Constantijn huygens autobiography samples

The Death of Suzanna and Life in The Hague

After October 1627, Huygens and his family lived in a house at Lange Voorhout (fig. 1). In March 1634, Frederik Hendrik gave Huygens a building lot at the "Plein" (fig. 3), close to the government's buildings in the "Binnenhof" and near to the "Mauritshuis" (designed 1638 by Jacob van Campen (1596–1657) and Pieter Post (1608–1669) for Count Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen (1604–1679), nephew of Frederik Hendrik and Maurits, called "de Braziliaan").

Huygens threw himself immediately into the plans for a stately home, guided by Post and Jacob van Campen, who had painted of Huygens' double portrait and one of Holland's leading architects in that time. Van Campen was also the architect of the impressive city hall of Amsterdam. Due to Constantijn's frequent absences from home Suzanna had to manage the building and financing of the new house. However, by February 1637 the building had advanced enough to permit the family to move into the new home which they had looked forward to. But the tragic death of Suzanna brought Constantijn's dream to an end. Huygens was hardly able to write some short Latin notes in his diary, reading:

10. May: She returned her spirit to God 30 minutes after the fifth evening hour. Alas, mydelight! Alas, my soul!

16. May: Her body has been committed to earth attended by a huge crowd.

17. May: Moved to the new house, alas! without my dove.

Eventually the shattered Huygens composed, inspired by Petrarch, the sonnet Op de dood van Sterre^{"Op de dood van Sterre" translates to "On the Death of Sterre" in English. The poem is an elegy or a lamentation written in response to the death of Sterre. The poem is a poignant and emotional work that explores themes of love, mortality, and the ephemeral nature of lifeand an example of}

The Diary of Constantijn Huygens Jr Copyright: Rudolf M. Dekker ISBN/EAN: 978-90-820779-7-1 Uitgave: Panchaud Amsterdam www.panchaud.nl Vormgeving: Karin Kuiper (www.muskunst.nl) The Diary of Constantijn Huygens Jr Secretary to Stadholder-King William of Orange Cover: A. de Courtin, Nieuwe verhandeling van de hoofsche welgemaniertheyt Bijzondere Collecties, Universiteit van Amsterdam. Selected and Translated by Rudolf Dekker Panchaud Amsterdam 2015 Other books by Rudolf Dekker Contents Family, Culture and Society in the Diary of Constantijn Huygens Jr, Secretary to Stadholder-King William of Orange (Brill 2013). Introduction Controlling Time and Shaping the Self. Developments in Autobiographical 1 Constantijn Huygens Jr and his Diary 7 Writing since the Sixteenth Century (Brill 2011). Co-editor with Arianne Baggerman and Michel Mascuch. 2 The Court and Court Memoirs 20 Child of the Enlightenment, Revolutionary Europe reflected in a Boyhood The Diary 49 Diary (Brill 2009). With Arianne Baggerman. Index of Names 241 Index of Places 263 Egodocuments and History. Autobiographical Writing in its Social Context since the Middle Ages (Verloren 2002). Editor. Humour in Dutch Culture of the Golden Age (Palgrave 2001). Childhood, Memory and Autobiography in Holland from the Golden Age to Romanticism (Macmillan 1999). The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe (Macmillan 1989). With Lotte van de Pol. Introduction 1. Constantijn Huygens Jr and his Diary The more than two thousand pages of lively anecdotes, personal observations and intimate details written by Constantijn Huygens Jr in his diary between 1649 and 1696, offer a unique insight into life in Holland and England in the seventeenth century, especially during the reign of King William of Orange and Queen Mary Stuart. In many respects Huygens’s diary resembles that kept by his English contemporary S

"Constantijn Huygens(fig. 1) is almost unknown to English readers and students—if he is known at all, it is in that peculiarly frustrating and gratifying fashion, as the father of a famous son, Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) (fig. 2), the physicist.

Hollanders were better known outside their country than Constantijn Huygens. He has been a victim of his country's decline in international importance, and it is our loss not to know Huygens, for he was among whom many-faceted personalities who flash back to us the brilliance of their age…and epitomize the great period of Holland in which he lived."

The present study hopes to remedy a small part of this lacuna and bring one of the most outstanding personalities of the Dutch seventeenth century closer to today's readers although it is naturally impossible to do justice to every facet of Huygens' life and work. "'Indeed, whoever wishes to understand our seventeenth century must…keep his Huygens always by his hand'. This true virtuoso, 'secretary to two princes of Orange, diplomat, a polyglot man of the world, a highly sensitive connoisseur of both the ancients and moderns, a fine musician, a deeply religious man…and much more besides'" reflects in his life an entire century—Netherlands' true "Golden Age."

Birth and Childhood

Huygens was born on September 4, 1596, in The Hague, Nobelstraat (near the Grote or Sint Jacobskerk), as the second son of Christiaan Huygens Senior (fig. 4) who was a personal secretary to William of Orange, Prince of Orange (1533–1584, also called "William the Silent") (fig. 3) was hailed as the Pater Patriae and first stadtholder of the young "Republic