July 26, 2002

8:11 PM

Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687), Lord of Zuylichem, was a poet, musician, diplomat and secretary to 2 Princes of Orange. He attended Oxford and Cambridge and corresponded with virtually every contemporary of any intellectual importance in Europe, including Charles I of England, Anton von Leeuwenhoek and Peter Paul Ruebens, to name a very few. He also played the lute for King James. As the definition of a Renaissance man, he makes me feel sort of inadequate.
posted by charlesv (4 comments total)

Mmm... Lord of Zuylichem...

Very nice.

Except for the Amazon link - anything but an Amazon link...
posted by y2karl at 12:40 AM on July 27, 2002

Constantijn also had Descartes over all the time who was a key influence on Constantijn's son Christiaan - Christiaan stands tall in the history of science, being among other things the discoverer of the rings of Saturn.
posted by vacapinta at 1:49 AM on July 27, 2002

Mmm... Donuts...
posted by y2karl at 2:27 AM on July 27, 2002

Whoa... King James... I jammed with them once, man... Their lute player, like, rocked! His volume knob went up to like, eleven, man.
posted by willconsult4food at 8:03 AM on July 28, 2002