards, both in conversation and correspondence, parties had
to address each other in all formality and civility until one party – usually the socially higher-
ranked – offered to drop the formal tone and converse “normally.” Right after his stay in
London in 1661, Christiaan wrote to Moray that their friendship and love was such, that all
civilités could be dropped (so that they could speak as intimate friends). 313 In December 1660,
while Christiaan was in Paris, Constantijn Sr. wrote to Louis XIV’s First Knight, de
Beringhen, that:
310 Ibid., Vol. III, No. 801 (Nov. 5, 1660)
311 The focus on these scientific subjects, to all probability, has been the reason that these other elements
often have been overlooked. Ibid., Vol. I, No. 70 (Jan. 17, 1650) – Christiaan thought his brother
Constantijn had grown a lot in importance now that he wore a wig. Christiaan gets several requests
from his brother Constantijn to have a wig made: HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. IV, No. 1118 (May
30, 1663), Vol. V, No. 1198 (Jan. 3, 1664). On the need that the wigs be “naturellement frisées” (curled
naturally): HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. IV, 1118 (May 30, 1663), 1149 (Sept. 20, 1663), 1153
(Oct. 12, 1663), 1155 (Oct. 19, 1663). 1155: Christiaan has an extra one made for himself. Also see Vol.
V, 1206 (Jan. 17, 1664).
312 HUYGENS, C. (1888) OC., Vol. IV, No. 1079 (Dec. 1, 1662)
313 Ibid., Vol. III, No. 864 (May 1661)
91