The Life and the Works of Burchard de Volder

Strazzoni, Andrea

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-19878-7_2

Andrea Strazzoni¹¹

Part of the book series: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science ((AUST,volume 51))

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Abstract

In this chapter I reconstruct De Volder’s education and intellectual career at Amsterdam, Utrecht and Leiden, by taking into account the biographical elements extant on him – including those on his family, which are important as they offer insights into his Menonnite background, and by extent into De Volder’s ideas on religion – as well as by offering a recognition of the sources for him (especially handwritten ones), of his activities as the founder of the Leiden experimental theatre, and of his epistolary network.

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Notes

1.
On him, see Graupe 2012, section 3.
2.
“Mr. Gronovius, Professeur aux Belles-Lettres, a fait son éloge à Leide, il y a peu de semaines, par ordre du Sénat Academique,” Le Clerc 1709, 347. Whenever necessary, I have partially modernized quotations from unedited primary printed sources.
3.
Le Clerc used to meet De Volder in Amsterdam, which De Volder visited twice a year; they had known each other since 1689 circa: see Le Clerc 1709, 347 and 367: “Mr. De Volder, que j’aî eu l’honneur de connoître, depuis plusieurs années, & qui ne venoit guere en cette ville, où il faisoit un petit voyage une, ou deux fois l’année, sans que j’eusse l’avantage de l’entretenir quelque heures, sur toutes sortes de sujets. […] Mr.de Volder, au moins depuis une vintaine d’années en çà, que j’ai eu l’honneur de le connoître […].” Only one letter is extant from their correspondence, viz. a cover letter for the sending of Le Clerc’s Ars critica (1696) to De Volder, whose minute is dated 1697: it is transcribed in Le Clerc 1987–1997, volume 2, 257 (letter 281).
4.
See, amongst others, Niceron 1733; Van Hoogstraten and Schuer 1733; Zedler 1746; Jöcher 1751; Dunkel 1755; Chauffepié 1756; Paquot 1765; Wagenaar 1767, 1790; Eloy 1778; Kok and Fokke 1793; Water 1802, 196–197; Jourdan 1825; Van der Vijver 1844; Kobus and De Rivecourt 1870; Van der Aa 1876. See also Van Berkel 1999a. A review of Gronovius’s Laudatio appeared in the issue of May 1709 of the Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, by Jacques Bernard.
5.
The original copies of their Reisejournal are preserved at the Warsaw University Library (ms. R 766 and Cod. IV oct. 49) and at the National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg (ms. Nem. IV F 158). Parts of the Reisejournal (from the manuscripts now extant in Warsaw) are transcribed in Guhrauer 1847 and Freudenthal 1899. An edition by Martin Mulsow and Olaf Simons is forthcoming.
6.
See Kaplan 1982, 279; Heering 1994; Stanglin 2016.
7.
“Domum certe negari nequit honestam fuisse, ex qua matrem, eius Mariam van Liesveld antea in viduitate contubernalem sororis, in extrema aetate aliquamdiu domesticam filio vidimus et sepelivimus, frugi et modestam; quae nupta Iusto de Volder, inter aliam subolem, nec numero arctatam, nec sexu uniformem, sed utroque satis prosperam hunc Burcherum quarto coniugii anno peperit sexto et vigesimo die mensis Iulii anno tertio et quadragesimo praeteriti proximi saeculi, qui erat Dominicus noctis hora sesquiprima. Quod ita acriter et perscrutari mihi libuit et palam prodere, non quo tempora discernam instar astrologi et ex genitali hora dimensus spatia siderum vaticinari velim, quales annos diesque foret noster, sed ut laetae relationis auditu illam iubeamus macte esse praeclarae frugis ubertate. Neque est, quod ulteriores avias revellam. Risisse ipsum in ulnis parentum et circa eorundem genua lusisse, etiam provolvente aetate per literularum exordia teneritudinem eius productam fuisse, ultro intelligitis. Non tamen progredi oportet, retinente hanc narrationem prima quoque indolis festivae in acriculo nostro Burchero exundantia. Nam quum pater primos annos impendisset pingendo, tam feliciter, ut plane existimaretur habilis; postea tamen mutavit vitam adversariis et computis ratiociniorum inter mercatores comparandis; ita ut animo et corpore involutus numeris, hunc nostrum exactissimum numerorum non in pecuniariis sordibus, sed coeli terraeque retrusis inveniendis ratiocinatorem genuerit. Eam vero artem sive operam ita sancte, ita perite dexterrimus vir exercuit, ut quantam, vellet pecuniam offerrent primarii in foro Amstelodamensi; immo flerent, siquos ob quascunque causas putaret deserendos. Inter haec tamen quasi forensia otium domesticum utiliter collocans, in quorumvis hominum, sed a Latinis minus paratorum gratiam, libros VI. Hugonis Grotii de veritate religionis Christianae in sermonem vernaculum transtulit; ut inde pateat, quo se tulerit viri illius ingenium, cuius quidem libri adiutorio sicut usus fuerat in firmanda notitia Dei, ita eidem vocanti obtemperans decessit anno LXIX. Ipso, nempe, qui antecessit vocationem filii Leidensem,” Gronovius 1709, 10–12.
8.
The life and the significance of Joost de Volder for the history of art are reconstructed in Van der Willigen 1870, 319; Renckens 1966; Stechow 1966, 3–4; Beck 1972–1991, volume 4, 422–427; Fechner 1980; Briels 1997, 402; Weller 2009, 216–219; Lambour 2012. These sources omit, however, to consider the latter phase of his life (namely his Amsterdam years), which can be reconstructed through Gronovius’s Laudatio. Joost’s father was named Joost as well, and he had come from Eekelsbeek in Flanders, and on 14 June 1603 he married at Amsterdam Judith Jansdr. (from Antwerp as well).
9.
“Decessit nullo testamento; non qui nesciret vulgarem modum (fecerat enim olim, quod rupit in morte materterae, quam haeredem instituerat), […]” Gronovius 1709, 33.
10.
See supra, n. 7. Gronovius 1709, 10–11; cf. Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 64–65: “Nov. 23. Senatui, in horam 10 indicto, significavit Magn. Rector matrem Clarissimi collegae D. de Volder 21. huius mensis mortalitatem exuisse; quaesitumque an Celeberrimo collegae per Rectorem Magnificum et facultatum Seniores illo nomine contestandus esset dolor; et an Professores togati funus essent prosequuturi.” The burial certificate of what appears to be De Volder’s mother (as Margareta Burgers Lievelt) is extant at the Leiden City and Regional Archives (Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken): Inventaris van het stadsarchief van Leiden: 1313–1343, Registers van te Leiden begravenen, register 1327: 1691 augustus 4–1698 december 27, 326. In the Church registers of Amsterdam Mennonites (to whom De Volder’s parents belonged) – extant at the Amsterdam City Archives (Stadsarchief Amsterdam) – it is reported that on 18 February 1680 a certain Geertruijd de Volder became a member of the Church, with her mother Griettie Borgers and her maternal aunt Hester Borgers as witnesses: Lidmaten Doopsgezinden, 18-02-1680, Archief 1120, inv. nr. 213, 78. A certain Geertruijdt de Volder, who lived on Oudezijds Achterburgwal, is reported as buried at the Amsterdam Westerker on 15 October 1681: see Begraafregistrer, 15-10-1681, Wester Kerk, DTB 1102, 102. No information with regard to the burial date or place of Hester Borgers has been found. No sisters are mentioned in De Volder’s Collaterale successie, extant at the Leiden city archive (which I consider in Sect. 2.4.2, De Volder’s retirement, death and legacy).
11.
Gronovius 1709, 12–13.
12.
See Van Miert 2009, chapter 3, 2018a; Frijhoff 2016.
13.
See infra, n. 342.
14.
“Latinis et Graecis inspiciendis ad ludos literarios filium duxit, repulsis aliis vitae ornamentis, quibus destinari poterat. Et sic cernimus Volderum nostrum transscribi in cellam sudatoriam, cui pueritiam et adolescentiam assimulabat Secundus. Regebat tunc eos ludos Cornelius Sladus, vir artificii istius laudatus, cuius quoque gratam sibi esse recordationem nobis declaravit filio eius Matthaeo, Medico et Graecis literis mirabiliter dedito, nuper Oxonii mortuo et sepulto, in hospitium come admisso. Enimvero patefacta hac area effusius exseruit, quid in ipso lateret, nuspiam tergiversatus aut remisse agens, quin percurreret istarum Scholarum sacra; et sicut exacte annos mensesque annotari non refert, ita in offenso impetu vehens per medias et magistrorum et aequalium laudes ac praemiorum testimonia, et plerisque quae ibi initiatus, anno septimo et quinquagesimo supremam scholam laudatus deseruit, testante id Annaeo Seneca, cuius operibus eum tunc iussu Scholarcharum donavit Sladus, quasi abhinc philosophica commendantium. Toto autem isto tempore ita exiguae staturae itaque, macilentus fuit, noster, sit illius praemii lator domum esse posset, capsario identidem eum adiuvante,” Gronovius 1709, 14–15. Gronvius reported De Volder’s interests for Greek and Latin literature: Gronovius 1709, 28.
15.
On the history of the Amsterdam Athenaeum, see Van Miert 2009.
16.
“His in studiis, cum ultra triennium elaborasset sedulo cupido hominem incessit, philosophica laurea condecorari se ut gestiret. Quam in sententiam et me et alterum sodalem nostrum eodem in stadio currentem, qui nuper Amstelodami praxin feliciter exercens medicam diem suum obiit, suo et exemplo et hortatu adduxit. Nos igitur terni hac de causa Ultraiectinam adire Academiam,” De Volder 1679, 10–11 (unnumbered). See also Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 343; Le Clerc 1709, 374–375. Coeman later pursued studies in law.
17.
On the teachings of De Bie and Senguerd at Amsterdam, see Van Miert 2009, chapters 2, 8 and 10. Lucas Schacht had also attended the lectures of Senguerd and De Bie, as well as the Latin School of Sladus (albeit some years before De Volder): see De Volder 1689, 6–7.
18.
“Versabamur siquidem, iisdem in studiis, utebamur iisdem praeceptoribus Viris Clarissimis Arnoldo Senguerdio Collegae mei Senguerdii parente, philosophiae Amstelodami Professore Primario […], et Alexandro de Bie Mathesin ibidem tunc temporis, nunc et Philosophiam profitente. Horum ductu mathematica disciplinas cum Philosophica copulavit, neque separandas eas scientias censuit, quas et ratio, et rerum coniunxit natura. Philosophorum sola disiunxit ignorantia. Praeterquam enim quod is esset, qui nullam sibi studiorum negligendam partem censeret, facile sibi persuaderi passus est, Mathematicas scientias, licet primo aspectu non tantum videantur spondere fructum, habere, tamen in recessu quamplurima ad vitae usum, ad rationis rectae regimen, ad veritatis inquisitionem utilissima. Non enumerabo, quod facile possem, mathematicarum rerum plurimas omnino non contemnendas utilitates: praetermittam absque harum usu eximiam rerum Physicarum notitiam habiturum neminem. Nec adducam harum disciplinarum neglectu in tenebris et squallore multos annos Philosophiam iacuisse. Id unum addam, quod nemo diffitebitur, nihil quibuscunque etiam in negotiis iudicii robore esse praestantius. Nihil certo veri et falsi indicio pretiosius. Nihil denique mentis in dignoscenda veritate exercitatione omnes ad res praeclarius. Ad quae nobis vel comparanda vel corroboranda certe, plurimum momenti afferre artium harum inquisitionem, vel perfunctorie eas contemplanti, et certas earundem demonstrationes cum aliarum, nisi geometrico ritu tractentur, quod nostro demum coeptum est saeculo, incertis plerumque coniecturis conferenti, planum erit. Glorientur vulgo de dialectices praestantia, audiat illa unica veri falsive disceptatrix et iudex; certe mathesis quae re praestat, quod verbo dialectica promittit, suam sibi gloriam apud rerum peritos praeripi non patietur,” De Volder 1679, 8–9 (unnumbered). As to the other orations, see Sect. 3.2.3.2, De Volder’s methodological liberalism – and its continuity over time. Cf. also infra, n. 24.
19.
De Bie 1658, theses 6–8 and 24.
20.
As reconstructed by De Bie, Galileo’s theory is based on two premises: (1) that a projectile covers equal horizontal distances in equal times, (2) that the two moving faculties of the projectile (viz. the horizontal and perpendicular) move it as if they were acting independently of each other. De Bie criticizes such premises, by claiming that the faculty moving the projectile horizontally is violent, external to it, and decreases in time (such as the experiment with the pendulum reveals), so that in equal times unequal spaces are covered (see De Bie 1659, theses 23–29). The second premise is criticized on the grounds that a projectile in motion does not fall in the same time as if only its ‘weight’ would have brought it to the ground (theses 31–34). Therefore, De Bie claims that projectiles do not move through parabolic but through curved lines (thesis 35). On this issue, see Naylor 1980; Renn 1992; Wohlwill 2001.
21.
See Meihuizen 1952; Lambour 2012.
22.
See Fix 1990. Notably, in the pamphlet Het compromis tusschen Dr. Galenus Abramsz, nevens sijne medestanders, en Tobias Govertz van den Wyngaert (1665), Joost de Volder is cited as siding with Galen: De Haan 1665, 7 and 13.
23.
The date of De Volder’s enrolment at Utrecht is not reported in the Album studiosorum Academiae Rheno-Traiectinae MDCXXXVI–MDCCCLXXXVI (1886). For his graduation at Utrecht, see the Album promotorum qui inde ab anno MDCXXXVI usque ad annum MDCCCXV in Academia Rheno-Trajectina gradum doctoratus adepti sunt (1936), 16.
24.
“Erat noster, eramus omnes peripateticae philosophiae imbuti principiis, nisi quod in physicis, ex Galilaeo, Gassendo et id genus scriptis nonnihil verioris et mechanicae rationis degustaramus. Summum illud saeculi nostri lumen, illustrem mechanicae philosophiae propagatorem, Renatum Cartesium videramus nondum, nisi id vidisse est, quae non intelligas perlegisse. Huius viri, circa ea praesertim quae Deum et mentem spectant, scrutandis dogmatis totum se dedit, amica hac in parte usus opera Clar. de Bruyn Physices et Mathesios dignissimi ibidem Professoris. Cui eo nomine plurimum debet noster, et me debere profitebor, dum spiritus hos reget artus,” De Volder 1679, 12 (unnumbered). Cf. Gronovius 1709, 15–16: “[a]b isto etiam adductiore disciplinae modo liber et iam magis sui arbitrii, nihil moratus ad maiora se in patria urbe contulit. Nam quum Amstelodamo tunc ita bene esset provisum, ut Philosophicas varietates liceret accipere simul mathematicis, credidit se tam robusta et capacis esse mentis, ut quum duo incliti Doctores separatim eas traderent, sub utroque posset crescere. Horum nomina ipse ne sine gratissimae voluntatis professione et iustae laudis commemoratione indicavit in utraque, quam dixi, Laudatione, quum Coemannum et annis aequalem et eiusdem Musae haberet aemulum, sive ab ipsa tirociniorum origine additum, etsi hic elegisset scholam Iunianam, sive ab consortio philosophiae, et consensu animi electam. Cui industriae, ne existimetur bonus eventus defuisse, enimvero ita res cecidit, ut quum per mediocre tempus illic exercitiis adfuisset, magnus iam et plane optabilis incrementi noster praebuerit se spectandum Ultraiectinis, ita ut post disputationem de Simplicitate Dei, de Echo, de Republica coronatus fuerit in Philosophia et Liberalium Artium Magisterio die Octobris octavo decimo anni sexagesimi.”
25.
“Der Teil de echo entsprach dem Vorbild seiner Amsterdamer Disputationen, indem er sich mit der Ausbreitung des Echos und dabei auftretenden Phänomenen beschäftigte, die er mit geometrischen Hilfsmitteln beschrieb. De Volder verwies hier ausdrücklich auf das Vorbild der geometrischen Optik. Im metaphysischen Teil bejahte er die Möglichkeit unmittelbarer Gotteserkenntnis, nicht unbedingt eine klassische cartesianische Position; Descartes wird dagegen nur mit seiner Theorie des Magneten erwähnt, die verschiedene Wirkungen erklären könne,” Wiesenfeldt 2002, 55.
26.
God’s simplicity is intended as the absence of any composition and as entailed by His perfection (De Volder 1660, De simplicitate Dei, theses 2–3). According to De Volder, such a simplicity does not contradict the freedom of God’s decrees, for the reason that one has to distinguish, in God, between His essence or vital act, and His determination of this or that object, which is free (thesis 5). In turn, the distinction between divine essence and divine determinations or decrees depends only on the weakness on our reason, and does not pose a real distinction in God (thesis 6). As to the issue of the nature of God, see Sect. 3.1.4.2, The Wittich-Driessen quarrel – and beyond.
27.
On the idea of the nature of sound in late Scholastic and Cartesian sources, see Van Ruler 1995, chapter 4.
28.
See Sect. 2.3.5, De Volder’s views in politics and religion.
29.
“Hoc stadio ita fauste et properanter decurso ipse quidem regressus est domum, sed substitit Ultraiecti Coemannus nescio qua existimans indagandum et acerbius inspiciendum, quod semiclausis oculis e longinquo fulgere obiter, monstraverat: Clarissimus Professor Philosophiae de Bruyn; tanti aestimatum semper nostro, ut propterea exclamarit se plurimum ei debere professurum, dum spiritus hos regeret artus, doctrinam quippe se sectatos perceperant spinarum matrem, frumenti novercam, et in metaphysicis simulacra acceperant, corpus, et mera veritas aberat. Hinc illae densae literae de mutuis profectibus inter nostrum et Coemannum; tunc ferbuit ista sapiens ac meditabunda lectio Cartesii; testante palam nostro tunc se animadvertisse, quam perfunderetur sensim maiori veritatis luce, experiretur mentis dispelli tenebras, et habere nos in nobis ipsis, modo dotibus a Deo concessis rite utamur, sufficientem circa has res veritatis scaturiginem. Id quod veritatem appellat, dulcedine sua excellere et animo humano bene constituto solum placere posse et debere, etiam ubi forsan radit malignas aures. Adeo patet nequivisse pati nostrum, ut post fruges repertas glandibus uteretur deinceps. Atque ita praeparata molliter et expansa intus sede cuiuslibet boni accipiendi perita, non continuit noster, quin se concuteret vehementius, ut ulteriora obtineret,” Gronovius 1709, 16–17; cf. De Volder 1679, 12–13 (unnumbered): “[q]uam viam ingressi, et per litteras, aberam enim ego, de progressibus nostris communicantes, sensim animadvertimus maiori, quam hactenus exerti essemus, nos veritatis luce perfundi, mentis dispelli tenebras, et habere nos in nobismet ipsis, modo dotibus a Deo concessis rite utamur sufficientem circa has res veritatis scaturiginem. In rebus Physicis, non eam invenimus difficultatem, utpote ad quas recentiorum scripta nobis perlecta aditum iam fecissent. Iamdudum enim formis substantialibus, qualitatibus realibus et id genus figmentis nuncium miseramus, quo promtius mechanicam philosophandi rationem amplecteremur. Quam sane in physicis, ut et priorem ex intimis mentis haustam penetralibus in et metaphysicis unicam esse viam, qua veritas detegi potest, asseverare nullus dubito. Quae et sua perspicuitate sibi viam fecit apud Anglos, Gallosque, et faciet porro, ubicunque liberior spirat aura.”
30.
“Burcher de Volder étoit né le 26 de Juillet MDCXLIII à Amsterdam. Son Pere se nommoit Juste de Volder, & sa Mere Marie de Liesveld. Ils éleverent ce fils, de qui ils sembloient avoir conçu de fort bonnes esperances, avec autant de soin, que leur condition & leur fortune, qui n’étoit pas considerable, purent le permettre, & il répondit très-bien à leurs esperances. Ils étoient de ceux qu’on nomme Mennonites en Hollande, & ailleurs Anabaptistes; parmi lesquels il y a beaucoup de gens, dont la modestie & la regularité sont de bon exemple, mais très-rarement des gens de Lettres. Ses Parens avoient des sein de le faire étudier en Médecine, & aparemment de l’employer en suite à prêcher dans quelques unes de leurs Assemblées, selon leur coutume; car leurs Ministres exercent très-souvent la Médecine, en même tems. Après avoir étudié quelque tems en Philosophie sous Arnaud Senguerd & en Mathematique sous Alexandre de Bie Professeurs à Amsterdam; ou, pour parler plus exactement, en son particulier, car ces Mrs. ne pouvoient conduire personne sort loin dans ces sciences; il se fit recevoir Maître aux Arts à Utrecht le 18. d’Octobre MDCLX. II avoit d’abord étudié la Philosophie, comme on faisoit encore communément en ce tems-là; c’est à dire, qu’il s’étoit appliqué à celle de l’Ecole, plus propre à gâter l’esprit qu’à l’éclaircir & à le conduire, dans la recherche de la Verité. Cependant il avoit l’esprit si bon, que peu de tems après, plûtòt de son propre choix, que par le conseil de personne, il tourna, comme on le verra, ses études d’un autre côté,” Le Clerc 1709, 348–349.
31.
On the history of Leiden University, see Dibon 1954; Ruestow 1973; Lunsingh Scheurleer and Posthumus Meyjes 1975; Grafton 1988; Bergh 2002; Krop 2003a.
32.
See Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV–MDCCCLXXV, column 486, where the wrong age of 20 is given for De Volder.
33.
