DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

HUYGENS HUYGENS 449
iad seven or eight languages at his command.
Some extracts from his letters to Pere Mersenne (in
the British Museum, Add. MS. 16,912, f. 180),
written irom the military camp at Maldeghem
ill 1640, show yet another side of his many-
sided character, his interest in physical science ;
for he minutely describes the sinking of a well,
with diagrams to illustrate the methods adopted
to prevent its being choked with sand.
He was also author and poet ; his first poems
were published at Middelburg as early as 1622.
A collected edition of Latin and of Dutch poems
called Otia was published at the Hague in 1625,
and a collection of all his poetry entitled Koren-
Bloenien in 1658. In 1653 he published an
account in Dutch verse of his country life at
Hofwijk (Vitaulium), the house he had built
near the Hague in 1641, and where he principally
resided. When over eighty years of age
he wrote his autobiography in Latin ; as it was
intended for the use of his family only, it was
not piLiblished till nearly 150 years later, under
the title Cmista7tiini IfHgcnii. Dc Vitapro^yria
^ermonwininter libcroslibriduo, Haarlem, 1817.
Throughout his life he always found time to
devote to music, and was a competent performer
on several instruments, such as the viol, harpsichord,
organ, theorbo, gnitar, and lute. In
one of his letters he says that by the time he
was seventy-nine years old he had composed
769 airs * Sur les deux sortes de luths, le
clavecin, la viole de gambe, et s'il plaist i Dieu
sur la gnitarre, ' as well as others ' pour plusieurs
violes, et nommement pour trois violes basses
en unison.' These all remained in manuscript.
A letter to H. du Mont, organist of S. Paul,
at Paris, dated April 6, 1655, thanks du Mont
for looking through his compositions, and in-
cidentally mentions ' la firactique des Italiens,
qui, a mon advis, ne sont pas les plus mauvais
compositeurs du monde. ' His friends in Spain,
England, and France were placed under contribution
for his line collection of music and of
musical instruments ; thus, with the lutenist
Gautier's help, he obtained a ' luth de Bologne '
from England ; wiih the assistance of M.
Chieze, a guitar from Madrid. In a letter to
Mademoiselle de la Barre, July 21, 1618, he
writes that in his house are ' luths, tiorbes,
violes, espinettes k vous divertir, quasi autant
que toute la Suede vous en pourra fournir.'
He had also collected a large general library ;
after his death his three surviving sons added
considerably to it, but they died lietween 1695
and 1699, and it was then sold at Leyden in
1701 ; a catalogue was published with the title
Bibliotheca magna et elerjanlissima Ziiylicke-
niiana, rarissirfioritm, exquisitissiviorwinque lihrorum,
in omnibus facuUatibus cl Unguis,
nobilissimi viri D. Constanlini Euygens, Leyden,
Sept. 26, 1701.
In Huygens's autobiography is the marginal
note ' Psalmi ad citharam in castris compositi,
VOL. II
Lutetiae editi '
; this refers to the work Pathodia
sacra et profana occupati, published under the
supervision of Sieur Gobert by Robert Ballard
at Paris in 1647. (Van der Straeten, La
m>isique aax I'aiis-Bas, ii. 362.) It contained
twenty Latin, twelve Italian, and seven French
compositions, for 'un seul tiorbe,' which he had
written before 1627 while in camp. MM.
Jonckbloet and Land (^Corrcspondancc, etc.)
reprinted the volume in its entirety, with a
facsimile page of music.
Another work by Huygens, cited byMattheson
(Her musika.lisehe Palriol, Hamburg, 1728, pi.
21), was written on the use and misuse of the
organ in the Protestant Church ; he held that
it should be used only for the g'.ory of God,
and not played merely with a desire to charm
the listeners as they leave church. According
to Eitner, it was first published at Amsterdam
in 1606. .There are two editions in the British
Museum : Gebruyck of migcbruyck vunt orgd
inde Kercken der Vereenighde Ncdcrlandcn,
Leyden, Abraham Elsevier, 1641, 8vo, published
anonymously ; and Ghebruik, en Onghebruik
van't Orgliel, in de Kerken der Vereenighde
Nederlanden, Beschreeven door Cmistantyn
ffuigens, Bidder, Heere van Zuylichcin, Zeelhem,
en de Monickeland, Eerste Jiaad, en Bekenmeester
van zign Hoogheide, den Heere Prince ran Oranje.
Verrijkt met eenighe Zanghen. Amsterdam,
Arent Gerritsz van der Heuvel, 1659, 8vo,
which gives the author's name and titles in full.
The first engraved title-page in this volume
has a small medallion poi trait of Huygens,
inscribed ' Constanter,' and is dated 1660.
Another edition was published at Amsterdam
in 1660.
An excellentportrait of Huygens was engraved
by W. Delff from a painting by Michel Miereveld
; it is inscribed 'Constauter, 1625, aetatis
XXVII.' Thisis reproduced by Van derStraeten
(La musiqne aux J-'ays-Bas, ii. p. 366), who
also mentions the well-known portrait painted
by Antoine Van Dyck at a later date, and
admirably engraved.
Christian Huygens, Constantin Huygens's
second son, was born at the Hague, April 14,
1629 ; he died there June 8, 1695. He .--tHdied
at the University ofLey den, and wasdistinguisbed
both as a musician and as a niathematician.
He wrote vaiious scientific works ; two dealing
with musical matters were jiublished after his
JVovus Cyelus harinonieus and Christiani
death :
Hiiqenii Cosmotlicoros sire de tcrris coelestibiis,
earuTnque oriuitii, eovjeetitrae. Ad Ccnistantin-wni
Hiigenium, Fratrem : Giigliclmo III. Magnae
Britanniae regi, a seeretis. The Hague, 1698,
4to. A copy is in the British Museum, also an
English translation : Tlie Celestial Worlds dis-
cover'd, or eonjcctures concerning the inhabitants,
plants, and jyi-oehictienis of the wailds in the
planets. London, 1698. This work is distinctly
entertaining. The author states that music, like
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