De Gedichten van Constantijn Huygens: naar zijn Handschrift Uitgegeven
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Musique et Musiciens au XVIIe Siècle (French Edition)
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This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.
The Celestial Worlds Discovered: Or Conjectures Concerning The Inhabitants, Plants And Productions Of The Worlds In The Planets (1722)
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Vitaulium: Hofwyck en Spaansche Wijsheit (Dutch Edition)
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Vitaulium: Hofwyck en Spaansche Wijsheit is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Constantijn Huygens is in the Dutch language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Constantijn Huygens then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.
Sir Constantijn Huygens, was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer.
Background
Constantijn Huygens was born on 4 September, 1596 in The Hague, the second son of Christiaan Huygens (senior), secretary of the Council of State, and Susanna Hoefnagel, niece of the Antwerp painter Joris Hoefnagel.
His father, Christiaan Huygens, was secretary to the state council, and a man of great political importance.
He was carefully educated by his father, who was a friend of William the Silent, and spent most of his life in the intimate circle of the rulers of Holland.
Education
Constantijn was a gifted child in his youth. His brother Maurits and he were educated partly by their father and partly by carefully instructed governors.
When he was five years old, Constantijn and his brother received their first musical education.
In 1616 he proceeded, with his elder brother, to the university of Leiden.
He stayed there only one year, and in 1618 went to London with the English ambassador Dudley Carleton; he remained in London for some months, and then went to Oxford, where he studied for some time in the Bodleian Library, and to Woodstock, Windsor and Cambridge; he was introduced at the English court, and played the lute before James I.
Career
Two years later the first lessons on the viol started, followed by the lute and the harpsichord. Constantijn showed a particular acumen for the lute.
At the age of eleven he was already asked to play for ensembles, and later — during his diplomatic travels — his lute playing was in demand; he was asked to play at the Danish Court and for James I of England, although they were not known for their musical abilities.
He was taught Latin by Johannes Dedelus, and soon became a master of classic versification.
The most interesting feature of this visit was the intimacy which sprang up between the young Dutch poet and Dr Donne, for whose genius Huygens preserved through life an unbounded admiration.
In 1621 he published one of his most weighty and popular poems, his Batava Tempe, and in the same year he proceeded again to London, as secretary to the ambassador, Wijngaerdan, but returned in three months.
In the autumn of 1622 he was knighted by James I.
His third diplomatic visit to England lasted longer, from the 5th of December 1621 to the 16t of March 1623.
He published a large volume of miscellaneous poems in 1625 under the title of Otiorum libri sex; and in the same year he was appointed private secretary to the stadholder.
Huygens' earlier verse was reprinted as Otia of ledighe uren ("Otia, or Idle Hours") in 1625.
During his absence, his volume of satires, Coslelick Mai, dedicated to Jacob Cats, appeared at the Hague.
In 1634 he is supposed to have completed his long-talked-of version of the poems of Donne, fragments of which exist.
His humor was caustic, and it appears in a great number of clever epigrams as well as in Trijntje Cornelis (1653), a highly amusing, bawdy farce.
In 1658 he rearranged his poems, and issued them with many additions, under the title of Corn Flowers.
He was buried, with the pomp of a national funeral, in the church of St Jacob, on the 4th of April.
Other statesmen surpassed him in political influence, and at least two other poets surpassed him in the value and originality of their writings.
Huygens is the grand seigneur of the republic, the type of aristocratic oligarchy, the jewel and ornament of Dutch liberty.
It is a disgrace to Dutch scholarship that no complete collection of the writings of Huygens exists.
His autobiography, De vita propria sermonum libri duo, did not see the light until 1817, and his remarkable poem, Cluyswerck, was not printed until 1841.
His epistles and lighter pieces, in particular, display his metrical ease and facility to perfection.
Achievements
It is striking, that Christiaan senior imparted the "modern" system of 7 note names to the boys, instead of the traditional, but much more complicated hexachord system.
He was secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens.
His humor was caustic, and it appears in a great number of clever epigrams as well as in Trijntje Cornelis (1653), a highly amusing, bawdy farce.
Huygens' earlier verse was reprinted as Otia of ledighe uren ("Otia, or Idle Hours") in 1625.
His collected poems written between 1658 and 1672 were published under the title Korenbloemen ("Cornflowers").
In 1947 a literary award was created, the Constantijn Huygens Award, to honor his legacy.
Quotations:
He was free of bigotry, and, although a convinced Calvinist, he pleaded for understanding and tolerance, writing, "I do not hate my brother because I like green and he prefers purple. "
Personality
He developed not only extraordinary intellectual gifts but great physical beauty and strength, and was one of the most accomplished athletes and gymnasts of his age; his skill in playing the lute and in the arts of painting and engraving attracted general attention before he began to develop his genius as a writer.
Interests
Constantijn also had a talent for languages. He learned French, Latin and Greek, and at a later age Italian, German and English. He learned by practice, the modern way of learning techniques.
Constantijn received education in maths, law and logic and he learned how to handle a pike and a musket.
Connections
In 1627 Huygens married Susanna van Baerle, and settled at the Hague; four sons and a daughter were born to them.
In 1637 his wife died' and he immediately began to celebrate the virtues and pleasures of their married life in the remarkable didactic poem called Dagwerck, which was not published till long afterwards.
