Quaestiones Infinitiae PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES UTRECHT UNIVERSITY VOLUME LXXII Copyright © 2013 by R.O. Buning All rights reserved Cover illustrations, above: Reneri’s signature from his letter to De Wilhem of 22 October 1631 (courtesy of Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden). Below: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Portrait of a Scholar (1631), The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia/Wikimedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Rembrandt_Harmenszoon_van_Rijn_-_A_Scholar.JPG. Cover design: R.O. Buning This publication has been typeset in the “Brill” typeface. © 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. All rights reserved. http://www.brill.com/brill-typeface Printed by Wöhrmann Printing Service, Zutphen ISBN 978-94-6103-036-8 Henricus Reneri (1593-1639) Descartes’ Quartermaster in Aristotelian Territory Henricus Reneri (1593-1639) Descartes’ kwartiermaker in aristotelisch territorium (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op dinsdag 12 november 2013 des middags te 12.45 uur door Robin Onno Buning geboren op 7 juni 1977 te Nijmegen Promotor: Prof. dr. Th.H.M. Verbeek The research for this dissertation has been conducted within the project “Descartes and his Network,” which was made possible by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) under grant number 360-20-140. Contents Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Biography I: A Promising Philosopher 13 1.1. Birth and Early Youth (1593-1611) 13 1.2. Liberal Arts Studies at Leuven (1611-1613) 14 1.2.1. The College of the Falcon 14 1.2.2. The Philosophy Curriculum at Leuven 15 1.3. The Great Seminary in Liège (1613-1615/16) 18 1.4. The Walloon College in Leiden (1616-1621) 19 1.4.1. Application 19 1.4.2. The Curriculum at the Walloon College 20 1.4.3. Dismissed 26 1.5. Private Tutor in Amsterdam (1621-1625) 28 1.6. Leiden (1625-1626) 29 1.6.1. Continuation of Reneri’s Tutoring Job 29 1.6.2. Medical Studies 30 1.7. Amsterdam (1626-1629) 33 1.7.1. Tutor Again 33 1.7.2. Candidate for a Chair of Philosophy at Leiden 34 1.8. Leiden (1629-1631) 36 1.8.1. Tutor Once Again 36 1.8.2. Candidate for a Chair of Philosophy at Franeker 38 1.8.3. Alternative Career Plans 39 Chapter 2. Biography II: Professor of Philosophy 41 2.1. Deventer (1631-1634) 41 2.1.1. The Selection Procedure 41 2.1.2. Appointment to the Chair 44 2.1.3. The Teaching of Philosophy at Deventer 45 2.1.4. Settling in Deventer 47 vi CONTENTS 2.1.5. Financial Problems 49 2.1.6. Growing Discontent 52 2.2. Utrecht (1634-1639) 54 2.2.1. The Selection Procedure 54 2.2.2. The Inauguration 56 2.2.3. The Teaching of Philosophy at Utrecht 58 2.2.4. Overworked 61 2.2.5. The Funeral 65 2.2.6. The Aftermath 68 Chapter 3. Network I: Social Capital 71 3.1. Introduction 71 3.2. The Roots of Reneri’s Network 73 3.2.1. The Walloon College 73 3.2.2. André Rivet 75 3.3. Tutor to the Children of the Amsterdam Patriciate 76 3.3.1. Pauw 76 3.3.2. L’Hermite 79 3.3.3. Van Lockhorst 80 3.3.4. One Step Up the Social Ladder 81 3.4. Patrons among the Patriciate 83 3.4.1. The Liefhebber 83 3.4.2. David de Wilhem 85 3.4.3. Constantijn Huygens 88 3.4.4. Cornelis Booth 90 3.4.5. The Circle around Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft 92 3.5. Marriage as a Social Instrument 93 3.5.1. Vivien 93 3.5.2. Van Velthuysen 96 3.5.3. Another Step Up the Social Ladder 97 3.6. Conclusion 99 Chapter 4. Philosophy I: A Naive Empiricist 101 4.1. Introduction 101 4.2. Experiments and Inventions 102 4.2.1. ‘Secrets’ 102 4.2.2. Creation of an Artificial Rainbow 105 4.2.3. The Camera Obscura 108 4.2.4. The Telescope 114 CONTENTS vii 4.2.5. The Thermometer 116 4.2.6. The Water Clock 121 4.2.7. The Microscope and Microscopic Investigations 123 4.3. Educational Reformer 125 4.3.1. The Decline of Philosophy 125 4.3.2. A Baconian Programme 127 4.3.3. The Investigation of Causes 129 4.3.4. Compared to the Methods of Bacon and Descartes 131 4.3.5. Reception 136 4.4. Conclusion 137 Chapter 5. Philosophy II: Cartesian Elements 139 5.1. Introduction 139 5.2. Heliocentrism 140 5.3. A Mechanical Corpuscular Theory of Matter 143 5.3.1. Two-Element Theory 143 5.3.2. A Mechanical Interpretation 147 5.3.3. Reneri’s Debt to the Corpuscular Tradition 149 5.3.4. Two Disputations on the Vacuum 151 5.3.5. Eclecticism 158 5.4. More Outspoken Cartesian 161 5.5. Conclusion 165 Chapter 6. Network II: Circulation of Knowledge 167 6.1. Introduction 167 6.2. Scholars Living in the Republic 168 6.2.1. Isaac Beeckman 168 6.2.2. Johann Elichmann 170 6.2.3. Professors at the Amsterdam Athenaeum Illustre 171 6.3. French Connections 173 6.3.1. Pierre Gassendi 173 6.3.2. Marin Mersenne 179 6.4. The Hartlib Circle 181 6.4.1. Samuel Hartlib and John Dury 181 6.4.2. Reneri’s Method of Logic 184 6.4.3. William Speed 187 6.4.4. John Jonston and Johannes Huniades 189 6.4.5. Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld 191 6.4.6. A Circle of Former Reformed Ministers in Cologne 194 viii CONTENTS 6.5. Conclusion 199 Chapter 7. Network III: Friend and Follower of Descartes 201 7.1. Introduction 201 7.2. Reneri’s Relationship with Descartes 202 7.2.1. Reneri’s Admiration for Descartes 202 7.2.2. Reneri’s Support of Descartes 207 7.3. Network 214 7.3.1. Reneri’s Role in the Formation of Descartes’ Network 214 7.3.2. The Circle of Mathematicians around Descartes 216 7.4. Reneri’s Promotion of Descartes’ Philosophy in Utrecht 223 7.4.1. Reneri’s Students 223 7.4.2. Friends with an Interest in Philosophy 229 7.5. Conclusion 233 Conclusion 237 Appendices 241 Appendix 1: Correspondence 241 Appendix 2: Disputations Presided Over by Reneri 250 Appendix 3: Reneri about Descartes 252 Appendix 4: A Letter from Reneri to Jonston of Around 1634 258 Bibliography 261 Index of Names 291 Samenvatting 297 Curriculum Vitae 309 Acknowledgements This dissertation could not have been written without the help of many people and institutions. First of all, I would like to thank my colleagues in the Department of Philosophy, who made it such a pleasant work environment. I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Prof. Theo Verbeek, for his detailed and invaluable comments on my drafts, and for his constant encouragement and generosity. I am also very much indebted to Erik-Jan Bos, who helped me find much unknown source material, helpfully commented on my manuscript in various stages, and, above all, was a wonderful roommate. I would like to thank my other roommate Mark Aalderink for being a great companion on the sometimes arduous and lonely road of doing a PhD. I am happy he agreed to be one of my paranymphs. I would also like to express my appreciation for the interest Fabrizio Baldassarri, visiting PhD student from the University of Parma, took in my research. The cheerful company of the other Utrecht PhD students in the history of philosophy and the student assistants also contributed to the fact that I look back on my years as a PhD student with pleasure and gratitude. Next, I would like to thank Luc Engen for kindly sending me an unknown article on Reneri. I also thank Christian Dury, who helped me in my search for the manuscript collection of Émile Gelin. Prof. Jan Roegiers was so kind to show me the way around the university library of Leuven; I was sorry to hear that he recently passed away. I am further indebted to Prof. Sven Dupré for enhancing my understanding of Reneri’s work in optics. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Arjen Dijkstra for his help with The Hartlib Papers CD- ROM. Furthermore, I have greatly benefited from participating in the Huizinga Institute in Amsterdam. Thanks for broadening my historical horizon and for making it possible to learn from other PhD students in the field. I would not have been able to finish my dissertation without the continuous support of my family and friends. I would like to mention some of them in particular: My dear friend and long-time flatmate Bram greatly encouraged me by taking a lively interest in my research subject and in my life as a PhD student. I am honoured he agreed to be my other paranymph. I am also thankful to my friend Arjan for the lavish hospitality I enjoyed in his Paris house while doing archival research in that city. Special thanks are due to my x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS girlfriend Anne for her love and enduring patience. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, my brother Niels, and my stepfather Flip. I very much regret that my father does not live to see me graduating. This dissertation is dedicated to my mother and to the memory of my father.