“In his quum ad medicarum rerum notitiam vergeret, credidit eas castius tractari in hac Academia, quum novo tunc et placitissimo docendi et exercendi modo in infinita audientium corona istic eniteret Franc. Sylvius. Sed adolescens noster iam octodecim fere annorum, etsi philosophiae quidem sacratus et mente excelsus, habebat tamen aliquid imbecillum, quod pater vix sustinebat convictui hominum ignotorum, domui extrariae, tanto peregrinorum concursui credere, praesertim quum hic novellus philosophus libros adfuisset aperire, non patinas. Itaque extorsit Laurentio Borman amico suo et civi huius urbis, ut tecto et mensa sua recipere filium vellet, ita procedente mansionis huius ingenio, ut post annos quatuor sibi curaret induci quoque nomen medici post Disputationem de ipsa natura die III Iulii anno quarto et sexagesimo,” Gronovius 1709, 17. No information on Laurentius Borman could be found.
34.
On Hudde, see De Waard 1911; Vermij and Atzema 1995; Klever 1997, chapter 3; Van Berkel 1999b; De Jong and Zuidervaart 2018.
35.
“Il alla étudier la Médecine à Leide, où il fréquenta les leçons de François de Leboé Sylvius. Il y soûtint des Theses de la Nature, très-opposées aux idées Péripateticiennes, le 3. de Juillet MDCLXIV & fut reçu Docteur en Médecine,” Le Clerc 1709, 349–350.
36.
See De Volder 1664, theses 2–3 and 9.
37.
“Sic gemina adorea insignitus revertit ad suos, neutram Musam omittens, quin assiduitate omni expoliret, seu privatim meditationibus in haerendo, seu publice valetudines regendo, cui magnam fenestram illi aperuit decreta praefectura valetudinarii Remonstrantium. Sed praecipuus amator philosophiae diligenter se conferebat, et quidem cum frequente comitatu, ad diatribas, Doctoris Biaei, non auditor, sed antisophista, saepe vi sua praesidem turbans, ut hinc efflorescentis etiam rumor spargi coeperit inter eruditos magnae urbis de nota optima,” Gronovius 1709, 17–18; cf. Le Clerc 1709, 350: “[i]l s’applica à la pratique de cette science, pendant quelques années, qu’il fut le Médecin des pauvres de l’Eglise des Rémontrants d’Amsterdam; sans néanmoins quitter l’étude de la Philosophie & des Mathematiques. Comme la Philosophie de Descartes faisoit grand bruit en ce tems-là, & qu’elle commençoit à prendreledes fus, en Hollande; il s’y attacha avec beaucoup d’application, & y fît les progrès, qui parurent dans la suite.”
38.
See Sect. 3.1.1, Some direct evidence on De Volder’s views and relation with Spinoza.
39.
See Sect. 2.2.3, The mid-1670s clash at Leiden and the foundation of the experimental theatre.
40.
“Op ’t versouck van D. Henricus Bornius, Professor Philosophiae, omme tot bevorderinge van syne domestique saeken met de effective exercitie ofte reassumtie van syne professie te mogen supersederen tot nae de expiratie van de groote vacantie in de hontsdagen, is nae gehoudene deliberatie goedgevonden ende verstaen ende vervolgens hem aengeseyt dat hy tot verrightinge van syne particuliere affaires soodanigh een tyd sal können besteeden als hem goed- duncken sal: des dat denselven tyt geescouleert wesende hy alvorens de voors: professie te exerceren gehouden sal syn te versoeken speciale admissie, als wanneer dan op ’t selve versoek met een vrye deliberatie nae gelegentheyt van saeke sal werden gedisponeert. Op ’t geproponeerde van den heere van Maesdam, off D. Burcherus de Volder, gedesigneert Professor ordinarius Philosophiae in dese Universiteyt, tot nogh toe door den doop niet ingelijft synde in de Gereformeerde kercke, alvorens denselven in siju beroep te installeren niet behoorde gedisponeert te werden omme hem door den doop in deselve kerke te laeten inlyven, is goedgevonden ende verstaen, dat soo lange het voors. Sacrament by hem niet sal wesen gecelebreert, hy tot het doen van de inaugurale oratie niet sal wesen admissibel, ende is hem ’t selve door den secretaris uyt den naeme van de H. C. ende Β. aenstonts aengeseyt met versoek dat hy sigh hoe eer hoe beeter daer toe soude believen te laeten bewegen,” Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 241–242. See Gronovius 1709, 18–19: “[n]eque tamen ista moenia signare et includere poterant limitem famae tam constantis et illustris. Egressa est in omnes appositas plagas. Sed nullo tempore crediderim famam minus mentitam, esse, quam quum Illustri Curatorum Academiae et Consulum Collegio Volderum tradidit. Quum enim in hac ipsa locus esset vacuefactus discessu alterius, ac non minori cautela et inquisitione mereretur suppleri, quam qua vel in Senatum Laconicum aut in Atticum Areopagum substitutus olim fuisse legitur, miro consensu praeconceperunt omnes virtuti per tot experimenta probatae in adolescente in dolis quidem certae, sed nondum sedis, prorsus responsuram fortunam claro loco adfixam nomineque et munere insignem, ipsiusque adeo philosophiae vel magis veritatis discipulum agnitum iri, cuius arcem fortissime nosset tueri. Sic urgente fato in thronum hunc Philosophicum invectus est, quum et ipse non dubitaret huc accedere, duntaxat ut denique desineret vel sibi soli inhaerere, vel privatae et ignotae meditationi servire; et pro more ad inaugurandum ex hoc ipso loco die octo decimo mensis Octobris anno septuagesimo, quo penes patrem meum erant fasces, habuit concionem.” See also Le Clerc 1709, 350: “[e]n ce tems-là, une Chaire en Philosophie vint à vaquer à Leide, & ayant été recommandé, par le moyen de Mr. Hudde, depuis Bourgmestre à Amsterdam, & grand Mathematicien, à l’un des Curateurs de l’Academie, il y fut appellé & fit la Harangue Inaugurale le 18. d’Octobre en MDCLXX.” On Bornius, see Krop 2003b.
41.
On Craanen, see Sect. 3.2.3.1, The case of explanations in physiology.
42.
See Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 238.
43.
See Sect. 3.1.3.1, The relation between material and immaterial substances.
44.
In fact, as testified to by the letter of De Volder to Van Limborch of 18 July 1687, the academic authorities were not very strict on asking for a declaration of faith from professors – at least in philosophy. It is worth quoting here the full text of the letter (these are the conventions adopted in the transcription: 1) the text deleted in the manuscript has been put between brackets thus < >; whenever possible, I have provided the deleted text; otherwise, I have used dots instead of the illegible letters; 2) the text in the margin or between the lines is put between the symbols \ /; 3) doubtful text is put between brackets { }; whenever possible, I have provided the text, otherwise, I have used dots instead of the illegible letters; 4) my additions are put between brackets [ ];): “Vir Amplissime, / Recte quidem existimasti subscriptionem, de qua agitur non exigi a Philosophiae aut Graecae Linguae professoribus, nec credo illum exigi ab eo qui Hebraeam Linguam profitetur. Certo tamen asserere non possum. Quamdiu enim hic fui, nullum Haebraicae Linguae habuimus Professorem praeter Uchtmannum, qui me aliquot mensibus praecessit. Cur tamen non credam causae hae sunt; In statutis Collegii ordinum expresse id exigitur ut Proregens et Confessioni et Catechismo, et Canonibus Dodracenis subscribat, quod tamen D. Crane nunquam fecisse saepius ex ipso audiv{i} {<…>}. Nec memini ullius subscriptionis nequidem a Theologo factae, quanquam novi Doctores Theologiae ubi creantur, ad illam subscriptionem ante promotionem compelli; Verum hac in re ne quid forte {q} esset quod me quia inter Theologos res perageretur fugeret, adii D. Le Moyne; et inter alios sermones quid huius rei esset quaesivi. Respondet se non putare quempiam subscribere illis sive Confessioni et Catechismo, sive Canonibus praeter Theologiae Professores, imo se jam per quadriennium Professoratu suo functum, antequam subscripsisset, nec tunc temporis subscripturum fuisse nisi forte in conventu Facultatis Theologicae, non recordabatur autem qua de causa <insti> {conrevissent}, ille liber in quo haec sacra continentur incidisset in manis Spanhemii. Illeq[ue] non inveniens manum D. Le Moyne monuisset de subscriptione facienda, quam ille lubens agnovisset. / Vides quam negligenter haec orthodoxiae conservandae fundamenta nunc tractentur, Sic solet ubi aestus animorum deferbuit. Putem itaq[ue] illi erudito viro nihil periculi fore, si in aliis Academiis harum provinciarum res eodem ac apud nos peragatur modo; Accurate enim qu{…} apud vicinos fieri solet non novi. Vale et ama. / Tuum / B. De Volder. / Lugd. Batav. 18 Iulii, 1687,” Amsterdam University Library, OTM hs. J 83 a. For a commentary, see Strazzoni 2019.
45.
“Avant qu’il reçût ses Patentes, il y eut quelques difficultez, sur sa vocation, fondées sur ce qu’il avoit fréquenté jusqu’à lors les Assemblées des Mennonites. Mais comme il fut que les Curateurs de l’Université déliberoient là-dessus, il leur fit dire qu’il avoit dessein de se joindre à l’Eglise Wallonne Réformée de Leide; mais qu’au reste il ne pretendoit pas acheter par-là la Chaire de Professeur, où on l’avoit appelle, ni qu’on lui reprochât à l’avenir d’avoir rien fait contre sa conscience; qu’autrement il aimeroit mieux renoncer à cette vocation. Cette déclaration leva entierement la difficulté, & il fut en état de commencer l’exercice de sa Charge. II ne faut pas s’imaginer là-dessus que Mr. De Volder, en passant dans une autre Assèmblée Chrétienne, condamnât celle qu’il venoit de quitter; comme s’il avoit cru, qu’il y eût du danger pour le salut d’y demeurer, & qu’il regardât avec aucune aversion ceux avec qui il avoit été élevé, ou qu’il eût plus mauvaise opinion de leur doctrine qu’auparavant. Il n’a jamais été du nombre de ceux, qui condamnent leur prochain, pour des opinions, comme celles-là; et il n’avoit pas ce zele amer, qui a donné la naissance à tant de Sectes, & qui est encore cause des divisions de la Chrétienté. Il crut apparemment être plus utile, non seulement à lui même, mais encore au Public, en entrant dans une autre Societé, où il trouvoit les mêmes principes de Religion, à quelques differences près, qui ne sont pas essentielles, & dans lesquelles la profession l’exemptoit en quelque sorte d’entrer. D’autres ne le voudroient peut être pas faire, mais c’est à châcun à se conduire, par ses propres lumieres, & non par l’exemple d’autrui,” Le Clerc 1709, 350–352; cf. Gronovius 1709, 19–21; Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 242 and 244.
46.
On Ruysch, see Dohmen 1982; Hansen 1996; Kooijmans 2004; Kooijmans 2011; Knoeff 2015. On Swammerdam, see infra, n. 187. On De Volder’s contacts with Swammerdam and Ruysch, see Sect. 2.3.1, The correspondence with Thévenot.
47.
Jorink 2018, 26.
48.
On Burgersdijk, see Kuiper 1958; Bos and Krop 1993; Krop 2003c.
49.
See Bibliotheca Triglandiana, 201: “Cl. Viri Burcheri de Volder Dictata ad logicam.”
50.
See Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 245; according to Le Clerc, De Volder taught the whole logic of Burgersdijk in few lessons, and then he switched to natural philosophy and to metaphysics: see Le Clerc 352: “[i]l débuta dans sa Profession, par l’explication de la Logique de Burgersdice, qui s’enseignoit en cette Academie; mais il la finit en peu de leçons, & l’on s’apperçut bien tôt qu’il n’étoit rien moins que Péripateticien. Dans la suite, il fit rouler ses leçons publiques sur divers sujets de Physique & de Metaphyisique, qu’il choisissoit, selon son goût.”
51.
See Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 257–258, 268, 334, 235∗ and 237∗. His very first lectures were temporarily given at the hora tertia: Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 238. No details on De Volder’s further lectures are available before the ones of 1681.
52.
As to the differentiation between public and private lectures (which granted substantial honorariums to the professors), see Wiesenfeldt 2002, chapter 3.
53.
“Mr. de Volder avoit un concours extraordinaire d’Auditeurs, soit dans ses leçons publiques, soit dans les particulieres, où il expliquoit la Physique & la Métaphysique de Descartes. Cela ne venoit pas seulement de l’attachement, que l’on avoit alors pour la Nouvelle Philosophie; mais aussi de la maniere claire, nette & ingenieuse, dont il l’expliquoit. C’est un talent particulier qu’il avoit, dont on peut voir des preuves dans les Theses de Philosophie, qu’il a fait soûtenir en divers tems, & dont je parlerai dans la suite. Ceux qui l’ont ouï faire ses leçons lui donnent géneralement cette louange,” Le Clerc 1709, 353–354.
54.
See Sect. 2.4.2, De Volder’s retirement, death and legacy.
55.
See Sect. 3.2.1, De Volder on clarity and distinctness.
56.
See Strazzoni 2011, and Sect. 3.2.2.1.4, De Raey’s concealment and defence of Descartes’s metaphysics.
57.
“Comme il falloit encore ménager les esprits de certaines gens, qui etoient prévenus contre la Philosophie de Descartes, sans savoir pourquoi; il fait souvent voir que des Dogmes de Descartes, contre la nouveauté desquels on s’échauffoit, se trouvent dans les Anciens, & même dans Aristote. L’on m’a assuré qu’il avoit fait porter quelque fois lès Ouvrages dans la Chaire & qu’il en avoit lu des passages à ses Auditeurs; pour faire voir que bien des choses, que l’on accusoit de nouveauté, se trouvoient dans cet Auteur. On a accusé, par exemple, Descartes d’avoir voulu établir le Pyrrhonisme, pour avoir dit qu’il falloir commencer, par douter de tout, si l’on vouloit parvenir à une verité assurée. Cependant cela se trouve dans Aristote, Livre II de sa Métaphysique chap. I où il entreprend de montrer l’usage du doute, & les choses, dont il faut d’abord douter,” Le Clerc 1709, 352–353; cf. Metaphysica, 995a24–995b4.
58.
See Sect. 3.2.2.1.4, De Raey’s concealment and defence of Descartes’s metaphysics.
59.
On the attempts to develop ‘novantique’ philosophical theories, see Bodeüs 1991; Greene 1993; Strazzoni 2011.
60.
Besides, of course, his now lost dictata on logic, and, possibly, the third, now lost dictata on the Principia.
61.
As Notulae quaedam in nobilissimi doctissimique viri Dni Renati Descartes Principiorum philosophiae […] scriptae ex ore clar. doctissimique viri Burcheri de Volder medicinae ac philosophiae doctoris, et in Academia Lugduno Batava professoris (Cod. philos. 273).
62.
As Dictata Cl. Viri Dn. B. de Volder Professor. Publici in Celeberrim. Acad. Lugdun. Batava ad Principi. philosoph. Cartesi (ms. 72 A 7).
63.
As D. D. Burcheri De Volder dictata in Carthesii Principia philosophica (Cod. philos. 274). The digitized text of both the Hamburg series of dictata is available at the following addresses: https://resolver.sub.uni-hamburg.de/kitodo/PPN1014827108 and https://resolver.sub.uni-hamburg.de/kitodo/PPN1014826934 (accessed 5 February 2019).
64.
As B. de Volder Med. et Phil. Doct. eiusque professoris Dictata in Principiorum philosophiae partem quartam de terra (ms. BPL 2841).
65.
As Dictata viri clarissimi Burcheri de Volder in Principia Cartesii (ms. Sloane 1216).
66.
As Principia Renati des Cartes dictata a doctissimo celeberrimoque domino Burchero de Volder (MSD27).
67.
As B. de Volder Annotationes in Meditationes Renati Descartes. Accedunt quoque notae quaedam Burcheri de Volder in primum librum Principiorum Cartesii De cognitione humana (ms. BN Rps 3365 II).
68.
In the course of the book, I will refer to the Hamburg copies of De Volder’s dictata, which are the most complete versions. Whenever necessary, I will indicate the variants with respect to the other copies.
69.
At Hamburg three codices including De Volder’s dictata were extant, according to the historical catalogue of the Library: Cod. philol. 273 “Codex chartaceus CCCLX pagg. quo continetur Notulae quaedam in Renati desCartes principiorum Philosophiae partem primam scriptae ex ore Burchardi de Wolder. Ex bibliothekca Uffenbachiana”; Cod. philos. 274: “Codex chartaceus CXXI pagg. continens Eiusdem idem scriptum. Ex bibliotheca Uffenbachiana”; Cod. philos. 275: “Codex chartaceus CXCIV pagg. continens Eiusdem annotationes in Ren. d. Cartes principiorum Philosophiae partem secundam. Ex bibliotheca Uffenbachiana.” I thank Monika Müller, librarian at the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky, for having provided me with this information, and for having assisted me in locating De Volder’s dictata. The Cod. philos. 275 was lost during the war.
70.
Catalogus De Witt (1696), 335; Catalogus De Witt (1701), 62; Bibliotheca Nicolaiana, 148; Catalogus […] Henninius, 120; Bibliotheca Wasteau, 53; Bibliotheca Schalbruchiana, 122; Bibliotheca Duncanniana, 67; Bibliotheca Vriemoetiana, 114; Catalogus J. A. C., 44; Bibliotheca Barkeyana, 412; Catalogue De Mey, 241. See also Bibliotheca Musschenbroekiana (of Petrus van Musschenbroek, 1764–1823), 183, where a dictation of De Raey is wrongly attributed to De Volder.
71.
Uffenbach 1720, column 671. Also in Uffenbach 1729–1731, volume 3, 201–202. This catalogue, moreover, includes a reference to De Volder’s Animadversiones (now lost) on Descartes’s Principia: Uffenbach 1729–1731, volume 3, 463.
72.
“Een houte circul drajende op een ax ad demonstrandam vim centrifugam,” Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 105∗. See Sect. 6.2.1.2, Huygens’s quantification of centrifugal force.
73.
Namely, “Annotata in Jacobi Rohaulti, Tractatum physicum, a clariss. et nobil. Professore Burchero de Volder, 1698. MS.,” and “Annotata in Rohaultii, tertiam Partem de rebus terrestribus a clar. et nobili Professore Buchero de Volder, A^o 1699,” Bibliotheca Martiniana, 116 and 427. Le Clerc states that De Volder shifted to Rohault’s physics with not great satisfaction: “il étoit ennuyé d’expliquer […] la Physique de Rohaut, qu’il avoit expliquée dans les derniers tems; parce qu’il voyoît combien peu il y avoit de choses assurées, dans ces Livres,” Le Clerc 1709, 398. Also Ruardus Andala reports De Volder’s use of Rohault: Andala 1718, 124.
74.
Hamburg 273, 69.
75.
“Comme il étoit encore jeune, & qu’il ne s’étoit pas encore apperçu des défauts de cette Philosophie, comme il l’a fait depuis; il s’interessoit davantage dans ces sortes d’exercices & soûtenoit ce qu’il disoit avec beau coup de feu, quoi qu’il fût d’ailleurs très-moderé à l’égard des personnes. Il avoit alors pour collegue feu Mr. de Vries, depuis Professeur en Philosophie à Utrecht, qui l’attaquoit souvent dans ses Theses & dans ses Corollaires; & dont les fauteurs parloient mal de lui, sans qu’il leur en eût donné sujet. Les Etudians se partagerent entre eux, & les Cartesiens, comme il semble, se trouverent superieurs de beaucoup. Cela fit que dans une Dispute de Mr. de Vries, tenue le 3. de Mars 1674. ils firent quelques desordres dans l’Auditoire de Philosophie, qui obligerent ce Professeur desortir de Chaire, avant que l’heure fût écoulée. Châcun porta ses plaintes au Sénat Academique. Mrs. les Curateurs de l’Academie firent dire aux Professeurs en Philosophie, qu’il ne vouloient pas leur ôter la liberté de philosopher, mais qu’ils trouvoitnt à propos premierement, quel’on ne mêlât pas, ainsi quel’on faisoit, des questions Théologiques dans la Philosophie; comme cela avoit été déja défendu par un reglement de l’an 1656 & en second lieu, que châcun proposât ses opinions, soit Cartesiennes, soit Péripateticiennes avec modestie, & sans s’emporter les uns contre les autres,” Le Clerc 1709, 354–355; cf. Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 280–281, 290–294 and 313–314.
76.
“Comme en ce tems là les Cocceïens & les Cartesiens s’étoient unis ensemble, non qu’il y eût aucune liaison entre leurs sentimens particuliers; mais parce que les Voetiens s’opposoient également aux uns & aux autres, Mrs. Heidanus, Wittichius & de Volder, furent voir Mr. Fagel, Conseiller Pensionaire de la Province de Hollande, pour le desabuser des préventions, qu’on avoit voulu lui donner contre eux,” Le Clerc 1709, 356. For a full quotation, see Sect. 3.1.2.2, Cartesianism under attack at Leiden in the mid-1670s.
77.
“Ne sachant pas combattre leurs Adversaires, par la Raison, ils vouloient employer- l’autorité de l’Etat, pour accabler le Cartesianisme. Pour cela, il falloit faire accroire qu’il etoit opposé à la Théologie des Réformez, & même au Gouvernement d’alors; qui étoit celui d’un Stadthouder, dont l’autorité, presque collaterale à celle des Etats, régloit tout. Il n’y avoit rien, dans cette Philosophie, qui eût du rapport avec aucune maxime contraire au Gouvernement, ou à la Théologie. Mais ceux, qui étoient opposez à Descartes, firent en sorte que le Gouvernement fit quelques dé marches contre les Cartesiens,” Le Clerc 1709, 360–361.
