The Correspondence of Constantijn Huygens

Primary Contributors:

The Correspondence of Constantijn Huygens [De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1608–1687], directed by Ineke Huysman, Huygens ING; with metadata from the Worp edition taken originally from ePistolarium, CKCC project, Huygens ING, The Hague


Constantijn Huygens and his children, by Adriaen Hanneman. 1640. (Mauritshuis, The Hague)

Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687)

Educated by his father, Christiaan the elder, who was secretary both to William the Silent and to Prince Maurice, the poet, diplomat, and composer Constantijn Huygens was born and raised in The Hague. He was employed initially by the English envoy Dudley Carleton, travelling to London in 1618 and then in 1620, as secretary of Francis van Aerssen, to Venice, before taking a position in 1630 as secretary to the stadholder Frederik Hendrik. Constantijn continued in the service of the Orange family under Wilhelm II. His correspondence was extensive; his network was large—he counted princes, poets, diplomats, and scholars amongst his friends—and he was the father of five children, including the statesman Constantijn the Younger and the natural scientist and mathematician Christiaan.


Partners and Additional Contributors

The history of the metadata underlying this catalogue is complex. Initially, a listing of the letters published in J. A. Worp’s edition was published in EMLO in 2014, based on records contributed by the Circulation of Knowledge project [CKCC] from its database the ePistolarium. However, the Worp edition is selective and does not contain the entirety of Constantijn Huygens’s surviving correspondence. In particular, the letters to and from large numbers of women have been omitted. As director of The Correspondence of Constantijn Huygens [De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1608–1687], Dr Ineke Huysman of the Huygens ING has collated these missing letters and published the complete correspondence online in a bespoke database containing manuscript images, transcriptions, and translations. EMLO is working at present with Dr Huysman to expand and update its original Constantijn Huygens catalogue and to set in place links between the resources.

With respect to this significant and ongoing work, EMLO would like to thank Dr Huysman for her considerable input as well as those who provided her with original financial support for the database De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1608–1687, including the Stichting Dioraphte, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Dr Hendrik Muller’s Vaderlandsch Fonds, Gravin van Bylandt Stichting, Stichting Professor Van Winterfonds, J. E. Jurriaanse Stichting, and Dr C. Louise Thijssen-Schoute Stichting. Thanks are extended to Geeske Bisschop, Eline Beumer, and Twan Dodewaard for their work on the correspondence, as well as to volunteer Conrad Flanagan for his help in checking the metadata as the catalogue is revised in EMLO.

The Circulation of Knowledge project, which supplied originally the Worp edition metadata to EMLO, was established in 2008 as a partnership between the Descartes Centre at the University of Utrecht, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands), the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands (Huygens ING), the Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS), and the University of Amsterdam (UvA). EMLO would like to thank Walter Ravenek for his preparation of the original metadata published in EMLO, and thanks are due to Cultures of Knowledge’s former editorial assistant Mark Thakker, and first intern Charlotte Marique for their work in 2014 on the people and place records associated with this correspondence.


Key Bibliographic Source(s)

Briefwisseling,  ed. J. A. Worp, 6 vols (The Hague, 1911–1917).


Contents

Constantijn Huygens’s letters listed in EMLO span eighty years from 1607 to January 1687, just a couple of months before his death. Amongst his array of scholarly correspondents may be numbered Marin Mersenne, Barlaeus, Descartes, Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, David le Leu de Wilhem, and Daniel Heinsius.

A link is provided from each letter record in EMLO to the relevant entry in De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1608–1687, where transcriptions, manifestation details, manuscript images, and translations are displayed, and users are urged to consult this database for the most up-to-date information about each letter. Links have been retained in EMLO to the ePistolarium catalogue for all the letters published in the Worp edition (where, it should be noted, the Gregorian calendar has been used throughout).

Letters both from and to Constantijn Huygens, arranged by year. (Chart generated by EMLO, 2022, in tool created by Matthew Wilcoxson)




Scope of Catalogue

It should be remembered that this catalogue is in the process of a major update and, based on the research and cataloguing work of Ineke Huysman, many of the dates are yet to be revised and multiple authors or recipients inserted. In addition, many of the origin and destination locations in the correspondence are still to be qualified as ‘inferred’. Until the update is complete, users are advised to refer at every turn to De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1608–1687.


Further resources

Bibliography

Briefwisseling, ed. J. A. Worp (The Hague, 1911–1917).

Additional recently discovered letters, as well as facsimiles, transcriptions, references to printed editions, and brief biographical information for the correspondents may be found online in the complete edition of The Correspondence of Constantijn Huygens [De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1608–1687], which is published online at the Huygens ING under the supervision of Ineke Huysman.

 

Additional Resources

The exhibition Constantijn Huygens, Scents and Images / Constantijn Huygens, Geuren en Beelden was on show at Constantijn Huygens’s country estate Hofwijck in Voorburg, in collaboration with De Gerrit Rietveld Academie and De Jonge Akademie, from 6 April to 3 July 2022. For a video to accompany the exhibition, see Making Scents of the Past.

To celebrate The Correspondence of Constantijn Huygens [De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1608–1687], a conference ‘Constantijn Huygens. A life in letters‘ was held on 2 December 2022 at the KB nationale bibliotheek [Royal Library], The Hague. For details, see: https://brievenconstantijnhuygens.net/2022/10/21/congres-constantijn-huygens-een-leven-in-brieven

 

 

Launch curated catalogue, ed. Ineke Huysman

Launch list of letters published in the J. A. Worp edition

 

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