Constantijn 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.

Kees van der Leer (www.keesvanderleer.nl) is econoom, historicus en oud-docent, die diverse publicaties over buitenplaatsen op zijn naam heeft staan.

Henk Boers is de hortulanus van Hofwijck en het Muiderslot alsmede de ontwerper en begeleider van de tuinreconstructies.

Preface

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