78.
Le Clerc 1709, 368–370; cf. Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 317–321. For full quotations, see Sect. 3.1.2.2, Cartesianism under attack at Leiden in the mid-1670s.
79.
Le Clerc 1709, 370–373; cf. Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 324–327. For full quotations, see Sect. 3.1.2.2, Cartesianism under attack at Leiden in the mid-1670s.
80.
“Ipsi autem acciderat, ut literas ab Gubernatore subscriptas et in hanc urbem iam missas, quibus destinabatur Rector Magnificus, quorumcunque artificio exaratae aliae, quibus avertebatur ab isto decore Volderus, postridie exceperint. Statim nosse sortem suam potuit noster, quod in rebus tetricis magnum est et gloriosum et plenum solatii. Hinc ad despiciendos et illos, per quos venerant, atque et iam, id ipsum, propter quod venerant, concitatus, magnisque et sanctis, munimentis ab hac parte se circumsepiens, inprimisque hinc semper interius flectens, fortunae inde venienti laqueos et ungues paravit. Volder non erat possidere aliquid precibus expressam, animoque servili praemia ineptiae reputare. Volderus semper, quasi ignoraret sese, modestus, et credens plura peccari ab eo, qui magnates adulatione demereretur; quam si offenderet, silentio et tunc et semper maluit se involvere tanquam libertatis seu spretionis satis magnifico generi,” Gronovius 1709, 34–35; “[c]es Leçons lui firent beaucoup d’honneur, & furent très-avantageusês à l’Academie, à laquelle sa réputation attira beaucoup du monde. Feu Mr. de Beverning, qui étoit Curateur de l’Academie, prit une amitié particuliere pour lui, sans qu’il l’eût autrement recherchée; & fit en sorte, auprès du Prince d’Orange, qu’il le nomma Recteur cette année-là. La Patente même en fut expediée, & en voyée par un Messager à Leide à l’un des Bourgmestres [Mr. Groenendyck], selon la coûtume. Ce Bourgmestre se trouva absent & ne revint en ville qu’assez tard, de sorte qu’il n’étoit pas tems de convoquer le Sénat Academique, pour y déclarer l’élection du Recteur. Ce pendant le Messager ayant ouï lire la lettre, dont il étoit chargé, ne manqua pas de publier que Mr. de Volder avoit été fait Recteur. Mais il arriva un Courrier, la même nuit, adressé à un autre Bourgmestre [Mr. van der Meer], avec une seconde Lettre, où le Prince revoquoit l’élection précedente & choisissoit pour Recteur Mr. Boekelman. Quelques uns des ennemis, non de la personne de Mr. de Volder, qui n’étoit pas homme à s’en attirer par aucune mauvaise conduite, mais du Cartesianisme, ayant su sa nomination, qui étoit un effet, comme jl’ai dit, des bons offices de Mr. de Beverning, firent entendre au Prince que c’étoit un Cartesien, peu affectionné à la Maison d’Orange, & au Gouvernement du Stadthouder, & obtinrent de lui, dans l’absence de Mr. de Beverning, que son élection seroit revoquée. C’est ainsi qu’un grand Prince, par complaisance pour des gens, qui ne lui pouvoient guere rendre de service, & encore moins à l’Etat, faisoit quelque fois des mécontens, sans aucune nécessité; contre les regles de la bonne Politique, qui demande qu’on ne mécontente ja mais personne, sans qu’il l’ait mérité, par une conduite contraire aux interêts du Public. Ils croit bien à souhaiter que les nuages de la passion & des interêts des particuliers ne puisent jamais parvenir jusqu’à ceux, que leur haute dignité doit élever au-dessus de toutes les considerations, qui n’ont pas pour leur sin le bien de l’Etat. Mais on ne voit que trop souvent le contraire, & les grandes qualitez du Prince, dont je viens de parler, nel’ont pas toûjours pu garentir de cette sorte de surprises. On les doit néanmoins attribuer plûtôt à ceux qui l’environnoient qu’à lui même, qui n’avoit souvent aucun interêt, dans ce qu’on lui faisoit faire,” Le Clerc 1709, 364–366 and 373.
81.
“Mr. de Volder, à qui l’on fit entendre que ce n’étoit pas à lui, à qui l’on en vouloit, continua d’enseigner son Cartesianisme, mais avec un peu plus de précaution. Dans la suite, quand la chaleur de ces disputes fut passée, il explica en public non seulement la Physique, mais encore la Métaphysique de Descartes,” Le Clerc 1709, 373–374.
82.
See Sect. 3.2.2.2, De Volder on the ‘truth’ of Cartesian principles.
83.
Rattrey, from Sweden, never mentions De Volder in the disputation; moreover, he enrolled at Leiden only on 17 May 1679 (see Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV–MDCCCLXXV, column 628). In the disputation he refers to his teacher at Uppsala Petrus Hoffwenius, and to De Raey, who had been teacher of Hoffwenius at Leiden. See Sect. 5.6.3.3, De Volder’s assumption of Boyle’s law in the works of his students.
84.
I discuss this topic in Sect. 3.1.2.3, The demonstrations of the existence of God.
85.
“Er hat ein groß ingenium, und weis artig zu schertzen; Sein Judicium scheint nicht geringer zu sein. Wenn er was schreiben sollte, so würde er ohnezweifel einen Satyricum agiren, denn er ist ein spitziger Gast. Allein er hat nicht in Willens die unzehliche Menge der Bücher zuvermehren, die man vielmehr vergeringern sollte,” Warsaw University Library, Cod. IV oct. 49, 594. Transcription kindly provided by Martin Mulsow.
86.
“Comme il n’a donné au Public, que quelques Harangues (car les Theses, que l’on a publiées de lui, ont été publiées sans son aveu,) je croi qu’on ne sera pas fâché que je parle de châcune, en son tems […],” Le Clerc 1709, 374.
87.
On Gale, see Gordon 2004.
88.
See Sect. 2.4.2, De Volder’s retirement, death and legacy. Boerhaave looked again at De Volder’s scientific papers after his first check, as he had to put seals on De Volder’s belongings after having looked for his testament on 28 March 1709. Boerhaave’s preface to De Volder’s oration is dated 18 May 1709.
89.
“Tanti viri dotes nosse qui desiderant, nae habebunt illi, unde votis satisfaciunt suis, in perfectissima eximii Gronovii oratione, digna Volderi meritis, qua, quae aeternitatem meruit, defuncti memoriam mori vetuit. Ego acerbissimo mihi fato amici, qui nulli flebilior quam mihi occidit, natam iacturam sarcire studens, animo solatium meo, et publico utilitatem quaesivi in manuscriptis, quae vir optimus reliquerat. Quam speravi inventum iri, quod illi laudem, omnibus usum, nobis gaudia, praeberet! Sed spe magna decidi! Inveni quippe multum laboris, digesti nihil. Quid mirum? Illi ad altiora semper nitenti, iam perspecta ut ordinaret, nec otium superfuit, nec amor: quumque omni vita Socratem expressiset, et ipsa hacce re imitatus eundem fuit, ut editum quidpiam a se noluerit. Solummodo haec se obtulit oratio, hanc expolivit, hanc, efflagitantibus amicis, nec reperto, quod vetaret, mandato auctoris, edendam curavi,” De Volder 1709, Lecturo, 2 (unnumbered). See also Le Clerc 1709, 390–392.
90.
“Mr de Volder est obligé, dans ces Theses, d’expliquer souvent les sentimens de Descartes contre ses Adversaires, qui ne les entendoient pas assez bien. Cela l’avoit d’abord à degoûté de cet Ouvrage: ‘qu’importe, disoít-il, de rechercher si Descartes a cru ceci, ou cela? Lors qu’on est assuré de son sentiment, il est alors de l’interêt des Sciences de savoir s’il est veritable’. Mais l’utilité, qu’en pouvoit retirer la Jeunessè l’obligea de passer par dessus cette consideration. C’est pour ce la, qu’il s’est plus étendu qu’il n’auroit fait, dans un Ouvrage d’une autre nature, & qu’il a redit des choses déja expliquées par d’autres, qu’il auroit entierement omises. Aussi ne voulut-il jamais achever cette défense de Descartes, ni la publier lui même; & un Libraire l’ayant fait imprimer à Amsterdam, en MDCXCV in 8, il desavoüa cette Edition, & ne put néanmoins se résoudre à en donner une meilleure. Quoi qu’il en soit, il n’y a point de livre, que je sâche, où les sentimens de Descartes sur les matieres qu’il traite, soient expliquez plus nettement & défendus avec plus de méthode & de force. Il y a encore une chose, qu’on ne peut trop louer, c’est que Mr. de Volder y traite par tout son Adversaire, avec toute la civilité possible, & ne s’attache qu’aux choses, sans rien mêler de personnel. Cet ouvrage, revu avec soin, lui pouvoit assurément faire honneur. Mais l’Auteur étoit résolu à ne rien publier de semblable, quelque talent qu’il eût à se bien expliquer. Ne dire que ce que d’autres avoient dit ne lui paroissoit pas une occupation digne de lui; & avancer quelque chose de nouveau étoit, comme il croyoit, s’exposer à des contradictions, qui finissoient souvent par des querelles. C’est comme il parloit quelque fois à ses Amis,” Le Clerc 1709, 383–384. Cf. De Volder 1695, De dubitatione universali, thesis 2.
91.
De Volder acted as intermediary between Bayle, Leibniz and Johann Bernoulli: see the letter of Leibniz to Bayle of 19 August 1702, of Bernoulli to Leibniz of 16 September 1702, of Leibniz to Bayle of 3 October 1702, of Bernoulli to Leibniz of 18 November 1702.
92.
“Il y a une fausseté dans le titre de ce Livre, car on y assure que toutes les Theses que Monsieur de Volder a faites contre les Athées, & il n’est pas vrai qu’elles soyent toutes ici. Il avoit expressément marqué dans celles qu’il a fait soútenirà ses Disciples, sur cette importante question de l’existence de Dieu, qu’il lui en restoit d’autres à faire, & cela paroît assez. Comme il n’avoit pas dessein qu’elles servissent à d’autres usages qu’à une Dispute Académique, il n’a point voulu les achever, croyant par là faire en sorte qu’aucun Libraire n’en entreprit l’édition. Mais se soins ont été inutiles, car on a publié malgré lui ce qui en avoit parû sur les bancs de son Auditoire, & on a retranché l’endroit où il avoit averti, que l’Ouvrage n’étoit pas encore à sa fin. Comme donc il n’avoit pas eu dessein de travailler pour le Public, en faisant ces Theses pour ses Ecoliers, & que d’ailleurs cette édition a été faite sans qu’il en ait été averti, qu’elle est pleine de fautes d’impression, & qu’il est faché qu’on l’ait entreprise, il déclare qu’il ne reconnoît point pour sa produttion cet Ouvrage-ci. Il le desavouë entierement. Il contient néanmoins de très-bonnes choses, qui peuvent servir d’un bon Commentaire à quelques endroits difficiles des Méditations de Monsieur Descartes. On avoit déja joüé une semblable piece à Monsieur de Volder, à l’égard d’une Dissertation sur les principes du Corps, & sur la pesanteur de l’air, qu’on publia à son insçú l’an 1681. C’est une bonne marque, & qui doit le consoler des supercheries que les Libraires lui font. Il y a bien des gens qui voudroient être en la même peine; ceux par exemple qui ne trouvent personne qui se veuille charger de leurs Ouvrages, quoi qu’ils sollicitent de porte en porte tous les Libraires à les imprimer. Que. plaisir ne seroit-ce pas pour eux, si on les imprimoit sans aucune sollicitation, & sans attendre leur consentement? Monsieur de Volder est Professeur en Philosophie & en Mathématique à Leide, & s’est acquis une grande réputation,” Bayle 1685, 225–227. A short review of De Volder’s Contra atheos appeared also in the issue 31 of the Journal des Sçavans (19 November 1685).
93.
See Marchand’s Dictionnaire historique (1758–1759), article Albizi, where Marchand remarks how the Protestant meddled profane and sacred things, and noted how De Volder was displeased by such a dedication: “Professeur Burcher de Volder […], qui a souffert qu’on lui adressàt cette étrange Dédicace: Deo tri-uni, et Clarissimo Domino Burchero de Volder,” Marchand 1758–1759, volume 1, 8. Marchand’s source on the anecdote is unknown. A short review of the collated edition of De Volder’s De rerum naturalium principiis and De aëris gravitate (1681) appeared on the May 1682 issue of the Acta Eruditorum.
94.
The correspondence is extant at the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, ff. 44–69. A complete edition of this correspondence is currently in processing by the author. See 63r: “[…] {une} harangue de ma facon, qu’il m’a falu publier contre mon gré par l’authorité de ceux qui gouvernent nostre Academie.”
95.
On Huet’s Censura and its reception, see Rapetti 1999, 2003, 2018; Shelford 2007; Lennon 2008.
96.
“Je (Mr. de Volder) ne puis m’empêcher de me plaindre au public de l’avidité des Libraires, qui entreprennent sans aucuns égards d’imprimer tout ce qu’ils jugent propre à leur apporter quelque profit. Dans les fonctions de ma profession, j’avois composé quelques Exercitations Academiques où j’examinois la Censura Philosophiae Cartesianae de Mr. Huët: & cela uniquement pur l’usage de mes auditeurs. Or comme je ne les destinois point à l’impression, je ne les ai pas travaillées avec la même application, ni la même exactitude que si j’avois eu d’autres vuës. D’ailleurs n’ayant d’autre dessein que l’instruction de mes disciples, vous savez qu’il faut expliquer plus amplement, & avec plus d’étenduë certains principes, que l’on pose dans un écrit public, sans s’arrêter à les prouver, parce que l’on suppose qu’ils sont dêjà connus du lecteur. De plus je n’ai point pretendu expliquer mes propres sentimens: je me suis uniquement proposé de rapporter les opinions de Descartes, & de les defendre contre les objections de Mr. l’Evêque d’Avranches. Mais je ne prens point de party, & je n’allegue point mon jugement particulier. Au reste cette édition qui se fait sans ma participation est si pleine de fautes, qu’il y a beaucoup de choses qui peuvent être mal entenduës, & dont le sens est fort douteux & fort ambigu. Ainsi afin que l’on ne m’impute ni les fautes, ni les sentimens d’autrui, je vous prie de desavouër pour moi ces Exercitations ausquelles les Libraires ont affiché mon nom sans mon consentement,” Basnage de Beauval 1695, 421–422. On this letter, see Wiesenfeldt 2016.
97.
“Placuit nuper Illustri Suessoniensi, Episcopo Cartesianae, quam vocat Philosophiae edere Censuram, qua non omnis, sed praecipua et capitalia eius vitia persequitur. Nec defuere inter eos qui illam Philosophandi rationem amant minus, qui in hoc reconditae sane eruditionis viro magnum suae causae patrocinium ponerent, non tam, si quid video, rationibus ab ipso allatis, quam viri summi merito suo nominis auctoritate ad id adducti. Qua re factum est, ut ex meis discipulis nonnulli egregii adolescentes, cum animadverterent me et Reverendi huius Praesulis et aliorum multorum argumentationibus, quae contra Cartesii Philosophandi viam, eiusque dogmata passim producerentur, parum commoveri, nec in illis existimare tantum esse virium, quantum praedicarent multi, me rogaverint, ut quo illis sese exercendi detur occasio, Academicarum Disputationum forma exponere velim, quidnam aut de Cartesii sententiae veritate, aut de aliorum in Cartesium allatis rationibus sentirem. […] Cui petitioni an obsequerer diu dubius haesi. Facile enim videbam multa dicenda esse, quae ab aliis dicta non sine nausea possent repeti. Deinde et illud apparebat longe aliam mihi in nonnullis casibus esse sententiam de Cartesii mente, quam eius adversariis, adeoque quaerendum nonnunquam fore, quaenam fuerit mens Cartesii. Quae disputationis ratio, ut ad personarum, ubi de iis agitur, defensionem multum potest, ita ad veritatis perquisitionem nihil confert. Sive enim hoc senserit Cartesius, sive illud, quid attinet inquirere? An verum sit quod senserit, ubi de sensu constat, hoc demum scientiarum et veritatis interest. […] Ex altera tamen parte multa videbantur suadere, ne illorum voluntati refragarer; vix enim, quamdiu in hoc publice docendi munere versor, videbar honeste denegare posse id, quod et moris est Academici, et quod in sui commodum redundare non posse immerito fortasse arbitrabantur. Accedebat et illud, quod hac occasionis sperabam, me eam philosophandi rationem, quam licet nequaquam in omnibus, in generalibus tamen sequendam existimo, ab innumeris liberaturum cavillationibus, et praecauturum hac via, ne Tyronum, quibus haec solummodo destinantur, animi per illas avocentur a rei veritate exacte inquirenda et agnoscenda,” De Volder 1695, De dubitatione universali, theses 1–3. Cf. Le Clerc 1709, 381–382: “[l]’Auteur déclare, dès le commencement, qu’il croyois que l’on doit suivre les principes géneraux de la Philosophie de Descartes, mais qu’il ne la faut pas suivre en tout.” Cf. supra, n. 90.
98.
I will consider such demonstrations in Chap. 3.
99.
“Forte nuper amicus ad me attulit quae Burcherus de Volder clarissimus apud Leidenses professor pro Cartesio in tuam censuram novissime scripsit, publice edita. Viri fama, ipsiusque amici desiderium fecere, ut perlegerem solito attentius; visusque mihi est non raro deserere Cartesium cum defendere videtur,” GP III, 19.
100.
“Il n’étoit nullement entêté de la Philosophie, qu’il enseignoit,” Le Clerc 1709, 398.
101.
“Je ne doute pas que le Livre de Mr. Newton ne lui eût ouvert les yeux, sur la doctrine des tourbillons de Descartes; que ce Livre a entierement renversée, à cela près, qu’il établit le Systeme de Copernic, comme lui; en reconnoissant le Soleil, comme le centre commun des mouvemens de la Terre & des autres Planetes. Cette partie de la Physique de Descartes avoit néanmoins paru à bien des gens la mieux imaginée. On voit en cette rencontre, comme en plusieurs autres, l’exemple d’un grand Mathematicien, qui ne raisonnoit point mathematiquement, ni même conséquemment. […] Il n’étoit nullement entêté de la Philosophie, qu’il enseignoit; sur la fin de ses jours, & même quelques années auparavant, il avoit reconnu le foible du Cartesianisme; autant apparemment, par sa propre méditation, que par le secours des habiles Anglois, qui ont établi d’autres principes. Je l’ai ouï se moquer, plus d’une fois, d’une bonne partie des Méditations de Descartes, quoi qu’il les eût expliquées pendant long-tems. S’il est permis d’ajoûter cette raison à celles, qu’il a rendues de l’envie qu’il avoit de vivre en repos; je croirois qu’il ne vouloit pas composer un nouveau Système, & qu’il étoit ennuyé d’expliquer ces Méditations, aussi bien que la Physique de Rohaut, qu’il avoit expliquée dans les derniers tems; parce qu’il voyoît combien peu il y avoit de choses assurées, dans ces Livres. Il lui échappoit de tems en tems des plaintes, en s’entretenant avec ses amis, du peu de progrès que l’on avoir fait, dans la connoissance de la Verité,” Le Clerc 1709, 382 and 398–399.
102.
See supra, n. 90.
103.
See Van Miert 2009, chapter 5.
104.
See Rapetti 1999, 113–117 and 140–143. A handwritten copy of the first disputation is extant at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, amongst Huet’s papers: Ms. F. Lat. 11451, 2r–8r.
105.
See Wiesenfeldt 2000, 2002, chapter 2, 2008.
106.
See Wiesenfeldt 2002, 61, referring to manuscripts AC (Archief van Curatoren) 87, and ASF (Archief Senaat en Faculteiten) 296, 51v, extant at Leiden University Library.
107.
See Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 2, 37, 108, 109, 142, 297–298 and 267∗.
108.
No clearer information is given by Gronovius and Le Clerc, who only mention De Volder’s travel to England: see Gronovius 1709, 23–24; Le Clerc 1709, 362–363. According to Le Clerc, De Volder stayed in England a few weeks; he knew some English, enough to read it.
109.
I owe this information to Abraham des Amorie van der Hoeven’s De Philippo a Limborch, theologo, dissertatio historico-theologica (1843): “[t]anti Limborchium faciebant viri docti in Anglia ut viri clarissimi Crusius Juris, Volderus Philosophiae, Melderus Mathematices in Academia nostra primaria Lugduno-Batava professores, cum anno 1674 per ferias caniculares in Angliam excurrere statuissent, ab illo literas commendatitias sibi efflagitandas censuerint,” Des Amorie van der Hoeven 1843, De Philippo a Limborch, theologo, dissertatio historico–theologica, 39. Des Amorie van der Hoeven does not declare his source: he refers to “[m]anuscripta varii generis quae servantur in Bibliothecis Remonstrantium Amstelodamensi et Roterodamensi,” Des Amorie van der Hoeven 1843, De Philippo a Limborch, theologo, dissertatio historico–theologica, 39. These manuscripts are now extant at the Amsterdam University Library and at the municipal library of Rotterdam. On Van Limborch’s correspondence, see Simonutti 1984; Simonutti 1990; Van Rooden and Wesselius 1987; Walsh 2018.
110.
Two letters by De Volder to Van Limborch of 1676 and 1688 are reported in a auction catalogue of 1862, organized by Martinus Nijhoff: “Volder, B. De, Prof. de philos. à Leide, cartésien célèbre. 2 Ltt. aut. sig. en Holl. à S. v. Limborch. 1676, 88. Avec cachet. Lettres spirituelles. ‘Hoe souw ik int goudt gaan als men met dadelycke proeven kon toonen dat onse leerwijse soude dienst doen aan de vrienden’,” Nijhoff 1862, 85. These two letters have not been recovered. Four letters, in Latin, between De Volder and Van Limborch, dating back to 1687–1699, are extant at the Amsterdam University Library.
