The Multilingualism of Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687)

This exhaustive study provides a comprehensive account of the multilingualism of the Dutch statesman and man of letters, Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687). Huygens used eight languages, Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, Italian, English, Spanish and German, in the majority of his correspondence and poetry. He also engaged to a lesser extent with Hebrew and Portuguese. During his long life he wrote and received a vast number of letters in these languages, both in a private capacity and in the various functions he carried out for the House of Orange, including that of secretary to two stadholders from 1625-1650. He also wrote thousands of poems on an extensive range of subjects. In his letters and poems he sometimes used only one language, whilst at other times he used more than one, engaging in bilingual and indeed multilingual code switching, which amply demonstrates his wit, learning and linguistic aptitude. Furthermore Huygens studied and wrote on a wide range of subjects, most notably architecture, music and natural science. His skills as a multilingual are again much in evidence in his engagement with these subjects. He also translated poetry including his own in a range of source-target language combinations.

Christopher Joby is assistant professor in the Department of Dutch at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea.