CHAPTER thirteen
The Court as a Microcosm
Constantijn Huygens Jr took a great interest in astronomy. His library con- tained all the important books in this field, including the ‘letters on astron- omy’ by Tycho Brahe, De l’infinito universo by Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei’s Delle machine solari, and several works by Johannes Kepler. In addition, he owned the Dutch handbook Nederduystche astronomie by Rembrandt van Nierop, with whom Christiaan Huygens had exchanged ideas and observations.1 Huygens was also directly involved in astronomical research. He built telescopes, including one for the Royal Society that was used by Robert Hooke. Huygens Jr often assisted his brother in astronomi- cal observations. While the regularity of his diary reflected his brother’s contribution to time-keeping, Christiaan Huygens’s astronomical research has a parallel in the way Constantijn Huygens Jr documented life at the court of King William. A royal court can be compared to the solar system as described by Galileo. Courtiers orbited around the king like planets around the sun. Hundreds of such luminaries were present at William’s court at varying distances to the radiant centre, the king himself. Louis XIV was called the Sun King, not only because he had once danced a ballet in a costume representing the sun. The French king’s court was the exam- ple for all royal and princely courts in Europe. While Christiaan Huygens measured the rotation of the planets around the sun, Constantijn Jr measured the orbits of the courtiers revolving around King William. In this respect, too, his diary can be compared to that of his English con- temporary, Samuel Pepys. Pepys not only shared Huygens’s interest in time-keeping, but also studied astronomy. In 1666 Samuel Pepys bought a telescope and made observations of celestial bodies and indulged occa- sionally, as he confessed in his diary, in ‘gazing at a great many very fine women’.2
Since the Middle Ages, courts had developed into centres of govern- ment with hundreds of noble courtiers and even larger numbers of offi- cials, diplomats and envoys. This nucleus was surrounded by people of all kinds, vying for jobs and seeking favours from the king. At the bot- tom of the ladder were the servants, tradespeople, caterers, musicians and the occasional spy. At the top of the hierarchy was the king and his 158 chapter thirteen
13.1. Machine for grinding lenses, from Christiaan Huygens, Opuscula postuma (1703). Bijzondere Collecties, Universiteit van Amsterdam.