111.
See Simonutti 1990.
112.
See the full text of the letter, preserved at the Uppsala University Library (Waller Ms. benl-00770): “Viro Amplissimo Newton. / Mathesios Professori / S. P. / B. De Volder. / Quanquam decennium est, a quo te Cantabrigiae vidi, me tamen nequaquam {oblitum} summae, quam tunc expertus sum, humanitatis tuae ex hisce cognoscere. Ea enim mihi tanta visa fuit, ut, licet eam promereri hactenus non potuerim, commendare tamen tibi {sust} meam hunc Ioh. Christ. Tsimmermans, qui litteras hasce ad te deferet. Iuvenis est, honesto loco natus, Reverendi hac nostra in Academia Theologiae Professoris Wittichi ex sorore nepos. huic, postquam per triennium circiter rebus ex philosophicis et theologicis diligentem {navassit} operam apud vos commorari nunc est animus, et se inter alia mathematicis etiam dare. Optime autem secum actum iri cum iure existimet, si tua ope et consilio hosce in conatibus suis adiuvetur, iustissima eius petitioni denegare non potui, quo minus te rogarem, ut pro summa tua in exteros humanitate et pro eximia in rebus mathematicis peritia egregii huius iuvenis, qui suam tibi sat scio, probaturus est diligentiam, studia adiuvare non dedigneris[,] quo ipso summopere tibi eos qui ipsum proprius contingunt honestissimos viros, devincies, et meo ad omnia vicissim officia praestanda habebis paratissimum[.] / Vale. / Lugd. Batav. a.d. VIII Calend. Decembr. / CIƆIƆCLXXXIV.” English translation in Hall 1982, 11. Later, in June 1702, Newton recommended Frans Burman Jr. to be admitted to the meetings of the Royal Society as he had studied under De Volder: “Sr. / The Gentleman who brings you this, is on [sic] of the chaplains to the Dutch Embassadors. I beg the favour that by the leave of the R. Society you would introduce him to see one of their meetings. He has heard Monsr. Volders Lectures & has a curiosity about Mathematicae et Philosophicae things. If he brings a friend with him, I beg the favour that you will treat them with respect. I am / Your humble servant / Js. Neuwton / Jerounstreet, / June 2. 1702,” Capadose 1828, 10. Burman would be received by Newton, on 13 June 1702, because he was a student of De Volder: “D. 13 p. m. Invisi ad Celeberrimum D. Isaacum Neuwtonum, qui me humanissime excepit vel solius Volderi causa, cuius me discipulum ferebam. Actum praecipue de systemate universi,” Capadose 1828, 9. Burman did not defend disputations under De Volder.
113.
See Wiesenfeldt 2002, 61. See also De Hoog 1974, 144; Van Helden 1991, 163.
114.
Thomas Burnet might also have had direct contacts with De Volder. Indeed, he was present at the inaugural oration of Jacques Bernard, who succeeded De Volder at Leiden: see his letter to Leibniz of 29 December 1705: “[j]e quita la Haye pour 3 ou 4 jours pour allér à Leyde entendre le Harangue Inaugurale de Monsr Bernard (à cette heure lectur en philosophie dans la place de Monsr Volder et aussi ministre des Eglise fransoise dans cette ville),” A XXV1, 460.
115.
“D. Burchardus de Volder, Professor Philosophiae in dese Universiteyt, heeft aen de H. C. ende B. soo mondelingh als by geschrifte gerepresenteert de nuttigheyt ende de groote avantages, die dese Universiteyt soude konnen werden toegebraght, indien nae het exempel van andere uytlandsche academien en illustre scholen alhier in dese Universiteyt by experimenten moghten werden gedoceert en aengewesen de waerheyt ende seekerheyt van die stellingen ende leeren, die in Physica theoretica de studenten werden voorgehouden, met presentatie dat hy niets soo lieff soude sien dan dat C. ende B. voorn. hem tot de exercitie praefatae Physicae experimentalis soude believen te admitteren ende daer toe te subministreren soodanigh een plaets, mitsgaders alsulke instrumenta ende verdere nootsaekelycheden, als de voors. demonstratie soude komen te vereyschen; sijnde de voorn. de Volder absolutelyck gepersuadeert dat, behalve de nuttigheyt ende het vermaek van de voors. te doene demonstratie, door deselve veele studenten van andere academien ende scholen herwaarts aengeloct ende het studium Physices seer gefaciliteert soude konnen werden. Waerop gedelibereert sijnde is goedgevouden ende geresolveert dat dese saeke wat nader sal werden geexamineert, ende overwoogen welke ende hoedanige plaetsen dairtoe best soude konnen werden geappliceert en hoeverre dese Universiteyt daer mede als oock met den incoop ende onderhoud van de nodige instrumenten ende preparatien soude werden belast, om ’t selve gedaen sijnde, alsdan soodanigh te werden geresolveert als bevonden sal werden te behooren,” Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 298. See also Nyden 2013, 233–234.
116.
Le Clerc 1709, 362–363. For a discussion of the differences in function of the experiments carried out at the Royal Society and at Leiden, see Wiesenfeldt 2002, 111–113.
117.
“Ses Amis & ses Disciples se souviennent de lui avoir ouï faire alors un discours, où faisoit voir qu’en matieres de Physique, l’Experience sert plus que le Raisonnement. Une autrefois il en fit un, où il montra que, dans les choses Métaphysiques & de pure spéculation, le Raisonnement alloit plus loin que l’Experience. Soit qu’il n’eût pas écrit ces discours, ou qu’il les ait négligé depuis, ils ne se sont pas trouvez parmi ses Papiers,” Le Clerc 1709, 364.
118.
On De Volder’s experiments in chemistry, see Sect. 5.6.4, The application of Boyle’s pneumatics to physiology. On the conflict between De Maets and De Volder, see Wiesenfeldt 2002, 199–201. In his reconstruction, to which I re-direct the reader for more details, Wiesenfeldt quotes and refers to Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 298, 301, 269∗ and 273∗, and to the manuscripts, preserved at Leiden, AC 108, AC 16, ff. 50–56, AC 26, ff. 673–680. In 1705, De Volder publicly thanked the Curators for the opening of the theatre: see De Volder 1705, 33.
119.
“1675. Jan. 26. By resumtie gedelibereert wesende op het versoek van den Professor Burchardus de Volder, breder onder de notulen van den 3en Decemb. jonxstl. geextendeert, is goedgevonden ende geresolveert denselve Professor de Volder tot de institutie van de Physica experimentalis te admitteren, gelijck deselve daertoe geadmitteert werd mitsdesen: dienvolgende dat de huysinge van den rentmeester van der Meer, staende bewesten de woniuge van den Professor Botanices in de Nonnesteegh by de Universiteyt, sal werden aengenomcn tot soodanigh een prijs, als hetselve met relatie tot de waarde, die daer is geweest voor den laetste ongeluckige oorlogh, by neutrale mannen sal werden getauxeert, ende dat ter concurrenter somme van deselve tauxatie aen den voorn, rente- meester van der Meer in plaetse van kooppenningen sal werden ter hand gestelt een obligatie van de H. C. ende Β. met stipulatie van alsulke intresten, als in de jonxste gedane negotiatie aen andere des Universiteyts crediteuren siju uytgelooft; dat voorts deselve huysinge soodanig sal werden geapproprieert, als de gelegentheyt van de te houdene exercitiën mitsgaders de te doene demonstratien in dicta Physîca experimentali sal komen te vereyschen: dat eyndelyck aen den voorn. D. de Volder sal werden ter hand gestelt een somme van 400 guldens omme beheert te werden tot incoop van alsulke instrumenten ende praeparatien, als tot den aenvanck ende uytvoeringe van de voors. exercitiën en demonstratien onvermydelyck sullen werden vereyst, des dat hy van de uytgifte der voors. Somme sal hebben te houden pertinente notitie ende daervan des versoght sijnde in handen van de H. C. ende Β. overleveren specifycque declaratien. En sal aen den voorn. ü. de Volder mitsgaders aen den Rector ende de Senatus Academiae toegesonden werden een extract authentycq uyt dese resolutie tot hare naerigtiuge,” Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 301.
120.
For a thorough reconstruction of the history of the Van Musschenbroek workshop, see De Clercq 1988, 1989, 1991, 1997a, b.
121.
See Wiesenfeldt 2002, 63. Wiesenfeldt refers to the manuscripts AC 88–91, especially AC 88, f. 39; to AC 27, ff. 15v and 46. According to Le Clerc, De Volder spent more than 400 guilders and he used his own money for the additional expenses. In the following years, he spent less money; he was anyway granted additional sums: see Le Clerc 1709, 362–363: “[i]l le leur persuada & ces Mrs. acheterent un endroit près de l’Academie, qu’ils firent disposer en forme de théatre, afin que les Etudians puisent voir commodément les Experiences de Physique & de Méchanique, que Mr. de Volder feroit devant eux. Ils lui assignerent pour cela quatre cents francs par an, qu’ils lui donnerent la liberté de dépenser, pour acheter les instrumens nécessaires & pour faire les Experiences qu’il trouveroit à propos. La premiere année, il dépensa bien davantage; mais il ne voulut mettre à compte à l’Université, que la somme qu’on lui avoit assignée. Il paya le surplus, du sien; mais les années suivantes, les dépenses n’égalerent pas cette somme, & il avoit soin de fournir des comptes exacts de ce qu’il avoit dépensé, sans profiter jamais de la liberalité de Mrs. les Curateurs, pour son avantage particulier; quoi qu’il l’eût pu faire, sans qu’on y eût trouvé à redire. Aussi faut-il rendre ce témoignage à Mr. de Volder, que c’étoit l’homme du monde le moins interessé. Jamais il ne fit le moindre mouvement, pour faire augmenter ses gages, qui le furent néanmoins plusieurs fois, par la génerosité de Mrs. les Curateurs; car d’abord ils avoient été fort petits.” See also De Clercq 1997a, 137.
122.
“Aan Curateuren ende Burgermeesteren verthoont wesende verscheyde figurative projecten, volgens de welke sonde können werden gedresseert de sitplaetse ende het theatrum in het Auditorium Philosophiae experimentalis, sijn Burgermeesteren ende Regierders der stad Leyden versoght ende geauthoriseert om uyt deselve projecten soodanigh een te verkiesen, ende vervolgens de voors. Sitplaetseu ende het theatrum soodanigh te disponeren, als ten meeste dienste van de voors. exercitiën, ende tot commoditeyt van de auditores bevonden sal werden te behooren,” Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 312.
123.
See Wiesenfeldt 2002, 118–124.
124.
“Den 19. Jan. [1711] […] Wir besahen also bey dem Garten hinter der Gallerie das Laboratorium physicum Acad. Es bestehet in einem nicht gar grossen Zimmer auf der Erde, das sonderlich vor Holland nicht gar sauber ist. Es hatte rings herum erhöhte Bäncke, wie ein Theatrum anatomicum. In der Mitte stund auch ein erhöhter Tisch. Auf diesem war eine ziemliche grosse antlia pneumatica, noch von der alten Invention des Samuel Musschenbroeks, incliniert mit einer cista, Wasser darein zu thun. An der Seite stunde noch eine Antlia, auch von den ersten Erfindungen, aber vertical auf einem Dreifuß, wiewohl sehr schlecht, wie dann der Cilinder nur einen Zoll stark war. Hinter diesem Zimmer waren in einem Kämmergen noch einige schlechte Instrumente, meist Recipienten zur Antlia, so aber unsauber und unter einander lagen, auch guten theils zerbrochen waren. Ein Thermometrum war auch in Stücken. Ein gläserner Tubus bey zehen Schuh lang, und zwey Zoll im Diameter, da wir aber nicht sehen konnten, wozu er diente. Eine kleine Aeolipila. Ein kleiner Sextans von Holz, den motum pendulorum damit zu machen. Wie man uns versichert, so geschehen allhier viermal in der Wochen Lectiones publicae von Herrn Senguerd; Herr de Volder aber habe mehr Zuhörer gehabt, er seye auch in seinen Experimenten curiöser gewesen. Ob es gleich in diesem Auditorio oder Laboratorio ziemlich schlecht aussahe, so wäre doch zu wünschen daß auf allen Universitäten dergleichen wären, und die Experimente öffentlich gemacht würden,” Uffenbach 1753–1754, volume 3, 420 and 425–426. Please note that the inclined air-pump saw by Uffenbach was that of Senguerd. On the other instruments, see infra. References to the auditorium are given also in Les délices de Leide (1712): “[i]l y a pur cela un beau Laboratoire dans le Nonnesteeg, fourni de tous les Instrumens necessaires pour ce sujet, où le Professeur conduit des Disciples & les Curieux, raisonne sur les experiences qu’il fait, & en démontre l’evidence & la justesse,” Van der Aa 1712, 82. Wiesenfeldt cites also an anonymous handwritten Journal of my Travels (24 June – 20 August 1691), extant at the British Library (Ms. Add. 20705, ff. 1–46): “[…] fine physick garden and Elaboratory with many fine rarities,” f. 32r. I quote from Wiesenfeldt 2002, 68.
125.
Oldenburg 1965–1986, volume 11, 454. Cf. the original text: “[o]n luy écrit de leyde que Messrs. les Estats y ont establi un laboratoire philosophique ou on fera toutes sortes d’experiences. Cest un nommé Mr. Voldredus qui en a soin qui est habile et capable de s’en bien servir,” Oldenburg 1965–1986, volume 11, 453.
126.
“Vos dernieres transactions m’ont esté les bienvenues, et d’abord le Sr. Volder Professeur en Philosophie à Leiden, qui dernièrement nous a faict de belles demonstrations attractives du poids et de la force statique de l’Air, me les est venu empruntés. Je l’aij animé à produire aussi ses experiences de son costé, ne semper sit auditos tantum, et je m’asseure qu’il escouttera mes semonces,” Oldenburg 1965–1986, volume 12, 145. I slightly modified the translation provided in this edition: Oldenburg 1965–1986, volume 12, 147.
127.
De Volder 1676–1677, 78r. As to the opening of the theatre in 1675, see also infra, n. 139.
128.
Le Clerc 1709, 363–364.
129.
“D. Burcherus de Volder singulis Lunae diebus in Theatro Physico in hunc usum constructo experimenta Physica cuiuscunque generis publice demonstrabit; ceteris vero diebus celebriora Philosophiae problemata exponet,” Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 269∗; see also 272∗.
130.
“Extract uyt de Resolutien van de Curateuren der Universiteyt binnen Leyden, en Burgermeesteren der selver Stadt, dato den 9 November 1676. Op de Requeste van Hieronimus Meyer, Dienaer des Universiteyts Kruythof, om geloont te werden voor den dienst van het schoon den van Instrumentenen anderen, die hy in ’t Auditorium Philosophiae experimentalis, op ordre van den Heere Professor de Volder, eenigen tydt herwaerts hadde gedaen, midtsgadersom voor toekomende op een sortabel Tractement in den voorszdienst gecontinueertte mogen werden. Waer op gedelibereert zynde, is goedtgevonden en verstaen, dat den voornoemden Hieronimus Meyer in den voorsz dienst sal werden gecontinueert, en dat op een Tractement vanvijftigh guldens jaerlijcks; te rekenen van dien tydt af dat hy sich tot den voorsz dienst effectivelijck heeft laten employeren, ende dat daer mede alle syne pretensien van voorgaende diensten sullen komen op te houden ende te cesseren,” Rosenboom 1697, part 1, 89–90. This resolution is not reported by Molhuysen. See Wiesenfeldt 2002, 63–64, referring to ms. AC 27, 83; see also Rosenboom 1697, part 1, 14–15, and part 2, 23.
131.
“Antonius Hoevenaer, Dⁱ Prof^is Volderi amanuensis quod ad instrumenta mathem.,” Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV–MDCCCLXXV, column 659.
132.
On students’s attendance at lectures in Leiden, see Wiesenfeldt 2002, 100–105. No information about the number of people attending De Volder’s experimental lectures is extant. On the attendance to De Volder’s private lectures, see his letter to Johannes Braun (Cocceian professor of theology and Hebrew at Groningen) of 9 May 1689: see infra, n. 267.
133.
Daumas 1972, part 1; De Pater 1975; De Clercq 1988, 1989, 1991, 1997a, b; Van Helden 1991; Wiesenfeldt 2002, chapter 3; Hooijmaijers and Maas 2013. See also the Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington Museum (1876), 135–137.
134.
It is worth quoting it here in full; for a translation, see Table 2.2, De Volder’s natural-philosophical instruments: “1705 Nov. 14. Lyste en register van de machinen en instrumenten behoorende tot het Theatrum Experimentale Physicum deser Universiteit, door de heer Professor de Volder den 14en Novemb. A^o 1705 aan my οvergelevert, en waarvan ik aan syn Ed. quytantie gepasseert hebbe. Een kopere antlia pneumatica in een kopere kas, staande in een houte back met loot beslagen met verscheyde sleutels daar toe behoorende. Twee kopere platen om de recipiënten in te stellen. Twee kopere pijpen tot die platen. Een copere omgeboge pijp mede tot de antlia behoorende. Verscheyde recipiënten tot die selvige behoorende, waar van sommige boven open en sommige boven toe sijn. Verscheyde decksels tot de recipienten. Een recipient om een klockje in te stellen met sijn decksel en het klockje etc. Een recipient met een kopere pijp om de lugt boven uyt te halen tot vis etc. Een dexsel met een hevel, daer door verscheyde glase hevels, als oock glase in verscheyde forme geblasen. Verscheyde glase pypen, sommige aan een kant toe, sommige aan byde open, sommige met bollen, sommige sonder bollen. Twee kopere hemisphaeria met een houte stellingh daar toe. Twee marmere cylinders op elkander gesleepen. Twee glasen met pijpen om quicksilver op te trecken. Twee blicke dosen. Daarenboven nogh een met een schijdingh tussen byde en onder met gaten. Twee glasen pypen, een toe sonder lugt, de ander open, byde met een wolletge daerin om het onderscheyd in het valle te toonen. Een groote houte back met lange en korte glase pypen. Een stucx van een holle copere conus. Een glas tot de rareficatie van de lugt door de warmte. Een groote bilance met houte schalen. Tussen de 1200 en 1300 pond swaar gewicht. Nevens eenigh koper gewigt. Als ook een doosje met klyn gewigt. Eenige lode cylinders, agt van 10 pond en vier van 5 pond. Een klynder bilance met twee paar schaalen. Een schroef die vast gestelt is. Een groote ley. Twee aeolipilae. Een houte bol met twee driedubbelde contrarie schroeven. Een koper speuytge. Een houte circul drajende op een ax ad demonstrandam vim centrifugam. Een doos met vier pont quicksilver. Nogh een kannetje met quicksilver. Een glase pasloot. Een glas met de vier elementen. Een zylsteen met een anker daar aen hangende. Een doosje met eenige acus magneticae, nevens een kleyne zijlsteen ongewapent. Een microscopium met twee glasen. Verscheyde microscopia met een glas. Een metale perspectief spiegel met sijn schilderye. Een barometrum. Een doos met twee glasen tot twee dubbelde barometra van de Hr. Huygens, nevens het stelsel. Een thermoscopium. Een hygroscopium. Een kopere oven met een lode back. Een hout instrument staande op syn kruck, onder met twee stucken van kopere afgedeelde circuls ad regulas motus. Hier toe 16 ivore en 3 houte bollen. Nogh een hout gootje tot het selfde gebruik. Een kopere machine om bene sagt te koken. Een sipho Wirtenburgensis. Een fonteyn van koper met verscheyde pypen daertoe behoorende. Nog een fonteyn van glas met twee kopere pypen. Een glas met een openingh in het midden ad demonstrandam aëris pressionem lateralem. Een doos met copere, lode, en uyt beide gemengde bollen, dienende tot het wegen van die metalen, als ook te kennen het mengsel van die beyde. Een holle copere cubus van een half voet, sijnde tot het wegen van de swaarte van een voet waters. Een copere buys verdeelt in voeten om de perpendiculare pressie van ’t water als ook de snelheyt van die te wegen en te meten. Een copere cylinder met een ingesette boom van ½ voet diameter, met verscheyde kopere pypen en een kettingh gaande van de losse boom door de pyp naar boven tot de selfde eynde. Twee kopere backen de een in de ander passende, nevens een houte stelsel daertoe. Eenige glazen pijpen aan een gesoldeert. Een groote houte back met een houte schydingh waar in verscheyde openingen zyn, met dexsels daertoe. Alsmede verscheyde kopere backen van een en van een half voet met decksels om daardoor in de houte back te meten pressionem aquae horizontalem et ad quemlibet angulum. Een groot glas met een koper decksel met een pyp ter zyde, om gewigt te sustineren door water in de sypyp staande boven het gewigt. Een toverlantaarn met syn schilderytjes. Twee voetmaten, een Hollandsche en een Parijsche voet,” Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 104∗. See also 222.
135.
“Le Grand Thermometre de Florence, 1 ——— dito, 3 Curieuse Magneetsteenen, […] 1 Glaase Pijp,” Bibliotheca Volderina, 95.
136.
