List of illustrations

MONO PLATES

1. An anonymous print of Simon Stevin’s sand-yacht, 1603–49, after an original print by Willem Isaacsz. van Swanenburg of an engraving by Jacques de Gheyn II. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam - http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.452764, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85550448)

2. Engraving by Adriaen van de Venne of Cupid and Venus scanning the horizon for love, 1623. (Zeeusche Nachtegael ende des selfs dryderley gesang: Cupido Brille-Man. Poet: Jacob Cats. Middelburg. 1623. Rare Books Room: F162.c.5.1 Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library)

3. Cornelis Drebbel, prolific Dutch inventor and engineer. Print by C. van Sichem, 1631. (Regionaal Archief Alkmaar. The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

4. Maria Tesselschade Visscher, poet and member of the Muiden Circle. Print by Hendrick Goltzius. (Amsterdam Museum. The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

5. Rembrandt, Satire on Art Criticism, 1644. (Robert Lehman Collection 1975, Metropolitan Museum, New York)

6. Huygens’s house and walled garden on the Plein in The Hague. Print by Theodor Matham after an engraving by Pieter Post, 1639. (Post, Hendrick Hondius (I) - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - Object number RP-P-1884-A-8195, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33934570)

7. Jacob van Campen, the architect of Huygens’s house. Print by Jacob Vennekool or Abraham Lutma, 1665. (Amsterdam City Archives / Lutma, A.)

8. Plan of the garden at Hofwijck. Drawing by unknown artist, 1653. (Huygens’ Hofwijck, Voorburg. Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo)

9. A diagram illustrating relative motion. (KB | National library: Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 16, p. 29)

10. Lodewijk, the third Huygens son. Drawing by unknown artist, 1674. (By Anonymous - https://rkd.nl/explore/images/125513, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30126628)

11. A self-portrait of Anna Maria van Schurman, 1632. (Collection Anna Maria van Schurman in Museum Martena, Franeker, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31781)

12. Prince Rupert’s drops or ‘Batavian tears’ diagrammed by Robert Hooke in Micrographia. (This image is available from the National Library of Wales, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43072274)

13. An anagram concealing Huygens’s discovery of the first moon of Saturn. (Reproduced from Christiaan Huygens’s manuscripts, photograph courtesy of the author)

14. Jean Chapelain, poet and one of the founders of the Académie Française. (By Robert Nanteuil, 1655, Rosenwald Collection – This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the National Gallery of Art. Please see the Gallery’s Open Access Policy. CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81928308)

15. Interpretations of the form of Saturn as seen through early telescopes. (Royal Astronomical Society / Science Photo Library)

16. Huygens’s diagram of Saturn in sixteen phases. (KB | National library: Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 15, p. 309 [fig. 77])

17. Huygens’s clock mechanism. (KB | National library: Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 17, p. 75 [Horologium, Appendix II])

18. Huygens’s sketch of how to improve timekeeping accuracy. (KB | National library: Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 17, p. 97 [Fig. 19])

19. Huygens’s sketch diagram of a simplified ‘magic lantern’. (Leiden University Libraries, reproduced from Christiaan Huygens’s manuscripts, HUG 8)

20. Huygens’s drawings made for transfer to transparent ‘slides’ for projection. (KB | National library: Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 22, p. 197)

21. A page from Huygens’s notebooks showing the face of a young woman. (Leiden University Libraries, reproduced from Christiaan Huygens’s manuscripts, HUG 4, 8v)

22. The air pump made for Robert Boyle in 1660. (Royal Astronomical Society / Science Photo Library)

23. Title page of Constantijn Huygens’s collection of songs and psalms, Pathodia Sacra et Profana, 1647. (History and Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

24. A page of calculations from Christiaan Huygens’s notes showing the division of the octave into thirty-one equal intervals. (Reproduced from Christiaan Huygens’s manuscripts, photograph courtesy of the author)

25. Engraving of Louis XIV in 1661. (By Robert Nanteuil after Nicolas Mignard, Rosenwald Collection – This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the National Gallery of Art. Please see the Gallery’s Open Access Policy. CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81926340)

26. Estimated routes of the Alcmaer returning from the Cape of Good Hope. (KB | National library: Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 18, p. 640 [fig. 129])

27. An engraving of Giovanni Domenico Cassini. (World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo)

28. Huygens’s diagram of a spiral balance spring. (KB | National library: Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 7, p. 425)

29. Huygens’s diagram showing the transmission of light from a candle by means of spherical waves. (KB | National library: Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 19, p. 474 [fig. 178])

30. Reflection of light from a surface showing how new waves originate from each point where the light impinges and then assemble to form a new wavefront. (KB | National library: Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 19, p. 478 [fig. 181])

31. Refraction of light showing the geometrical relation between the speed of light and the angle of refraction according to Huygens’s wave theory. (KB | National library: Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 19, p. 485 [fig. 184])

