Description
Book SynopsisConstantijn Huygens was a poet, composer and connoisseur of art and the classics. He was also secretary and confidant to three princes of Orange for 62 years. Hofwijck was also the place where Constantijn’s son Christiaan spent a significant part of his life. Christiaan Huygens was a member of the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge and became one of the greatest inventors and scientists. At the end of his life, at Hofwijck, he wrote Cosmotheoros, his magnum opus on the universe. At Huygens’s Hofwijck we look at the seventeenth century through the eyes of these two versatile men. With Constantijn and Christiaan, the story is about literature, art, music, politics, the House of Orange, science and life at a seventeenth-century country estate.
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgment
Ithaka Prize
I Constantijn Huygens in The Hague: a courtier in the capital 1596-1687
II Constantijn Huygens and Hofwijck: a courtier as a landscape architect 1639-1687
III Christiaan Huygens: an inventive scientist at Hofwijck 1687-1695
IV Hofwijck's Heirs: Care and Neglect 1695-1750
V Hofwijck outside the family: division and impending demolition 1750-1913
VI Hofwijck in safe hands: a narrow rescue 1913-1914
VII The Restoration of House and Garden from 1914 onwards: A long way up 1914-2000
VIII The Restored Garden around 2005: A successful reconstruction 2000-2011
Map of the Netherlands Genealogical scheme
Literature
Notes
Origin of images
Register on personal names
The authors
Colophon