In particular, the barometer of Huygens (or the ‘double thermometer’), the hygroscope, a pijlgewigt (viz. a set of hollow weights fitting inside each other – probably the hollow cone mentioned by De Volder), and the large glass with a copper cover. Cf. Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 106∗: “[d]en 14en Novemb. A°. 1705 heeft de Hr. de Volder my de boven gespecificeerde goederen overgelevert, en heb ik den 18en daar aan volgende aan sijn Ed. deswege quitantie gepasseert. Dogh ten selven dage nevens Musschenbroek het selvige goet nader oversiende, heb bevonde dat verscheyde van de boven gespecificeerde goederen gebrocken en aan stucke waren als onder anderen. Als de barometrum van de Hr. Huygens, waar van een ledige lyst daer toe was en de glase niet gevult. Het hygroscopium aan stucken, synde alle de snaartjes gebrooken. Het koper pijlgewigt gebrooken, het hantvat aan stucken. Alsmede het groot glas met een koper dexsel met een pyp ter zyde om gewigt te sustineren, in welck glas een groot gat gebrooken is, en geheel onbequaem gebruyckt te worden.” See also 185∗–186∗.
137.
Cf. Lufneu 1679, thesis 12: “[…] antliam pneumaticam (cuius iconem si quis desiderat, adeat Boylaei Tractatum de vi aëris elastica, ubi parum diversam reperturus est figuram).” According to a recollection of the Van Musschenbroek family tracing back to the 1760s, and written by Jan Willem van Musschenbroek (1729–1807) (Geslachtlyst van Van Musschenbroek), the pump was built by Samuel van Musschenbroek under the supervision of De Volder: see De Clercq 1997a, 254. The recollection is extant at the Van Musschenbroek Foundation (The Hague). Other papers of the Van Musschenbroeks are extant at Leiden University Library: mss. BPL 240 (viz. the papers of Pieter van Musschenbroek, 1692–1761), BPL 246 (including four letters of Jan van Musschenbroek, 1687–1748), BOERH g a 138 d and BOERH a 251 (family documents). For more details, see De Clercq 1997a, 307–308.
138.
See Sect. 5.1.4, De Volder’s criticism of the metus vacui.
139.
“Inventor Antliae Pneumaticae, circa elapsi seculi medium, in Germania fuit Otto Guirikius, qui pulcherrima cum ea fecit pericula. Haec impulerunt Nob. Boyleum, adiutum opera […] Hookii, et Papini, ad similem antliam in Britannia construendam, quacum plurima instituendo experimenta philosophiam naturalem summopere promovit, hinc machina, vel antlia Boyleana, saepe vocatur. Eadem tempestate Leydae a Cl. Voldero alia inventa fuit, quacum an. 1675 Laboratorio physico experimenta instituta Leydae fuerunt. Hanc machinam, nostra tempestate Cl. s’ Gravesandius ad magnam perfectione et simplicitatem reduxit, ita ut levi opera, et brevissimo tempore, ex recipientibus maxima aëris copia exantliari possit,” Van Musschenbroek 1734, 381. ’s Gravesande also removed the basin of the pump, and added a pedestal, as is evident by comparing Senguerd’s depiction of the pump, and the pump as it is now.
140.
“[C]irca annum 1675 consummatae magis structurae, experimentis minori cum molimine, et periculo peragendis, antlia, ut et apparatus ad illa requisiti, in lucem prodiret. Antliae tubus perpendiculariter erectus erat, et immobilis; inferiori eius parti ad angulum rectum affixus erat minor tubulus, cui recipientia, campanulae, tubi, quaeque porro evacuanda veniebant, adaptabantur. Huius formae antliam illo tempore, ad experimenta molienda, adhibui. Verum, cum et illius: structurae, situs, ac constitutionis antliam multis obnoxiam difficultatibus, atque incommodis; exquisitissimae aëris evacuationi minus convenire experirer, (duplicis enim, quo gaudebat, verticilli usus, plus involvit molestiae, et vitio inficitur facilius, quam unius: binos ad experimenta tentanda requirebat operarios, alterum ad antliam agitandam, et aërem subducendum; qui versurae epistomii vacaret alterum) antliam, quae minorem exigeret apparatum, exquisitiori aëris exhaustui, validiori eius constipationi, pluribus experimentis perficiendis, quibus prior impar erat, inservire aptam, minusque vitiis obnoxiam, excogitavi, atque ut mihi construeretur, anno 1679 cum artifice conveni,” Senguerd 1715, 3–4.
141.
Notably, at Leiden there was present, as a kind of precedent for this pump, the single-barrelled vertical model used by Boyle, which is extant at the Museum and is described by Uffenbach as “vertical on a tripod, albeit very bad, as in that case the cylinder was only one inch thick” (whereas the model used by De Volder had a cylinder of a diameter of 9 centimetres, viz. more than 3 inches). Such a pump is still preserved at the Museum Boerhaave. It is unclear where the vertical pump mentioned by Uffenbach comes from, as it does not have the Van Musschenbroek’s trademark (viz. a lamp), while De Volder’s and Senguerd’s pumps bear one: for more information, see De Clercq 1997b, 66.
142.
Cf. Daumas’s explanation: “[t]he air-pump of Samuel van Musschenbroek. Figure I is a schematic representation of the air-pump. The single cylinder (a) is of brass. The piston A (Fig. II), of almost 9 cm diameter, is of cork, covered with three strips of leather, and held between two brass plates (c). The piston rod consists of an iron rack attached by means of a pin to a small cylinder fixed to the upper of the two brass plates of the piston, there are no valves. After each movement of the piston the stop-cock B is opened or closed (Fig. III). In the position illustrated the pump is in communication with the air; in the reversed position, with the receiver. The tube (f) between the pump and the plate E is of copper. Near the receiver is a tap D. The junction of the tube (f) with the tube (e) of the pump is shown in Fig. IV. The interior of the end of the tube (e) is ground away in conical form to receive the conical end of the tube (f). The latter is held in place by means of a screw passing through the collar (h),” Daumas 1972, 86.
143.
Commentaries on this document are given in De Hoog 1974, 194–239, and Wiesenfeldt 2002, 108–130.
144.
De Volder 1676–1677, 134r.
145.
Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV–MDCCCLXXV, column 602.
146.
See Sect. 3.2.3.1, The case of explanations in physiology.
147.
Ms. Sloane 1281.
148.
Ms. Sloane 1292, 39r.
149.
Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV–MDCCCLXXV, columns 570 and 589.
150.
“Commodaverat hoc opus, sua manu scriptum, praestantissmus Author, Christophorus Love Morley, Medicinae Doctor, Anglus, amico, hac familiari, sito hic in Batavia, commoranti, ea de causa, ut inde, quidquid vellet, excerperet, ac in propriam penum transferret. Is ad me iam brevi peregre abiturus ad Indos, mutuum volumen defert; ac, ut praelo committam, orat. Esse enim, quod lucem afficeret, perquam sane dignum; quodque omnium, qui Chemiae vel student, vel hanc artem profitentur, perpetuo in manibus versetur, ac ore. Quid enim? Multa hic reperiri Chemicae facultatis documenta oppido non vulgaria; insignem in rebus singulis operandi varietatem demonstrari; trium hoc opus Auctorum complecti institutiones admodum accuratas; proindeque triplex esse volumen uno comprehensum. […] Is enim, quemquidem huius editionis Aucthorem nominavi, Christoph. Love Morley (ut iam tandem de toto hoc opere, eiusque authoribus, aliquid edisseram) magna diligentia, indefesso labore, ac studio, tum haec, tum alia scripta quamplurima, collegisse fertur hic, ante annos aliquot, in Hollandia. Huc et enim, id est, Lugdunum Batavorum, se contulit, post varias peregrinationes terra, marique obitas; postquam Academias non paucas, alibi terrarum, invisisset. Medicinam, praestantissimam artem, de novo, uti ille perhibebat, addiscendi causa. […] Verum enimvero tanta incesserat hominem addiscendi cupiditas, tam uberem hic disciplinae Asclepiadea et copiam, et proventum, reperit; tot, talesque viros ista martem profitentes, magnum in primis Schachtium, praestantissimum virum, cuius quidem assiduus auditor erat, et comes, Drelincurtium, Craanium, Syënum, Maëtsium, Margravium, alios, ut ab illis incessanter audiendis, illorum lectionibus, collegis, consortiis frequentandis, per tot annos, avelli non potuerit. Quo vero accuratius faceret, in promptuque omnia haberet, cum memoriam non nisi summe labilem esse cognosceret, quidquid in Collegiis, Lectionibus, Theatris Anatomicis, Nosocomii, privatisve Laribus, sive oculis, sive auribus percepisset, protinus in palimpsestum referebat. Indeque, cum per otium suppetebat, in adversaria admodum curiose confecta, ordine quaeque suo digerere, ac denuo transcribere, consuevit. Ac fidem propemodum superat, quam ingentem utique molem scriptorum omnis generis, ad Medicinam, pertinentium, diligentissimus simul, ac studiosissmus vir, hinc inde corraserit. Ut Bibliothecam paene integram, ac plenam, propria manu conscriptam, sibi confecisse; certe supra quadraginta in quarto, uti vocant, volumina, bene crassa, ac ponderosa, quemadmodum amicus eius mihi retulit, qui isthaec non solum vidit, verum, etiam numeravit; ex hac Academia, secum asportasse perhibeatur. Tandem in Angliam, iucundissimam patriam, tanquam ex postliminio reversus, Londini, uti audio, celeberrima in Urbe, ac Emporio, ad Medicinam faciendam domicilium sibi fixit; ubi vivus, valensque, etiamnum degit. Caeterum, primo post reditum anno, conscripsit ad Sodales Collegii Medicorum Londinensium florentissimi, in quorum numerum, ac ordinem Honorarium, per eos dies cooptatus fuerat, Narrationem, de morbo Epidemico, tam illius, quam superioris anni. Cui item adiunxit Lucae Schachtii, Praeceptoris sui, ac Medicinae Professoris praestantissimi, de eodem morbo ad ipsummet epistolam, ad modum accurate conscriptam. […] Certo tamen scio, pro eo, quo pollet, ingenio, et omnigenae litteraturae, in primisque rei Medicae, amore, pollet autem ingenti, et maximo, oportune sperari posse, ut ex eadem pharetra, qua haecce Collectanea, et illa Historiola, multo plura in diem, et his maiora; siqua istis maiora, utiliorave esse queant, proditura sint. Certe, quod haec clanculum ex ipsius gazophylacio, illoque inscio, tam a me, quam ab ipso, qui haec mihi dono dedit, id est, a duobus sibi amicissimis hominibus, typis nunc vulgata, idque etiam sub illius nomine, sint, id ipsum illi, pro ea, qua praeditus est, humanitate, et morum suavitate insigni, incitamento non levi, cum ut alia nobis edenda communicet, tum ut haec ipsa in bonam partem accipiat, fore confido,” Morley 1684, Typographus lectori, 1–5 (unnumbered). Cf. Morley and Schacht 1680. The printer thus provides some insight into the interesting story of Morley and of the Collectanea. Indeed, he declares he received the manuscript (prepared by Morley) circa the beginning of 1683, while Morley was travelling to the Indies. In fact, the genesis of this book is interesting, because it reveals a broader intellectual network. In the Morley corpus, indeed, there is a letter (ms. Sloane 1270, 218r–219r) in Spanish sent to him on 24 July 1681 by a certain Alonso de Buena Maison, or Bonne Maison, physician in Amsterdam and student at Leiden in the same years as Morley. In it, Buena Maison writes that he was awaiting the originals of the Collectanea from the (unmentioned) printers, which were to be given either to a certain Don Gabriel de Toledo, living in Rotterdam, or to a certain Moses Baruch. Probably, Morley was eager to get back the manuscript. However, something then happened. Buena Maison was known as a translator: he translated, from Dutch to Spanish, the famous book on pirates by Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin, namely his De Americaensche Zee-Roovers (1678), as Piratas de la America (1681). Moreover, Buena Maison revised the Spanish translation (made by Melchor de Novar) of the De bello Belgico (1632–1647) of Famiano Strada (published in 1682) and, in 1681, he apparently wrote a book called Bárbaras tiranías cometidas en Indias por los españoles contra Dios y conciencia, the copies of which were all bought by a Spanish nobleman, Don Gabriel Fernández de Villalobos, who complained to the Amsterdam city authorities about the book, which he deemed offensive to Spain. In the same year, both Buena Maison and Exquemelin (they both lived in the same house in Amsterdam), fled to Jamaica: for a full reconstruction, see Den Boer 2008. Apparently, the publication of the Collectanea chymica was retarded until 1684 for this reason. The Collectanea chymica had seven editions between the seventeenth and eighteenth century. On Morley, see Payne 1894, volume 39, 73.
151.
Another text which was put into print can be found in the Sloane manuscript containing De Volder’s Experimenta: namely the Experimenta anatomica, ex vivorum sectionibus petita of Charles Drelincourt, published in 1681 by Ernst Gottfried Heyse (professor at Danzig and student at Leiden in 1680), then reprinted in 1684 and 1727. I am quite sure that Morley was the source of the manuscript used by Heyse, for two reasons: first, in the preface of the book, Heyse states that he published it “visis Angliae luminibus”: see Heyse’s preface in Drelincourt 1681, 5 (unnumbered). Second, the manuscript of Morley is more complete, namely it reports, for each “canicidium” – as the dissections of dogs are labelled – a description of the dog is absent from the printed text. For instance, at the beginning of the first canicidium there is reported a description of the dog, and the fact that the dog was given by a praefectum of the town of Leiden (ms. Sloane 1292, 1r).
152.
There is no evidence that De Volder performed experiments with an air-pump at home.
153.
See De Volder 1676–1677, 111v.
154.
On him, see Thijssen-Schoute 1960.
155.
Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV–MDCCCLXXV, column 594. He was also author and respondens of the disputation De materiae divisibilitate in infinitum, presided over by De Volder on 27 January 1676, and respondens of the last disputation of the series De rerum naturalium principiis (4 June 1676).
156.
I deal with this topic in Sect. 3.2.3.1, The case of explanations in physiology.
157.
See Sect. 5.4.2, The hydrostatic paradox.
158.
I deal with this in Sect. 5.6.3.3, De Volder’s assumption of Boyle’s law in the works of his students.
159.
I deal with this in Sect. 5.4, The explanation of the hydrostatic paradox.
160.
I deal with this in Sect. 5.1.3, De Volder’s ‘didactic’ ascertainment of the pressure of the atmosphere – and related experiments.
161.
“Während also in den Vorlesungen die unmittelbare experimentelle Erfahrung im Vordergrund stand, die von spektakulären Effekten wie von Hinweisen auf Moral und Nützlichkeit eingerahmt war, stand in den Disputationen das Experiment fester im Rahmen naturphilosophischer Debatten. In der Vorlesung ging das Experiment der theoretischen Deutung stets voraus, in seiner Disputationsreihe folgte wenigstens das eigene Experiment erst am Ende, zur Bestätigung der vorherigen Ausführungen. In dieser Differenz wird der Unterschied zwischen den beiden Lehrformen deutlich. Die Vorlesungen dienten der Vermittlung relativ elementaren Wissens an ein breit gestreutes Publikum, dessen fachliches Interesse begrenzt war,” Wiesenfeldt 2002, 129.
162.
See Sect. 2.2.5, The Leiden didactic tradition.
163.
De Pater 1975, 309. Willebrord’s father, Rudolph Snel, professor at Leiden from 1581 to 1613, was also a foremost Ramist: see Verbeek 2001.
164.
See Strazzoni 2012.
165.
See Sects. 5.1.4, De Volder’s criticism of the metus vacui, and 5.6.3.3, De Volder’s assumption of Boyle’s law in the works of his students.
166.
De Raey, actually, was to become from the late 1660s a fierce opponent of the idea that experience could be the source of scientific knowledge: see Strazzoni 2015, 2018a, chapter 5; Del Prete 2018.
167.
See Bos and Krop 1993.
168.
On Sturm, see Bosl 1983; Herrmann and Platz 2003; Gaab et al. 2004; Wiesenfeldt 2004.
169.
Wiesenfeldt 2002, 159–160. See Sect. 3.2.3.2, De Volder’s methodological liberalism – and its continuity over time.
170.
On Rohault, see Hoskin 1961; McClaughlin 1977, 1996, 2000; Clair 1978; Vanpaemel 1984; Schüller 2001; Des Chene 2002; Roux 2012b, 2013a, b; Dobre 2013a, b; Milani 2015; Spink 2018.
171.
See Heyd 1983.
172.
See Knowles Middleton 1971; Miniati 1987; Beretta et al. 2009; Boschiero 2007.
173.
Cf. his letter to Leibniz of 8 January 1698: “[o]rdines nostri novam mihi imposuerunt docendi provinciam, atque in eum finem certam decreverunt summam ad emenda instrumenta experimentalia, ut exemplo Volderi Lugdunensis Studiosos nostros etiam experimentis Mathematico-physicis exerceam et delectem,” A III7, 702. For a discussion, see Wiesenfeldt 2002, 291.
174.
See Sects. 5.6.3.3, De Volder’s assumption of Boyle’s law in the works of his students, and 2.4.2, De Volder’s retirement, death and legacy.
175.
Le Clerc claimed that the example of the Royal Society inspired De Volder: Le Clerc 1709, 362: “[c]e fut apparemment la Societé Royale d’Angleterre, toute occupée à rechercher la Verité, par la voie des Experiences, & peut être l’exemple de l’illustre Mr. Boyle, qui en étoit comme l’ame, & qui faisoit une grande dépense en son particulier pour cela, qui firent naître à Mr. de Volder la pensée de proposer à Mrs. les Curateurs de l’Academie de faire quelque dépense, pour la méme chose.”
176.
“Vos estis, qui me ex doctore privato publicum professorem creastis, et ut eam philosophandi rationem, quam pluris a me fieri atque etiam Aristoteli valde adversam ab aliquibus censeri notum erat, cum Aristotele componerem, haud obscure imposuistis,” De Raey 1654, 24 (unnumbered). See Strazzoni 2011.
177.
Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 319.
178.
Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 268∗–269∗ and 271∗–273∗; volume 4, 45∗–46∗, 55∗–58∗, 65∗–67∗, 70∗–71∗, 80∗–81∗, 93∗–94∗ and 99∗–102∗. Moreover, in Senguerd’s Inquisitiones experimentales experiments are described as taking place in public, while in his Connubium he reports that he used, for some time before 1679, De Volder’s air pump: see supra, n. 140.
179.
Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 216, 221 and 107∗.
180.
Both extant at The Hague: Dictata Clarissimi Doctissimi Viri D. D. Wolferdii Senguerdii Philosophiae Professoris in Renati Des-Cartes Principia Anno 1690 (ms. 72 A 8), and Nobillissimi, Doctissimi Wolferdi Senguerdi notae ad Cartesii principia Philosophiae ad dua priores partes seu libros (ms. 133 M 71). See Wiesenfeldt 2002, 91.
181.
I owe this list to Wiesenfeldt 2002, 67. See also Lunsingh Scheurleer and Posthumus Meyjes 1975.
182.
See Le Clerc 1709, 376. According to Le Clerc, De Volder spoke French well, as he had had occasions to practise it in Holland. According to Gronovius, De Volder was asked by the Curators to travel to France: Gronovius 1709, 23–34. As reported in Rosenboom 1697, part 2, 40 and 52, De Volder was reimbursed 695 guilders and 5 stuivers for having bought scientific instruments in France and elsewhere, in 1681 and 1685. In particular, in November 1681 he was reimbursed 442 guilders and 19 stuivers, and in November 1685 he was reimbursed 252 guilders and 6 stuivers. See also Wiesenfeldt 2002, 91–92, referring to the Leiden manuscript AC 44.
183.
“Monsieur Warder [sic] qui est professeur en physique et qui a le soin du Theatre physique de Leyde est ici. Il m’est venu voir et ma dit qu[’]il avoit dessein de conferer avec Messieurs de l’Academie. Je ne croy pas qu[’]il apprenne beaucoup de choses deux. il a faict plusieurs experiences sur l[’]eau et a trouvé que toutes les eaux estoyent dune égale pesanteur, au moins que la difference en estoit peu considerable,” Locke 1976–1989, volume 2, 426–427. This is letter 651 of Locke’s correspondence.
184.
See infra, n. 196.
185.
See infra, n. 195.
186.
In his letter of 31 April 1682 De Volder claims to have been unable to do so: “[d]escriptio phosphori, nescio an meo an descriptionis vitro mihi tentanti non successit. Si commodior via phosphoros efficiendi inventia sit est quod gratulemur promotae rerum naturalium cognitioni, praesertim si eo res deducta sit ut lucernas sive veras sive fictas sepulchrales veterum aut imitari, aut nunc primum conficere possimus. Quia de re si quid porro inaudieris gratissimum erit si communicare digneris,” Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 50r. In his letter of 29 October 1682, De Volder mentions that he ignored that phosphorus could melt metals, and that Paul Hermann, professor of botany at Leiden, had brought from England two specimens of phosphorus (studied by Boyle in his The Aerial Noctiluca, or, Some New Phenomena and a Process of a Factitious Self-Shining Substance: Imparted in a Letter to a Friend Living in the Country, 1680, listed in the Bibliotheca Volderina, 8): “[p]hosphoro metalla fluidi res apud nos est plane inaudita. D. Hermans secum attulit ex Anglia duos Boyleanos alterum liquidum alterum <consistentem> durum, quorum priorem aeram noctilcuam posteriorem, glacialem vocat ipse Boyle,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 60r.
187.
See Jorink 2003, 2010, chapter 5, 2016a, 2018. See also Nordström 1955; Kardel 1994; Cobb 2000, 2006, chapter 2; Ruestow 1996, chapter 5; Miniati 2009; Kooijmans 2011.
188.
See supra, n. 94.
189.
