Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, Italian, English, Spanish, and German: those are the eight languages in which Dutch Golden Age poet Constantijn Huygens (1596—1687) wrote his poetry and correspondence. He also knew a bit of Hebrew and Portuguese. Examining awide range of Huygens’s writings“including personal letters, state correspondence, and poetry“Christopher Joby explores how Huygens tested the boundaries of language with his virtuosity as a polyglot. From Huygens’s multilingual code switching to his writings on architecture, music, and natural science, this comprehensive account is a must-read for anyone interested in this Dutch statesman and man of letters.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue
- 1. Multilingualism: An Introduction
- 2. Huygens’s Language Acquisition
- 3. The ‘Multidimensionality’ of Huygens’s Multilingualism
- 4. Huygens’s Multilingualism in Music, Science, and Architecture
- 5. Huygens and Translation
- 6. Code Switching in Huygens’s work
- 7. The Multilingualism of Huygens’s Children
- Epilogue
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Illustrations
- Fig. 1: Calligraphic page by Anna Maria van Schurman. The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KW 121 D 2-49 II.
- Fig. 2: Deum Colendum Esse. The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KW KA 43a-2 p. 4.
- Fig. 3: Titlepage of 1658 edition of Korenbloemen. The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KW 302 E 52.
- Fig. 4: Jacob van Campen, Double Portrait of Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) and Suzanna van Baerle (1599-1637), c. 1635. Canvas, 95 × 78.5 cm, inv. 1089. Purchased by the Friends of the Mauritshuis Foundation with the support of private individuals, 1992
- Fig. 5a: Hofwijck 2013. Photo Michel Groen. © Hofwijck.
- Fig. 5b: ‘Vitaulium. Hofwijck’, 1653. Proof with annotations in Huygens’s own hand for the engraving for the first edition of the poem. Collection Huygensmuseum Hofwijck.
- Fig. 5c: A diagram of Hofwijck demonstrating that the house and gardens are in proportion to the human body. Drawing R. Jongepier after R.J. van Pelt.
- Figs 6a and 6b: Huygens’s address to the reader for his translations of John Donne’s poems into Dutch: Korenbloemen (1658), Book XVII, 1089-1090. The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KW 302 E 52.
- Fig. 7: Letter from Huygens to Anna Maria van Schurman dated 7 October 1667 (Worp 6, 6620). The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KW KA 44, nr. 504.
- Fig. 8: Huygens’s 1625 poem, Olla Podrida. The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KW KA 40a, 1625, fol. 5r.
- Fig. 9: Adriaen Hanneman, Portrait of Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) and His Five Children, 1640. Canvas, 204.2 × 173.9 cm, inv. 241. The Hague, Het Mauritshuis.
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