32. Huygens’s arrangement of a tubeless long telescope. (The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

33. William III’s England invasion fleet assembled at Hellevoetsluis in November 1688. Print by Pieter Pickaert, 1689. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam – http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.467383, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85983550)

34. Possible self-portrait of Constantijn Huygens the younger, 1685. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. akg-images / Album)

35. Isaac Newton in 1677. (By Burnet Reading, 1799, after a painting by Peter Lely. Library of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University DSpace, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17787421)

36. Drawing of Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, a young Swiss mathematician, c. 1700. Drawing by unknown artist, c. 1700. (Bibliothèque de Genève. Royal Astronomical Society / Science Photo Library)

37. Title page of Cosmotheoros, 1698. (Dipper Historic / Alamy Stock Photo)

COLOUR PLATES

1. The Spectacles Seller, by Rembrandt, c. 1624. (Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden – Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8531058)

2. Constantijn Huygens, by Jan Lievens, c. 1628–29. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=403758)

3. Muiden Castle in Winter, by Jan van Beerstraaten, 1658. (© The National Gallery, London)

4. Jan Lievens self-portrait, c. 1629–30. (Leiden Collection – The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

5. Rembrandt self-portrait, 1629. (Alte Pinakothek, Munich – CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41792621)

6. Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange, by Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, c. 1632. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2557224)

7. The Blinding of Samson, by Rembrandt, 1636. (Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29097578)

8. René Descartes, by Frans Hals, c. 1649. (Musée du Louvre, Paris. Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo)

9. Constantijn Huygens and his Clerk, by Thomas de Keyser, 1627. (National Gallery, London, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=481386)

10. Constantijn Huygens and his wife painted by the architect of their house, Jacob van Campen, c. 1635. (Mauritshuis, The Hague, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86345499)

11. Hofwijck, sketched by Christiaan Huygens, 1658. (Leiden University Libraries, reproduced from Christiaan Huygens’s manuscripts, HUG 14)

12. Map of The Hague in the Huygenses’ time. (By Cornelis Elandt – Haags Historisch Museum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37384695)

13. The Huygens family, by Adriaen Hanneman, 1640. (Mauritshuis online catalogue. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=759881)

14. William II of Orange and Mary Henrietta Stuart, by Gerard van Honthorst, 1647. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2831988)

15. Johan de Witt, by Adriaen Hanneman, 1652. (Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

16. Amalia van Solms, by an unknown artist, 1651. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34316467)

17. Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, by Peter Lely, 1665. (The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

18. A watercolour sketch of Saturn and its ring is to be found in Christiaan Huygens’s notes from 1659. (Leiden University Libraries, reproduced from Christiaan Huygens’s manuscripts, HUG 5, p. 37v)

19. Interior of a pendulum clock made by Salomon Coster for Christiaan Huygens, c. 1657. (Boerhaave Museum, Leiden. Photograph courtesy of the author)

20. Scheveningen church with the dunes protecting it from the sea, sketched by Christiaan Huygens in 1658. (Leiden University Libraries, reproduced from Christiaan Huygens’s manuscripts, HUG 14)

21. Susanna Huygens, painted by Caspar Netscher in 1669. (Image courtesy of The Leiden Collection, New York.)

22. Henry Oldenburg, by Jan van Cleve, 1668. (© Royal Society, London)

23. A typical scene of music-making by Jan Miense Molenaer, 1635. (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem. The Yorck Project (2002) distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155817)

24. Louis XIV crossing Pont-Neuf. Painting by Adam-Frans van der Meulen, c. 1666. (Musée de Grenoble. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85600297)

25. Colbert Presents to Louis XIV the Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences Created in 1667, by Henri Testelin, c. 1675–80. (Palais de Versailles. Provided by Henri Testelin – Web Gallery of Art: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6556974)

26. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, by Philippe de Champaigne, 1655. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, online collection [object ID 435886], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1353933)

27. Christiaan Huygens, by Caspar Netscher, 1671. (Haags Historisch Museum, The Hague. http://ressources2.techno.free.fr/informatique/sites/inventions/inventions.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44047)

28. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, by Christophe Bernard Francke, 1695. (Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, online, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53159699)

29. William III of Orange, by Caspar Netscher, c. 1672. (Princeton University Art Museum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43203880)

30. The Corpses of the de Witt Brothers. Painting attributed to Jan de Baen, c. 1672–75. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Bridgeman Images)

31. Anthoni Leeuwenhoek, by Jan Verkolje, c. 1680. (Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34320547)

32. Replica of one of Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes. (By Jeroen Rouwkema, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3657142)

33. Baruch Spinoza, by an unknown artist, c. 1665. (GL Archive / Alamy Stock Photo)

34. A painting by Lieve Verschuier, 1680, depicting the great comet of 1680. (Museum Rotterdam. Artokoloro Quint Lox Limited / Alamy Stock Photo)

35. Christiaan Huygens, by Pierre Bourguignon, 1688. (Photo: Fotoarchief, KNAW. Photographer: Wim Ruygrok)