“Ubi omnia ingravescebant, testamentum scripsit XV Ianuarii, anno MDCLXXX, in quo legavit Melchisedeco Thevenoto, Legato quondam Regis Galliarum ad Rempublicam Genuensium, omnia sua manuscripta originalia, quae pertinent ad historiam Apum, Papilionumque, Naturalem, et Anatomicam, una cum tabulis eo spectantibus lii. Quae omnia erant eo tempore in aedibus Hermanni Wingendorpi, Leydae. Iussit, tradenda haec omnia legatario intra annum a morte testatoris. Rogavitque serio, ut tractatus de Apibus ederetur etiam sermone belgico: quia sapientia, et omnipotentia, Dei tam apodictice in eo demonstrantur. Pauculum superstitis porro vitae Deo adorando, et amando, unice dedit. XVII Februarii eodem anno moriebatur. Haeredem scripsit Margaritam Volckers, uxorem Danielis de Hoest, doctoris medicinae. Exsecutores testamenti constituit Christophorum van Wyland, et Margaritam Volckers, quae, Wylando haud diu ab his mortuo, sola in hoc munere permansit. Statim ab exsequiis Dominus Ort, rogatus ab exsecutoribus testamenti, scripsit Thevenoto, XXIX Martii sequentis, de legato apud Wingendorpium recondito. Swammerdammius parum versatus in Latinis, volens tamen opera sua lingua latina evulgare, dederat ea omnia huic Wingendorpio, ut latine verteret: hic enim ipsi opem praestiterat hanc, in sermonem romanum vertendo eius scripta de Utero. Urgebat Thevenotus de Hoestium, ut curaret tradendum sibi legatum. Wingendorpius pauper, sustinebat vitam vertendo in varias linguas, et quaerebat, omni astu credita sibi retinere, frivola millena praetexens, tandem aperte negabat, se redditurum, nisi sententia iudicis coactus. Itum ergo in ius; neque ante maium anni MDCLXXXII, post taediosas lites, decreto iudicum, omnia simul tradita sunt Viro Longe celeberrimo, Burchero de Volder, Mathesios, et Philosophicae, Professori Clarissimo. Hunc Thevenotus rogaverat, ut ius suum tueretur amici amicus. Et, abfuisset fidelis sapientia Volderi, vix Thevenoti ad manus pervenissent. Postquam iam possidebat, voluit ea belgico sermone edere ilico. Verum mutavit sententiam, sibique in Gallias mittenda curavit,” Swammerdam 1737–1738, volume 1, Vita auctoris, 34–36 (unnumbered). Cf. the letter of De Volder to Thévenot of 31 April 1682, in which he communicated to Thévenot the positive conclusion of the quarrel: “hucusq[ue] responsum ad tuas distuli quod putarem me paucorum dierum moram nuntio <pa>transacti tandem negotii de M.S. Swammerd. facile compensaturum. De qua re sic habe. Eo adductos esse adversarios, ut contentionem deposuerint, manuscripta tibi deberi fateantur,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 49r. See also his letter of 19 November 1682 (in which De Volder communicates to Thévenot that he took the manuscripts from the court: “j’ay retiré les ecris du Greffe,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 61r), and the letter of of De Volder to Thévenot of 28 January 1683 (in which De Volder communicates to Thévenot that he had sent the manuscripts to Paris probably by Hendrik van Bleiswijk (one of the mayors of Delft), who was following the delegation of Anthonie Heinsius to France: “Monsr. Bleyswijck […] s’en partira {pet} peut estre qu’il est desia parti pour Paris en la suite de Monsr. <{…} > Heinsius qui s’en va en Ambassade vers le Roy de France. Ie luy ay confié ces papiers, ce que j’espere qu’il ne vous sera pas desagreable,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 63r). On Heinsius, see De Jongste and Veenendaal 2002.
190.
See Sect. 5.1.4, De Volder’s criticism of the metus vacui.
191.
“De andere vrienden als quina, utenbogert, Hudden, Sladus, Witsen, de volder varen seer wel,” Lindeboom 1975, 53. For a commentary, see Jorink 2016b.
192.
See the studies of Jorink mentioned supra, n. 187.
193.
In his Adversariorum anatomico-medico-chirurgicorum decas tertia (1717), Ruysch mentions De Volder while reporting how the features of the skin of the body were usually neglected by physicians. De Volder, however, paid much attention to it: “[s]ed etiam Chirurgi norunt quam difficile semper sit, per medicamenta epulotica, quae frigefacientia debent esse, et exsiccantia, epidermidem rursum superducere cuti; quin et ubi per haec non procedit cicatricis suae productio, cogimur aliquando confugere ad ea emollientia, quae simul humectantia sunt, ut ad Digestivum aureum, et similia. Parco hac occasione et illos memorare, quibus ab actione incensi pulveris pyrii cutis decoriata fuit. Certe deinde hac ex causa tanta quotidie puris copia gignitur, ut exhausti viribus, idoneoque nutrimento privati mortui sint. Qui casus aliquoties nobis obvenere. Videtur itaque non decorum, de hisce integumentis vel contemptim loqui! Vel negligenter de iis tractare: neque sane oblitus rei illius sum, quae multos ante annos nihil tale merenti mihi accidit. In publica quidem tunc demonstratione anatomica, coram frequentissima honoratorum spectatorum corona, meo more communia corporis extimi integumenta haec, atque in his solis tantum demonstrandum habebam, ut iis sesqui horam integram impenderem. Inter erat huic demonstrationi Medicus Amstelaedamensis, practicus famigeratissimus, una cum Burchero de Volder, Philosophiae et Mathesios in illustri Academia Lugduno-Batava Professore Eximio. Hic ille medicus omnibus aeque in demonstrationem intentis per contemptum, finita demonstratione, in haec verba erupit: An igitur vilia haec merentur, ut iis cognoscendis sesqui horam perdamus? An quidem decet Anatomicum nostrum talibus tractandis nos tanto tempore detinere? Miratus hominis dictum Egregius Volderus regessit, Itane tu de hoc negotio sentis? Ego numquam tam subtilia, atque vera tamen, in corporis humani partibus scivi, aut vidi. Atque sic ostendebat, severum talium spectatorem fuisse,” Ruysch 1717, 25. It is unclear who was the other physician mentioned by Ruysch. Moreover, in his Responsio ad Dissertationem epistolicam Jo. Christoph. Bohlii quam de usu novarum cavae propaginum in systemate chylopoeo, nec non de cortice cerebri, conscripsit (1725), Ruysch recalls how De Volder could not observe the existence of round glands in the cortex of the brain, as maintained by Bidloo: “[q]uod attinet corpora illa dicta olivaria, haec sane est veritas quaedam perversa sine ulla entitate, de quibus memini, quid mihi accidebat, cum Profess. Bidloo pro sua defensione contra me volebat demonstrare, quod cortex cerebri corpora olivaria essent, et hoc quidem in publica anatomia. Tenebat nempe corticem cerebri in manu sua et auditoribus interrogabat, num non viderent, quod cortex cerebri tales essent glandulae, ac in suo opere dixisset, cum vero ad Professorem Volderum venisset, (qui non ex nunc solebat aliquid asserere) et eum interrogabat, respondebat: Non, mi Domine. Et ita adhuc nunc non nulli dantur, et hoc propter micas! Si nunc et ex Te V. Doct. peterem, ut mihi haec praetensa corpora olivaria demonstrares, nonne idem tibi contingeret? Milites quando hostium adventum audiunt, clamant: ad arma! ad arma! Sic ego dico hic: ad visum! Ad visum!” Ruysch 1725, 11–12. See Kooijmans 2011, 253.
194.
“I’attens avec une grande impatience l’arrivé de Monsr. Barin ou de Monsr. Auzout pour me gouverner selon leurs conseils,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, f. 44r. The letter continues with a reference to a medal done and sent to the chemist and instruments builder Jacques Borelly: “[e]nfin, Monsieur, la medaille pour Monsr. Borelli est achevée et je l’ay donné par Monsr. Clignet a Monsr. Merault marchand demeurant chez Messr. De Bernjers rue St Honoré a Paris, qui se est chargé pour le luy faire rendre. / Pardonez moy que je vous envoye cette lettre pour luiy. Ie ne doute pas qu’il {ne …’ait deja} receue \la medaille/, en quel cas je vous prie de luy recommander, de notifier par une lettre a Messr. Les Curateurs de l’Academie et Bourguemaistres de cette ville qu’il l’a receu, car cela servira a me decharger. S’il ne l’a pas receu, de la prie d’en faire l’enqueste chez ce Monsr. Merault,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 44r–v. As I show in the next footnote, this reveals that the date of this letter, as written by De Volder, was most probably wrong, and was written after 17 August 1682. This would place all the correspondence after De Volder’s trip to Paris in 1681. As to Borelli, or Borelly, see below.
195.
In his letter of 15 July 1682 De Volder claims that he still had not met either Barin or Auzout, and – notably – that the medal mentioned in the previous footnote had not yet been sent to Borelly: “je n’ay pas encor eu l’honneur de voir Monsr. Barin, ny Monsr. Auzout, je m’estimerois fort heureux de leur pouvoir faire quelq[ue] service en ce pais. Enfin la medaille pour Monsr. Borelli est preste pour luy estre envoyée a la premier occasion,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 53r. It might be that the first letter of the correspondence, unmistakeably dated ‘1680’, was wrongly dated by De Volder, and has to be dated between 17 August and 19 November 1682. In the letter of 17 August 1682, indeed, De Volder informs Thévenoth that the medal was ready and could be sent to him: see infra, n. 219, while in the letter of 19 November 1682 he shows his happiness at knowing that Borelly had appreciated the gift of Leiden University: “[i]e suis ben aise que Monsr. Borelli ait eu pour agreable le present de Messr. Les Curateurs,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 61r. In the letter of 17 August 1682, De Volder complains that he could not meet again Barin once again: “j’ay esté si malheureux de ne voir pas Monsr. Barin estant a l’Université quand il estoit chez moy, et n’ayant pas l’occasion de le revoir {par} son soudain depart. [J]’espere que je seray plus heureux a son retour,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, unnumbered folium. In turn, the letter of 29 October 1682 suggests that Barin and Auzout were expected to come back to Holland: “[a] quo ultimas tuas accepi, nihil expectavi ardentius quam aut evidens eorum quae fieri a me velles, mandatum, aut adventum sive D. Auzotii sive D. Barin, quo illorum virorum prudenter {…} consilius in tua causa uti possim. […] Interea temporis […] D. Barin aut Auzout huc accedant illis omnem rem aperiam, […] etsi forte mecum non sentirent, ita agam,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 59r and 60v. Also in the letter of 19 November 1682, De Volder notes that Auzout was still to come: see infra, n. 225. Finally, in the letter of 27 August 1683, it is mentioned that Auzout visited Amsterdam, but the attempts of De Volder and Hudde to meet him were in vain: “[i]e suis fort faché de n’avoir pas peu rencontrer Monsr. Auzout quoy que je l’aye cherché avec Monsr. Hudde a Amsterdam puisque au mesme temps il a passé par cette ville,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 64v.
196.
See the letter of De Volder to Thévenot of 24 September 1682: “[…] et Dieu vueille, que je pousse avoir occasion de vous pouvoir montrer en un autre cas, avec plus de succes combien je<{…}> \me {sens}/ redevable a vous pour toutes les bontés que vous avez eu pour moy a Paris, de<{…}> \les quelles/ {il vous a pleu} de continuer jusques icy,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 57r.
197.
“Quae de pendulo et micrometro scribis, scias me ea quidem avidissime desiderare,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 49r.
198.
“[J]e vous remercie tres humblement des {…} qu’il vous a {pleu} de prendre de mon pendule,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 52r.
199.
In the letter there is mentioned a letter by Thévenot of 19 January, and it is declared that the Swammerdam affaire had not been solved yet (so that it has to be dated before 31 April 1682, when De Volder communicated to Thévenot the conclusion of the quarrel (cf. supra, n. 189)): “Il me fa<c>sche fort que je ne \vous/ puis encore ecrire, que l’affaire de Mons. Swammerdam est achevée,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 66r.
200.
“[J]e vous remercie tres humblement de la {peine que} vous prenez de mon pendule et certes j’ay me {…} de l’attendre plus long temps et de l’avoir fort ex[missing text]ct que de l’avoir bien tost, s’il manquoit quelque chose a l’exactitude, ce qui sans doute {…} [missing text]out,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 67r.
201.
See the letter of 31 April 1682: “[p]rioribus tuis acceptis litteris scripsi continuo ad D. de Raey, a quo ante {trid…} responsum demum accipi, quod hisce inclusum vides. Distulit ille scriptionem reditum frustra expectans eius ex quo sperabat se plura de terra {jecmensi} auditurum {Re.}, ut ad me{,} scribit, in {mora} erit, quo simulae quodpiam explicatus fuerit, id tecum communicet. Prodiit de novo praeter libellos, quos D. De Raey enumerat, iter Nieuhof, quem simul cum illis quos illa notat libellis si eos nondum {haereas} prima quavis occasione data, ut habeas officiam si per quempiam ex amicis id commode fieri possit, utar ea via sui {minuis}, utar {mani},” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 49v. De Volder refers to Johan Nieuhof’s Zee- en Lant-Reise door verscheide Gewesten van Oostindien, behelzende veele zeldzaame en wonderlijke voorvallen en geschiedenissen. Beneffens een beschrijving van lantschappen, dieren, gewassen, draghten, zeden en godsdienst der inwoonders: En inzonderheit een wijtloopig verhael der Stad Batavia, or to his Gedenkweerdige Brasiliaense Zee- en Lant-Reise und Zee- en Lant-Reize door verscheide Gewesten van Oostindien, both published in 1682. In the letter of 28 May 1682, De Volder mentions a visit that a certain “Monsieur Ray” paid to him: “M^r. Ray m’est venu trouver il ya quelques jours. Il m’a dit clairement que des terres ny australes ny septentrionales il ne scavoit rien plus que ce que il vous avoit ecrit. Car qu’on n’avoit d’icy fait aucun voyage vers {ces terres}, <sinon> excepté ceux dont il avoit fait mention dans ses memoires que je vous ay envoyéz,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 52r. Cf. also the first undated letter of De Volder (i.e. that one probably tracing back between 19 January and 31 April 1682, see supra, n. 199): “j’ay escrit a monsr. De Raey qui m’a repondu comme vous verrez dans ce memoire[.] Monsr. son pere {adjouste} que son fils a {desia} tant de marquez de ce monsr. {Jelmer}, qu’il est presque impossible de me le trouver pas, et qu’il me fera scavoir, en que son fils pourra connoistre de luy,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 67r, and the second one: “la lettre que vous m’{ariez} envoyé pour un amy de Monsr. Raey est envoyé a luy a Amsterdam [missing text]tatim ab acceptis litteris,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 69r. De Raey senior was in contact with Swammerdam, and is mentioned in Swammerdam’s correspondence with Thévenot: and Swammerdam: see Lindeboom 1975, 58 and 64. Notably, Jan Baptist van Lamsweerde attacked, in 1674, both Swammerdam’s theory of respiration and De Raey’s theory of logic in his Respirationis Swammerdammianae exspiratio, una cum Anatomia neologices Joannis de Raei. Geography recurs again in the correspondence: for instance, in the letters of 31 April, 28 May, 15 July, 24 September 1683, and in the first undated letter, De Volder provides discussions of the voyages and discoveries of Paul Hermann, professor of botany at Leiden. A handwritten Descriptio Moscoviae, in possession of the heirs of the Dutch ambassador Nicholas Heinsius (who died in 1681), is mentioned in the letter of 31 April 1682. In the letter of 17 August 1682, De Volder writes to Thévenot that this manuscript could not be found: see Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 50r and 55. Amongst the items in De Volder’s private collection of mathematical instruments, there is mentioned a Landkaart van Moscovia of Nicolaas Witsen (which could be Witsen’s Nieuwe lantkaarte van het noorder en ooster deel van Asia en Europe strekkende van Nova Zemla tot China (1687), Noord en oost Tartarye (1692), or the Imperii Russici sive Moscoviae, status generalis, in eius regna, ducatus, provincias, populosq[ue] subiacentes divisus, et ex tabula spectat. mi domini N. Witsen […] pro maiori parte excerptus, per F. de Witt (circa 1690): Bibliotheca Volderina, 96. The Descriptio Moscoviae is not mentioned in the Bibliotheca Heinsiana (1682).
202.
See Sect. 5.6.3.3, De Volder’s assumption of Boyle’s law in the works of his students.
203.
“Raë, der anfangs hier profitiret, und dem nach Amsterdam kommen, habe sich obligiret, einem vor jeden errorem, den er ihm in Cartesii Schrifften weisen würde, 5 Ducaten zugeben,” Warsaw University Library, Cod. IV oct. 49, 592. Transcription kindly provided by Martin Mulsow. The anectode is reported also in Stolle’s Introductio in historiam litteraria: Stolle 1728, 676 (cited also in Koecher 1738, 121). De Volder did not read, however, De Raey’s Cogitata de interpretatione (1692), but committed himself to the quality of the book: “[d]ieser Raë habe einen tractat de Interpretatione geschrieben, den ihm (Voldern) einst ein gewisser Rathherr in Amsterdam tefflich gelobt. Als er (Volder) ihn nun gebethen, er möchte doch so gut sein und ihm die excellentia loca mit der feder zeichnen, weil er nicht wohl Zeit habe, das Buch zu durchlesen, so habe er auf den Tisch geschlagen und geschrien: omnia esse medullam omnia excellentissima,” Cod. IV oct. 49, 592–593. Transcription kindly provided by Martin Mulsow.
204.
See Ruestow 1996; Jorink 2010, chapter 5; Cunningham 2010, chapter 4; Bertoloni Meli 2017.
205.
As Eric Jorink has put it, “[t]he Utrecht Cartesians were united in the Collegie der Scavanten, a learned society not unlike Thévenot’s Academie. (It should be noted that Graevius and Thévenot maintained a lively correspondence, and often met in person). At weekly meetings new books, opinions and discoveries were discussed, corpses were dissected, and the members made fun of scholastic philosophers and their views on the order of nature. In true Cartesian fashion, a mechanical world-view was propagated and, what is equally important, war was declared on the belief in magic, spirits and hidden meanings in nature, as for example Van Velthuysen’s much reprinted Tractaet van de Afgoderye en Superstitie (‘Treatise on Idolatry and Superstition’, 1669) is testimony. Graevius’ correspondence reveals the highly significant fact that Jan Swammerdam was also a frequent visitor at the meetings held in Utrecht. This not only supports my idea that Swammerdam was a much more sociable scientist than is usually assumed, it also puts him firmly in an intellectual movement. The Collegie was abhorred by orthodox Calvinists, and repeatedly attacked by them. Swammerdam can therefore without any reservation be counted among Holland’s leading rationalists. Not only did he belong to the inner circle of prudent Cartesians such as Hudde and De Raey, as his letters to Thévenot reveal, he was also on friendly terms with more daring intellectuals such as Graevius, Van Velthuysen and Wolzogen, who all had outspoken ideas on ‘superstition’ and the place of rationalism in science and scholarship,” Jorink 2003, 95–96. See also Hartog 1876; Gootjes 2019.
206.
Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 13. On 19 June 1682, it was conceded to him to teach at the hora undecima: Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 4.
207.
In a letter dated 15 October 1677 of Albert Jansz. van Dam, nephew of Dirck Rembrantsz. van Nierop, to Klaas Dirksz. Zalm, at that time student at Leiden, Van Dam asks his friend the “order” (we may read this as a teaching programme or task) used by De Volder in teaching algebra: “[i]k […] verzoek ook van UE dat gy my die order eens overzend die myn Hr. de Volder gebruykt om iemant de Algebra te leeren, of met wat order gy ’t zelve by hem geleert hebt,” Rijks 2012, 248. According to Gronovius, this appointment was the outcome of the excellent results of the teaching of De Volder in natural philosophy and metaphysics: “[h]aec et multa ex illis quaere censui, agnoscitis varia esse, quae tunc demum explicare incepit, postquam Illustres Curatores et Consules videntes Philosophiam suam splendidissime collocatam, sane et mathesin illi sociandam esse censuerunt anno praeteriti saeculi secundo et octogesimo,” Gronovius 1709, 25–26.
208.
Witsen 1671, Appendix, 29. Discussed in Rank 1984, chapter 8. See also Jorink 2018.
209.
Le Clerc 1709, 376–378.
210.
“Je vous suis fort obligé, Monsieur, de vostre bonté que vous temoignés en me felicitant sur ma nouvelle profession. Il a {pleu} a nos Messr de m’en {pouvoir}, et quoy que j’eusse {desia} assez de affaires je l’ay accepteé, parce que j’ay toujours eu un grand penchant pour les mathematiques,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, unnumbered.
211.
Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 45∗.
212.
In the autumn and winter term of 1696 and in the summer term of 1697, he taught geography on Tuesday and Wednesday, physics on Thursday and Friday (besides providing his experimental lectures on Monday, and always at the hora undecima in the morning). In the summer and winter terms of 1698 he switched from geography to cosmology (the two fields being anyway somewhat akin). In the autumn and winter term of the same year, he lectured – besides providing experiments – on ‘meteors’ on all the other days of the week – apparently dropping the teaching of metaphysics. In the winter and summer terms of 1699, 1700, 1703, 1704 he taught, besides experiments on Mondays, metaphysics, physics and mathematics on the other days of the week. See Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 56∗–58∗, 65∗–67∗, 71∗, 80∗, 93∗, 99∗ and 101∗. A summary of De Volder’s fields of lecturing is given in Gronovius 1709, 24, adding mechanics, hydrostatics and optics to the list of these topics. Gronovius also adds a summary of De Volder’s metaphysics, which I discuss in Sect. 3.2.1.2, Clarity, distinctness and indubitability of simple and complex ideas.
213.
On the Leiden observatory, see De Sitter 1933; Zuidervaart 2007, 2012a, b; Wiesenfeldt 2008; Baneke 2010; Hooijmaijers and Maas 2013.
214.
See supra, n. 131.
215.
“[…] daarop de groote verrekijkers soude moghen rusten,” “[…] een pool hoog 40 a 50 voeten met zijnen blikken passer en houte goot voor ’t gebruk van ’t groote telescopium,” “[…] instrument am des sonsvlackte te bestuderen” Zuidervaart 2007, 162, 164 and 168; see also 12 and 24; Zuidervaart refers to the manuscript, preserved at the Leiden University Library, AC I-7, 186, reporting the Curators’s resolutions of 8 August 1682.
216.
On him see Chabbert 1970.
217.
See supra, n. 194.
218.
“Pudore profecto suffundor cum de Borellio cogito, qui hactenus jam ante semestre ipsi decretum redhostimentum nondum accepit, quanquam ea in re nulla mea culpa est. Bene equidem habet, quod de negligentia eius cui ea res commissa est, ad te scripsi. Neque enim licet sexcenties {commoruerim} hominem impellere hactenus potui, hae in re ut officium praestaret {sinue}, sive id {sollerui} ejus {ereriat} incuria sive peculiari quadam, cujus aliunde indicia habeo sat evidentia, in me malevolentia. \{Borellius}/ equidem est quod gratias habeam quod altero me beare voluerit vitro,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 49r–v.
219.
“J’ay receu de Monsr. Vander Burgh le verre de Monsr. Borelli, dont je suis fort obligé et a vous et a luy. [J]e differeray neantmoins d’ecrire a Monsr. Borelli, pour le remercier de sa bonté jusques a ce, qu’on envoyera la medaille de l’academie, qui est enfin achevée,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, unnumbered.
220.
“[N]ostre Academie est a luy fort obligé pour l’offerte qu’il fait d’un autre d’une plus longue portée. Quoy que se doûte fort si on si en pourra servir dans le lieu a cela destiné, et si il ne scauroit pas plus propre pour noûs, principalement dans ce commencement des affaires, d’en avoir encor un des 18 pieds, et pour la commodité un de 7 ou 8. Mais ce n’est pas a nous de luy perscrire comment nous regoler,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 61r.
221.
See infra, n. 224.
222.
See supra, n. 199.
223.
Zuidervaart mentions, in his catalogue, a telescope of 25 feet with a tube made of iron plate on a wooden stand, mentioned in a catalogue of 1742: Zuidervaart 2007, 48 and 64. Zuidervaart also mentions two telescopes, of 16 and 22 feet, which could have entered the observatory in 1682: Zuidervaart 2007, 164.
224.
“[J]’ai communiqué a un des principaux de nos Curateurs de l’Academie <d>l’intention de Monsr. Borelli qui lui estoit fort agreable. Mais sa responce {me} fait changer de sentiment. Car il t<o>emoignoit <f>d’avoir asses de curiosité po<{r}>ur preparer un lieu pour se pouvoir servir d’une lunette de 50 ou 60 pieds. Pourquoy je vous prie, fines ad huc est in integro, de faire tant auprez monsr. Borelli, qu’il demeure dans son premier sentiment. Asseurement Mons{r.} Borelli m’accablé de ses bontés en m’offrant encor{e} une pour mon usage. et I’a<j>vois dessein de luy en temoigner ma reconnoissance, mais je suis si tard retourné de la Haye, que l<a>e temps me presse trop pour le pouvoir faire a cette occasion. Cependant je vous diray brievement, qu’il me semble, que de luy prescrire la longueur de la lunette qu’il me fait {bstrir}, s<{otd}>eroit d’assez mauvaise grace. I<s>l se pourra asseurer, que tout ce que v<c>iendra de luy me sera fort agréable. Mais si j’ose vous dire cela en confidence, puis qu’il a eu la bonté de me regaler d’un verre de 12 pieds et que celle de l’Academie de 2{5} pieds est aussy a mon usage, on peut a[missing text] voir qu’une longueur \entre ces deus/ moyenne {<luij>} seroit foi[missing text] Mais je vous prie derechef d’en rien dire a [missing text] peut estre, qu’il temoigne luy mesme d’[missing text] dessein. On a icy quelques messrs a Delft [missing text] {d}e pouvoir faire des verres d’une figur[missing text],” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 68v.
225.
Cf. the letter of 17 August 1682: “[q]uant au micrometre dont vous parlez dans la lettre de Monsr. vander Burgh, je vous prie tres humblement de me le faire avoir le plus prontement que se pourra, car vous voyez bien que j’en ay maintenant plus de besoin que jamais,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, unnumbered; and the letter of 29 October 1682; “[e]st profecto quod tibi summas agam gratias pro ea cura qua confectioni micrometri invigilasti. Gaudebo equidem, si, dum nostri suam iam turriculam quae hactenus neglecta iacuit, serio ad observationes praeparant, id prima quavis occasione ad me transmittas,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 60r; the letter of 19 November 1682: “[p]uisque Mr Auzout ne viendra pas si tost dans ce pais, je vous prie de me envoyer le micrometre par la premiere occasion,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 61r; the letter of 28 January 1683: “[missing text] vous prie Monsr. de vous [missing text]enir du micrometre,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 63r, and the letter of 27 August 1683, in which De Volder writes to Thévenot that a certain Mr. van Heul, namely an acquaintance of De Volder who was carrying the letter for Thevenot – as well as a letter for Johan de Witt Jr. – would probably visit Thévenot to take it: “[i]e me console en partie du ritardement du micrometre, parce que cel est arrivé a cause d’une enterprise que est vrayement digne du Roy de France. Mais j’espere que il sera enfin achevé. Monsr. Van Heul, qui vous donnera cette lettre, est particulièrement des mes amis. Ie l’ay prié de se charger encore une autre a Monsr. de Witt le fils de feu Monsr. Le Pensionaire d’Hollande, qui s’en est allé il y a quelque temps a Paris, pour s’en retourner, dans le mois de Septembre. Si le micrometre est achevé je ne doute pas que il ne {sien} charger volontiers, et qu’il ne prenne la peine de vous venir trouver pour cet effet. Ie vous suis infiniment obligé du soin qu’il vous a {pleu} de prendre en la construction de cette machine, et de la generosité dont {vous vais servez envoie moy}. Mais je vous prie encore une fois de vous en servir un peu moins en cette occasion, et pour ne me {combler} tant a fait de {…}, et parce que la machine appartient a nostre université,” Cod. Ms. Hist. nat. 102, fasc. 25, 64r–v. Johan de Witt Jr. owned some of De Volder’s dictata: see supra, n. 70.
226.
“1706 Febr. 7. Inventaris van het Observatorium. Een quadrans azimuthalis. Een sextans. Een quadrans. Twee horologien wysende seconden. Een metael spiegel. Een spangpasser. Een armilla. Twee oude globi. Een objectif glas van 50 voet. Nogh een van 18 voet. Een kleyne kopere quadrant. Een kycker van 12 voet. Nevens verscheyde oogglasen, minder kyckers etc.,” Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 107∗–108∗.
227.
On him, see Hill 1985; Dijksterhuis 2007; Abou-Nemeh 2012.
228.
See the letter of De Volder to Huygens of 26 April 1689 (which is the first extant from their correspondence): “[i]ck sal oock, soo UEd. geen volkomen genoegen had in de proef op de solder, maar liever het glas aan de maan selfs probeerde, niet manqueren op het aldereerst advys, UEdt. de blickke ring met de steert toe te stueren sij is wel heel ruw gemaackt, maar sal voor een proefje meen ik, genoech verstrecken,” Huygens 1888–1950, volume 9, 315 (letter 2537). Cf. the letter by Leibniz to De Volder of 6 July 1701 (GP II, 224–228), the letter by De Volder to Leibniz of 7 October 1701 (GP II, 228–232), the letter by Leibniz to De Volder of 27 December 1701 (GP II, 232–235), the letter by Bernoulli to Leibniz of 14 January 1702 (A III9, 6–9).
229.
See the letter of Christiaan Huygens to his brother Constantijn of 22 March 1689: “[j]e fus voir a Leyden le professeur de Volder qui me montra un verre de 50 pieds que Hartsoecker a fait pour l’Academie, selon l’inscription qu’il a mise dessus. Il avoit un bord de maroquin rouge, avec quelque dorure de la largeur de 2 doigts. Il est de matiere tres belle a ce que j’ay pu voir et bien espaisse, mais quant a la bontè je n’en suis pas bien certain, n’y aiant pas de place chez de Volder pour l’essaier si non une allée de sa maison, ou je m’en enloignay tant que je vis les pierres des maisons de l’autre costè du canal renversées, mais seulement avec les yeux sans oculaire, parce que pour cela il auroit falu de l’obscuritè tout au tour,” Huygens 1888–1950, volume 9, 313 (letter 2534). On the lens, see Zuidervaart 2007, 52, 166. See also Crommelin 1929.
230.
Zuidervaart 2007, 164. As indicated by Zuidervaart, the “inventories of the observatory […] suggest that at the turn of the century there were at least eight telescopes present. These inventories also reveal the habit of storing the large telescopes in pieces: the long tubes were stored in the upper attic of the former convent and the lenses were kept in a cupboard elsewhere. So apparently a large telescope was assembled on the spot, each time an observation was made,” Zuidervaart 2007, 12–13.
231.
“Den 14. Jan. waren wir erstlich bey unserm Kauffmann Herrn Brunk. Hernach besahen wir die sogenannte Academie oder Universitäts-Collegium, und die darinn befindliche Auditoria. […] Das vornehmste und beste ist wohl das Observatorium, oben auf dem Collegio, als welches sehr geräumig und gut ist. Man kan sich sehr wohl auf der Gallerie über die Stadt umsehen. Auf bey den Seiten sind zwey Häusgen, in deren einem ist ein besonders schöner und grosser Sextans, welchen der Mathematicus Mez in Amsterdam vor hundert und fünfzehen [sic] Gulden gemacht. Er siehet sehr wohl aus, und soll auch gar accurat seyn. In dem andern Häusgen gegen über ist noch ein Quadrant, welches derjenige seyn wird, den Vossius de scientiis mathematicis C. XXXVI. §.47. sq. p.199. sq. so sehr rühmet, und welchen der berühmte Bleau gemacht haben soll, wiewohl wir nirgends keinen Namen darauf finden können, ausser daß auf dem Fuß auf eine Platte von Messing gestochen war: Antonius Hoevenaer fecit Leidae. Wir fragten also, ob etwan noch ein Quadrant hie wäre, allein der Pedell, so uns herum führte, wolte nichts davon wissen. Es scheinet also, daß ihn dieser Mann verfertiget, der berühmte Bleau aber ihn angegeben, und die Direction dabey gehabt, daher Vossius ihme selbigen zuschreibt. Es soll aber dieser Hoevenaer ein guter Uhren macherge wesen seyn. Das Dach von beyden Häusgen war artig gemacht, daß man es ringsherum drehen könnte, wie der Abriß Fig. XIV. und XV. zeiget. Dieser Riß stellet nemlich das in Leiden auf dem Collegio erbaute Observatorium vor, welches sehr gut und bequem ausgesonnen ist. Es bestehet nemlich aus einem oben auf dem Dach stehenden runden Thürngen, dessen gleichfalls rundes und spizig zugehendes Dach sich herum drehen lässet, gleichwie man an den Schiffkranen sehen kan. Diese Bewegung war vermittelst eines Triebes und eines einwärts zahnigten Rades gar leicht ins Werk zu richten, denn wie man in Fig. XIV. und noch besser in Fig XV. siehet, so hat das Dach unten herum einwärts einen runden eisernen Cirkel mit starken Zähnen, (aa) und unter demselben sind in einer Höhlung viele kleine aber doch dicke und starke Walzen oder Rollen bevestiget, darauf sich das Dach desto leichter und bequemer rücken lässet. Diese Rollen (b) sind auswendig mit einem überhängenden Brett bedeckt, damit kein Regen noch Tag dazwischen in das Häusgen fallen kan. An einer Seite des Thürngens ist oben ein starkes Eisen, (c) wie ein Galgen formirt, vest, mit welchem, wie auch mit den andern kleinen Banden (dd) der Trieb (ee) bevestiget ist. Dieser Trieb (e) greiffet oben in die Zähne des Cirkels (aa) an dem Dach, und wenn er vermittelst des andern untersten kleinen Triebs (f) herum gedrehet wird, so beweget er allgemach das ganze Dach oben herum, so daß das Fenster, (gg) wohin man es haben will, sich stellet. Fig. b. ist der grosse Trieb (ee) apart, fig. c. aber der kleinere, so in Fig. XVI. mit f. bezeichnet ist, und fig. d. ist die eiserne Hand habe, so unten den kleinen Trieb f. hält, und darinn er sich beweget. In einem andern Zimmer stunden noch einige Instrumente, nebst etlichen alten Tubis, wie z. E. aus dem Abriß Fig. XVI. zu ersehen. Unter andern kostbaren und grossen Instrumenten haben wir auch diesen kleinen Fuß gefunden, darauf man die Tubos mit dem hintersten Theil leget, und unvermerkt hin und her bewegen kan. Es hat derselbe unten ein Creuz, und einen dicken Stock darauf, in welchem ein zahnigtes Holz gleich in einer Winde stecket, und das man auch auf gleiche Art mit einem kleinen Trieb und Handhabe (aa) in die Höhe und hinunter stellen kan. Auf diesem Holze war ein von eisernen Linealen gemachter Triangel, (b) welcher an der obersten Seite zwey runde aufrecht stehende Blättgen (cc) hatte, darinnen sich eine lange Schraube (e) vermittelst der Handhabe (d) drehete. An dieser Schraube (e) war eine kleine eiserne Maschine, (f) wie sie hier zu sehen, auf geschraubet. Diese bestunde aus zwey Blättern, (g) die mit einem halben eisernen Bogen oder Cirkel (h) zusammen vest gemacht waren. Auf diesen halben Bogen (h) legte man den Tubum, und band ihn mit den zweyen daran hangenden Bändern vest. Wenn man den hernach die Handhabe (d) umdrehete, so schraubete sich die Maschine (f) mit dem Tubo entweder hinauf oder herunter, und das mit einem so gleichgehenden und sanften Gang, daß man das Object immer vor dem Tubo behalten, und wenn sich selbiges beweget, mit dem Tubo auch nachrücken könnte,” Uffenbach 1753–1754, volume 3, 395–398.
232.
See the aforementioned entries given supra, n. 213; cf. Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 38–39 and 107∗–108∗; Rosenboom 1697, part 1, 120; part 2, 40 and 54. For the renewal of the observatory, according to the academic budget 1,800 guilders were spent at the beginning of 1688, and 2,031 guilders were spent in 1690: see Rosenboom 1697, part 1, 105; part 2, 40 and 52. In particular, 1,796 guilders were paid to Jan Bastiannsz. Lopik for carpentry work on the observatory towers, and 235 were paid to Adriaan Kramer for iron work in the towers: Rosenboom 1697, part 2, 52. Hieronymus Meyer took care of the cleaning of the observatory, while Metz took care of the maintenance of the instruments: see Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 225–226; Rosenboom 1697, part 2, 108. With De Volder’s permission, the observatory was used also by Lotharius Zumbach de Koesfeld, student at Leiden from 1688 to 1693, and private teacher of mathematics and astronomy. He left Leiden in 1708, after having been for a short time director of the observatory: see Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 222, 225–226 and 234. On him, see Zuidervaart 2007. As professor of mathematics, on 5 June 1698 De Volder allowed a certain Stavinskii to give private lectures, in Leiden, on military and civil architecture, and on mechanics and perspective: see Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 162.
233.
“Twee Curieuse Astrolabia […]. 1 Kopere Sonnenwijser. 1 Maankijker. 1 Kleyne Verrekijker. 1 Pedestaal om een groote maankijker op te legge […]. 1 Groote houte Quadrant met koper beslag staande op een voet. Astrolabium Catholicum, van Voogt. 1 Eeuwigdurende Maanwijser in een swarte lijst. 1 Groote Sphera. 1 Dito kleynder. […] 1 Landmeeters ketting. 1 Globus Celestis en Terrestris. 1 Doekmeter om een platte Globus of Landkaart te meten,” Bibliotheca Volderina, 95–96.
234.
Bibliotheca Volderina, 24–25.
235.
Frans van Schooten included tracts and letters by Hudde, De Witt, Van Heuraet and De Beaune in his 1659 Latin edition of Descartes’s Géométrie. On them, and on the reception of Descartes’s geometry, see Boutroux 1914; Grootendorst and Van Maanen 1982; Schoneveld 1983, chapter 2; Brigaglia 1995; Van Berkel et al. 1999, part 1.
236.
“Mathesin didicerat primo vulgarem, quam Syntheticam vocant; paulo post excoluit subtiliorem, quae Analytica appellatur, qua veteres usi ad optima inventa; sed quam caute texerunt, exceptis Euclide et Diophanto, qui aliquas edidere scintillas. Hic statim immensum profecit; Cartesii, Huddii, Heuratii, deBeaunii, Wittii, Slusii, Leibnitzii, Hugenii, Newtoni inventa excussit, addidicit. Ita ut tandem Logisticam infinite parvorum sciverit inter paucos optime. Illa mirifica humanae sciendi in Mathematicis facultatis meta: quam Barrovius, Leibnitzius, Newtonus, Bernouilleus ita in sui seculi celebritatem excoluere,” Gronovius 1709, 26–27. De Volder was praised as skilled in mathematical analysis by the German astronomer Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr in his letter to Leibniz from Leiden of April 1701: “[k]ein pars in der Mathesi specialiori gehet hier mehr in Schwang, als die fortification; was die Mathesin universalem anlanget, so ist die Analysis allhier noch in sehr gutem Stand, und haben wir hier auch ziemlich viel gute Analysten, des Hl de Volders Collegia Mathematica sind meistens von der Analysi,” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek Hannover, ms. LBr 971, 60r, transcription from Briefwechsel Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr, https://www.astronomie-nuernberg.de/index.php?category=doppelmayr&page=1701-04-00-Allgoewer (accessed 13 January 2019). As an evidence of De Volder’s teachings, the auction catalogue (1739) of the private library of Boerhaave, reveals that in 1689 Boheraave wrote some Problemata arithmetica et geometrica sub auspicio B. de Volder methodo Cartesii soluta (now lost): Bibliotheca Boerhaaviana, 27.
237.
“Pendant que Mr. de Volder s’appliquoit à étudier & à enseigner les Mathematiques, de trés-habiles gens découvrirent ces nouvelles Méthodes aux quelles on a donné les noms de Calcul differentiel & de Calcul integral, & faisoient de tems en tems paroître quelque chose en public, qu’ils avoient découvert, par ces Méthodes. Nôtre Philosophe s’applica aussi à ces nouvelles manieres, & dès que le livre de l’Illustre Mr. Newton, des Principes Mathematiques de la Philosophie Naturelle, eut paru en MDCLXXXVII. Il s’attacha fortement à cette lecture, pour découvrir les principes sur les quels l’Auteur s’étoit fondé; & l’on a encore trouvé parmi ses papiers les calculs de ses démonstrations. On sait que ce livre suppose une connoissance des Mathematiques, qui n’est pas commune. Je me souviens même d’avoir ouï dire à Mr. de Volder, que peu de tems après qu’il parut, feu Mr. Huygens, qui étoit un grand Mathematicien, mais à qui les nouvelles méthodes, dont j’ai parlé, étoient inconnuës, le vint voir à Leide & le mit sur le sujet du livre de Mr. Newton. Il avoüa à Mr. de Volder, qu’il trouvoit ce livre extrémement obscur, & lui demanda ce qu’il en pensoit. Nôtre Philosophe lui répondit qu’il n’étoit pas en effet facile de pénetrer les principes des démonstrations de l’Auteur, mais qu’il avoit trouvées veritables celles qu’il avoit examinées. On ne peut pas néanmoins douter que Mr. Huygens ne fût un excellent Mathematicien, & que la Physique & les Mathematiques ne lui soient très-redevables,” Le Clerc 1709, 379–380.
238.
“In einem kurzen Schreiben, datirt Amsterdam d. 11 Sept. 1682 giebt Tschirnhaus Nachricht von neu erschienen Büchern, und meldet ‘Hrn. Hugens habe in Hage gesprochen; er gehet gleich nach Paris. Zu Leiden habe Hrn. Voldern gesprochen’,” Leibniz 1899, volume 1, 445.
239.
See Van Gent’s letter to Huygens of 26 June 1687: “[e]andem Epistolam, seu Apologiam ad D. De Volder mittere animus est, ut exauditam sententiam ex illo expiscarer,” Huygens 1888–1950, volume 9, 175 (letter 2467).
240.
“Daß Tschirnhaus was Spinosistisches in seiner Medicina mentis habe, oder auch selbsten mit Spinosa bekandt gewesen, wüste er auch nicht. Er sagte, er habe die Medicinam Mentis gelesen, habe aber nichts dergleichen angetroffen, soviel er sich zu entsinnen wüßte,” Freudenthal 1899, 229.
241.
“Excidit sane N.V. num hanc D. de Volder Epistolam tecum communicarim […],” Huygens 1888–1950, volume 9, 194 (letter 2475).
242.
“Convenit me ante aliquot septimanas D. prof. de Volder, sciscitans numne quicquam literarum a D. Tschirnh. receptum a me esset,” Huygens 1888–1950, volume 9, 214 (letter 2485).
243.
“D. Voldero obligatus sum, nam hic perfecte non solum meum errorem detexit sed et aliqua ex parte unde meus lapsus originem traxerit,” Huygens 1888–1950, volume 9, 215 (letter 2486).
244.
The memorandum is dated 29 June 1693: “[t]o settle a correspondence with Volder, Leers, Verwer, vander Aa.” I quote from Vermij 2003, 186. Originally in Ms. 247, f. 81, of the Royal Society, London.
245.
See Vermij 2003; Mojet 2016, 2017.
246.
“Quanta erat coniunctio nostri cum brevi gaudio nostro Archibaldo Pitkarnio?” Gronovius 1709, 27. On Pitcairne’s influence on De Volder, see Sect. 3.2.3.1, The case of explanations in physiology. See also the letter by De Volder to Gregory of 31 December 1695, quoted infra, n. 261, in which is evident De Volder’s closeness with Pitcairne.
247.
See infra, n. 261.
248.
Newton 1959–1977, volume 3, 166.
249.
For the first manuscript: Edinburgh University Library, ms. Coll-33/Quarto A [39]), titled (according to the catalogue) Methodus Tangentium demonstrata…, circa 1691. I owe this information to Newton 1959–1977, volume 3, 167. For the second manuscript: Edinburgh University Library, ms. Coll-33/Folio C [81], titled Methodus tangentium Slusii illustrata a Burchero de Volder, 1691. Cf. the letter by Verwer to Gregory of 23 August 1691: “Slusianae Tangentium Methodi exegesis a D. burghero de Volder expedita, ac discipulo cuidam suo tradita,” which I quote from Mojet 2016, 86. See also Mojet 2017.
250.
See Paradís et al. 2004; Knobloch 2006.
251.
“L’on m’a donné depuis peu une solution du probleme de la quadrature de la Feuille de Des Cartes par les appliquées à l’axe, qui pourtant sera differente, comme je crois, de celle que vous m’aviez promise, par ce qu’elle va par de grands détours et par la comparaison des termes des equations à la maniere de Des Cartes. Ces solutions se trouvent, lors qu’on en a desia d’autres, mais je ne laisse pas de l’estimer. J’ay veu que Mr. de Volder, Professeur à Leyde, en est l’autheur,” Huygens 1888–1950, volume 10, 623. Cf. the words of the editors of Huygens’s Ouevres: “[n]ous possédons dans la collection Huygens deux solutions du problème de la quadrature du folium de Descartes auxquelles les qualifications du texte sont plus ou moins applicables. Toutes deux ont passé sous les yeux de Huygens puisque sur chacune d’elle on trouve une petite annotation de sa main. L’une d’elle, notre pièce No. 2861, qui va par de plus ‘grands détours’ que l’autre, est rédigée en langue hollandaise. Elle n’est certainement pas de l’écriture de de Volder, écriture que nous croyons reconnaître avec sûreté dans la seconde, notre No. 2862, qui est rédigée en Latin. Elles se distinguent l’une de l’autre principalement parce que dans la première la methode de différentiation de de Sluse et dans la seconde celle de Leibniz a été suivie. Nous sommes inclinés à supposer qu’elles sont toutes deux de de Volder qui aurait fait copier la première par un de ses disciples. Dans ce cas la seconde constitue une rédaction améliorée de la première […],” Huygens 1888–1950, volume 10, 624. In these fragments, De Volder used Barrow’s theorem of calculus in his solution. Notably, Newton’s copy of Barrow’s Lectiones geometricae (1669) reports De Volder’s name on the front, written by Newton: Newton Project website, http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/his-library/books-in-newtons-library (accessed 13 January 2019). They might have discussed Barrow’s ideas in person. De Volder might even have met Barrow in 1674. In his letter to L’Hôpital of 4 October 1694, in turn, Huygens noted the difference between his own and De Volder’s solutions: “[j]e crois que ma quadrature de la feüille de Descartes par les appliquées à l’axe sera fort differente de celle de Mr. de Volder; car elle est uniquement fondée, comme je vous ai deja mandé sur quelques regles que j’ai pour prendre les sommes et dont je vous ferai part lorsque j’aurai un peu de loisir,” Huygens 1888–1950, volume 10, 687 (letter 2879). Huygens refers to his letter of L’Hospital of 18 January 1694.
252.
“Lugduno Bat. transii, ubi Volderum Mat. P. adii, quem breve post colloquium reliqui, praesertim ubi illum non ita bene de nostra methodo sentire audirem, quam totam ex Slusiana deductam dicebat,” A III6, 518. Moreover, infinitesimal calculus is dealt with in the letter of Bernoulli to De Volder of 27 June 1698: “[e]cce mitto ut promiseram enodationem difficultatis paulo ante discessum meum a Te motae contra infinitorum methodum.” The letters between De Volder and Bernoulli (besides those pertaining to their correspondence with Leibniz) are preserved at the Basel University Library, and have been digitized and transcribed in the Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli. Korrespondenz zwischen Bernoulli, Johann I und Volder, Burchard de (http://www.ub.unibas.ch/bernoulli/index.php/Kategorie:Volder_Burchard_de-Bernoulli_Johann_I (accessed 13 January 2019)), to which I owe this and the other quotations from their correspondence. As to the original of this letter: Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 675, 161–162. No other letters exchanged between De Volder and Bernoulli (with the exception of the letter by De Volder to Bernoulli for Leibniz, 21 November 1698, in A II 3B, 476–482) could be found.
253.
“Volderi, viri licet egregie docti, judicium de nostris Methodis non est quod nos magnopere moveat, videtur enim in hanc Analyseos partem minus inspexisse. At Hugenius ipse, quo nemo melius ista dijudicare poterat, et cui Slusiana et multo ampliora erant perspectissima, de praestantia nostrae Methodi magnifice sentiebat,” A III6, 528.
254.
“Volderus sub discessum meum proponebat mihi difficultatem contra calculum infinitorum, quam sibi se eximere non posse neque a Nieuwentiitio cui dudum eandem proposuerat hactenus enodationem accepisse rebatur, rogans ut ego sibi hac super re satisfacerem, quod etiam libenter promisi me scilicet satisfacturum statim ac huc redux factus essem, et revera nudius tertius solutionem ipsi misi,” A III7, 812. In his letter to Bernoulli of 12/22 July 1698, Leibniz showed no wonder that Nieuwentijt could not solve De Volder’s problem: “[m]irum non est Dn. Nieuwentiit ipsi non satisfecisse circa calculum differentialem quem ab […] ipso non satis profunde penetratum constat,” GM III, 515. In the words of the editors of the Leibniz Akademie Ausgabe, the question was whether two unequal parts of the hyperbola, which are contained in one another, can have the same content, namely, if this is infinite: “[v]on de Volders Schwierigkeiten mit Leibniz’ Infinitesimalkalkül berichtete Joh. Bernoulli, der ihn auf einer Reise durch die Niederlande kennengelernt hatte […]. Im Gegensatz zu Nieuwentijt und Clüver hatte de Volder kein alternatives Konzept. Er hatte sich aus Interesse mit dem Infinitesimalkalkül beschäftigt und war bei der Betrachtung der Quadratur einer Hyperbel auf einen (vermeintlichen) Widerspruch gestoßen. […] Dabei ging es darum, ob zwei ineinander enthaltene nicht gleiche Teilflächen der Hyperbel gleichen Flächeninhalt haben können, nämlich wenn dieser unendlich ist, und allgemein um die Frage, ob die Axiome des Endlichen, z. B. dass das Ganze größer als der Teil ist, im Unendlichen weiter gelten. De Volders mathematische Schwierigkeiten waren nach Joh. Bernoullis Erläuterungen […] wohl ausgeräumt,” A III7A, Einleitung, XL.
255.
See the letter of Bernoulli to De Volder of 27 June 1698: “[e]cce mitto ut promiseram enodationem difficultatis paulo ante discessum meum a Te motae contra infinitorum methodum,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 675, 161–162). The solution was attached to his letter to Leibniz of 23 July/2 August 1698, in GM III, 516–518.
256.
“Rectissime etiam solvisse mihi videris Viri Clarissimi Objectionem sane peringeniosam et elegantem contra calculum infinitesimalem,” A III7, 855. Moreover, Leibniz and De Volder touched upon the problem of the hyperbole: see, for instance, the letter by De Volder to Bernoulli of 21 November 1698, and the letter by Leibniz to De Volder of 27 December 1698: GP II, 148–152 and 153–163.
257.
“Hinc fieri debuit, ut latissime didita Volderi fama maximam isti nomini conciliaverit auctoritatem. […] Quid loquar vel inter liturarios Nobilissimi Hugenii repertam chartulam, in qua is accinuit sibi ab Voldero in oratione Professionis Mathematum factam esse sui honoratam mentionem, quasi oculis suis et voluptati non satisfieret, si nosset in ipsa oratione id legi, nisi chirographo suo scriptum aliquoties etiam videret? Ab eodem ultimis mandatis cautum est, ut pars postuma scriptorum ab Voldero ederetur, honorato tamen mille florenis. Hinc Amplissimus Huddius pari liberalitate inter legatarios prosequutus fuit. Hinc in Academiam Patavinam vocatus libera opinione in rebus sacris promissa,” Gronovius 1709, 27. In a not perfectly clear statement, in this passage Gronovius notes that De Volder was also mentioned in Hudde’s testament (please note that Hudde was not mentioned in Huygens’s testament: see Huygens 1888–1950, volume 22, 773–778): see Sect. 2.4.2, De Volder’s retirement, death and legacy. Notably, in 1699 a Latin edition of Galileo’s Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (1632), viz. Systema cosmicum was dedicated to De Volder by the publishers, Friedrich Haaring and David Severin of Leiden: see Galileo 1699. Johann Bernoulli congratulated De Volder for this in his letter of 31 May 1699.
258.
Hall 1982, 11. Cf. the original text of the whole letter (to which I shall return below): “Viro Amplissimo D. Is. Newton. / S. P. B. De Volder. / Cum D. Zimmerman, ad vos reditum pararet mei officii esse {putavi}, tibi hisce gratias {agere} maximas pro luculentissimo ingenii tui {factu}, quo me beare voluisti. \Nam,/ quam <{…}> propter meam a domo, Musaeoq[ue] absentiam {integrum} accurate pervolvere non licuerit, vel obiter inspicienti satis {patiunt} contineri in illo reconditae eruditionis, et summae ad res Physicas utilitatis mysteria. Sed brevi mihi dabitur illis impensius delectari. D. Zimmerman numere apud vos {Ecclesiastae} fungi gratissimum {fuit}, eiq[ue] praeterea tuam amicitiam quam ille non immerito maximi facit singulariter gratulatus sum; doluiq[ue] certe mihi deesse rationem qua ulteriorem quam <{…}> quaerere videtur, apud vos commendationem ipsi procurare possim. {Interum} maxime {gavisus} sum cum intelligerem ex ipso tibi omnia esse recte. Iam enim tibi metueram, cum ex novellis, quas vocant, intellexissem, re etiam periculosissimo hocce tempore libertatis et privilegiorum Acad. patrocinium generosissime suscepisse. Sed bene habet, quod vanus fuerit hicce meus metus. Utinam ita semper eveniat, ubi libertatis, et Religionis defensoribus, qui hisce temporibus oppido quam pauci sunt, aliquid mali {imaninere} videtur. Tibi certe ex animo voco ut in Acad. gloriam, in Reip. letterariae emolumentum perpetua felicitate frui contingat. / Vale. / Dabam Amstelod. / 14 Augusti. 1686,” Uppsala University Library, Waller Ms. benl-00771.
259.
See supra, n. 237.
260.
Cf. the text quoted supra, n. 101. See also Le Clerc 1709, 374: “[…] il explica en public non seulement la Physique, mais encore la Métaphysique de Descartes. Il en étoit en ce tems-là beaucoup plus grand admirateur, qu’il ne l’a été sur la fin de sa vie, qu’il en avoit reconnu le foible; comme il l’a avoué plusieurs fois à ses Amis, & ainsi que je lui ai ouï dire moi-même.”
261.
Cf. the full text of the letter: “Viro Amplissimo. Iacobo Gregorio, Matheseos Saviliano Professori S. P. B. De Volder. / Clarissimus vir Godfridus Bidloo, Anatomes et Medicinae, apud nos Professor, iussu regio Angliam petit. Hic meis hisce litteris tibi innotescere voluit, quanquam nihil, ut opinor, necesse est. Ipsorum opere Anatomico, quod ante multos annos edidit, tibi vestratibusq[ue] notus erit satis superq[ue]. Quod se tanem ex mea commendatio adjicere huic rei vel {tantillima} queat, eam hisce lubentissime adjungo. / Deinde non possum, {quam} tibi hac occasione gratias agam pro Optices libello, quo me donare dignatus {es}. Caeterum apud nos. Vic quidquam in re litteraria {boni} geritur. Librum Newtoni ut ex Amstelodamensibus intellexi jam vidisti, nec in eo, ut opinor {quidquam} extraordinari. Bernoulli <{…}> vicinia {degit} apud Groninganos vocatus illic Matheseos professor. Hugenius diem suum, ut proculdubio jam nosti, obiit. Manuscripta sua legavit Acad. nostre; ea tamen lege, ut mecum D. Fullenuius Matheseos apud Franekeranos Professor, ea perlegeret, et si {quae praelo} idonea forent, praelo {commuteret}. Verum hactenus apud haeredes latent, {b…eroi} tamen, nisi fallor, si valetudo {suaerit} ea inspiciendi dabitur facultas. De Pitcarnio omnis spes nostra evanuit. Huic meis verbis multam salutem dicito, et me propediem ipsi responsurum, ubi occasio erit, si placet indicabo. Vale. / Lugd. Batav. / Prid. Calend. Ianuar. / anni CIƆIƆCXCVI, qui tibi ut ineat et exeat felix, Deum precer. Iterum vale,” Bodleian Library, ms. Tanner 24, f. 189. De Volder probably received Gregory’s Catoptricae et dioptricae sphaericae elementa (1695). Bernard Fullenius was professor of mathematics at Franeker. In 1705, Gregory even suspected that De Volder (who inspected Huygens’s papers after his death, and published with Fullenius his Opuscula postuma) could have organized the printing of Huygens’s remarks on Newton’s Principia, appeared as an appendix to the Historia cycloeidis of Johann Groenig in 1701: see Newton 1959–1977, volume 3, 169. This claim could not be substantiated.
262.
Or, as Bernard Cohen has put it, “Keill could be assumed to speak with an authentic Newtonian voice,” Cohen 1997, 125. On Keill, see also Thijssen 1992; Guicciardini 1995; Wilson 2009, chapter 1; Carpenter 2011, chapter 1; Palmerino 2013.
263.
I explore this topic in Sect. 6.2.1, Huygens confronting Descartes’s theory of weight.
264.
Cf. the text of the two letters: “[n]on aegre adducor ut credam quod scribis Johannem Keill Scotum Vestris vehementer commendatum fuisse a Comite Pembrokiae, Newtono, Gregorio, hos enim omnes singulari modo obstrinxit; nam Pembrokio dedicavit suam introductionem physicam, in qua Newtonum singulis fere paginis novis elogiis condecorat, Gregorium vero popularem suum arrepta levi qualibet occasione extollit quandoque etiam ultra meritum. Quantum ad ipsum hoc opusculum, quod Tibi visum puto; profecto illud non tanti deprehendi, quam primo aspectu sperabam; particulares enim corporum affectiones eorumque phaenomena physica plane non explicat; in praefatione sugillat quidem modum communem explicandi gravitatis causam per pressionem materiae subtilis, et absurdissimas diuque obsoletas objectiones contra eum movet, quo ostendit se non legisse Dissertationem incomparabilis Hugenii De causa gravitatis; interim quod mireris per totum libellum melioris explicationis nec volam nec vestigium reperies; multa reprehendit alia, quibus tamen mediocri in contextu substituere (ut quidem ab eo expectabam) postea non meminit: Habet quidem in sequentibus nonnulla physico-mathematica, de viribus et motu gravium quae sunt alicujus momenti et quibus indicat, se aliquousque ad haec interiora penetrasse, sed si verum dicere fas est, nihil novi reperio quod non compilaverit ex Newtonianis aut ex Hugenianis aut ex Nostris etiam; quamvis peregrinos plerumque tanti non aestimet ut quid ex illis hauserit profiteatur, more scilicet multorum Britannorum, adeo ut nihil novi ex sua penu nobis dederit.” “Quid in Keylii libello sit quod eum commendet tanquam totius Europae post Newtonum, summum Geometram, meorum certe oculorum aciem subterfugit; nisi quis velit eum ideo tanto elogio dignum, quod fuerit Newtoni fidelis exscriptor et suorum plagiorum cautus celator; interim miror si parem non habet excepto Newtono, Keylius, quod vili adeo precio intra 1000 flor. se venum offerat, siquidem vinum vendibile quod ajunt non indiget haedera suspensa,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 675, 191).
265.
“[…] recordor, ipsum jam dum viveret Volderum ad me scripsisse et petiisse meum judicium de ejus Introductione de veram physicam; quod cum dedissem, rescripsit se omnino mecum sentire, neque opusculum illud, (quod mera esset rapsodia, continens varia a saniorum Philosophorum praesertim Volderi ipsius placitis dissentientia) tanti ponderis deprehendere, ut ideo cathedram suam ad quam nonnulli eum commendaverant promereretur; ex quo et ex aliis circumstantiis colligere potui, Volderi animum ab isto Keylio omnino fuisse abalienatum; et ideo quod Curatores multum deferre solebant Voldero parum spei relictum esse Keylio, equidem nescio quomodo nunc post fata Volderi Lugdunenses, sint animati, quod dies docebit,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 659, number 6). See also the letter of Jakob Hermann to Bernoulli of 12 July 1710: “[h]aec Curatorum perseverantia satis evidens praebet indicium, quantum Curae ipsis sit ut statio quam Cel. Volderus decessu suo vacantem reddidit, Eximio Viro instauretur, simulque satis aperte monstrant Academiae Leidensis decori non posse felicius consuli, quam si Bernoullio potiantur; adeo ut hinc nullus dubitem quin efficacissima quaevis media adhibituri sint, ut ad se trahant; sed in honorem Universitatis Patriae et confirmationem Valetudinis Tuae quae nova soli mutatione detrimentum capere posset, optarem ut eorum conatus irriti fiant. Si Volderus adhuc in vivis esset, haud dubie Keilio spes omnis Provinciam obtinendi quam Tu detrectasses, praecisa esset, sed Celebri Viro nunc fatis functo, non penitus incredibile duco, ut Anglus iste scopum suum assequatur,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 659, number 19∗).
266.
As reconstructed by Wiesenfeldt (Wiesenfeldt 2002, 234), Boerhaave did not officially graduate with De Volder as promoter, and had also been a student of Senguerd. However, Boheraave from time to time praised De Volder as his teacher.
267.
In the letter, De Volder thanked Braun for having received a copy of his Doctrina foederum sive Systema theologiae didacticae et elencticae (1688): another copy was for Hieronymus van Beverningh, protector of De Volder at Leiden – and sympathiser with Cartesianism and Cocceianism. As to the rest, the letter contains some news on other colleagues of De Volder, and on the attendance at lectures at Leiden. For a commentary, see Wiesenfeldt 2002, chapter 2. Cf. the full text: “Mijn Heer, / UEdts aangename van den 28ste Maart is mij eerst den 25ste April, ter handt gekomen. Ick dank UEdt harterlyck voor het overgesonden exemplaar van UEdts Systema Theologiae. Het ander heb ick aan de Hr. Bewerningh doen behandingen. {Lis mij lief}, dat de treves tusschen UEdt, en UEdts Collegaas UEdt tydt geeft om uw gedachten op beter en {voorst} gemeen nutter dingen te leggen als op twist schriften, uijt {welcten} seer selden, soo {wyt} eenigh woordere te verwachten is. Wat ons aangaat, alles is hier in rust en Vrede. Elck doedt wat hij wil; en ’t schijnt hier wel te sullen duuren, ten waar de onlusten van buijten hier quamen over te waayen. Maar dan dach en raadt. Men doet her sijn uijterste best om de wereld te doen geloven dat de Theologische Faculteijt nu immers so wel floreert als te vooren. De Hr. Trigland {…} over 3 a 4 maanden, dat in een Collegie 60 studenten had die reedts haar naam hadde geteyckent, buijten die geen die sonder naam te teyckenen quamen. De Hr. Spanheym door imant van de Magistraat naa ’t getal der studenten gevraaght sijnde, bekende wel dat ’er minder studenten waren als voorheen, maar {weghde} ’er terstont bij, dat die geen die vertrocten waren, geen Theologenten waren, maar Iuristen, die omdat de officier de studenten soo hard handelde, hier van {daan} waren geretireert. Maar soo UEdt mij vraaghd, wat ick ’er van gevoet; so sal ick UEdt seggen, dat ’er saeckerlyck vrij minder studenten syn als voorheen; {hoewel} ick ’s {oeck} dat moet bij seggen, dat ’er noch meerder sijn; als ick verwacht had. Maar dat men dese minderingh op de Iuristen soeckt te schuijven is maar {een praatijes}. De Hr. Spanheym heeft wel Collegie begonnen, waar van ick het getal der studenten heb hooren begrooten op 90; maar door onpasselyckheyt ingeen 3 maanden iets gedaan. {2.} 60 van de Hr. Trigland sijn {al} rijckelyck op de {helft gesanost}. So men het getal van die uijt het Collegie uijtkomen geloven mach. / Ick {beet} mij {ewermelin}, dat de Hr. Trigland soo langh als ons Academie soo als nu bestaat, hier het Catje vande baan sijn sal. Want de Hr. Spanheijn is te luij; ende Hr. Le Moyne {altes} geleert. De Hr. Gaillard heeft al eenige maanden {h’ te} huijs gehouden, en veeltjdts bedleegerigh geweest, sonder hoope van restitutie. Ick geloof echter niet, dat men, so hij quam te overlyden, een ander {voepen souw}. Want een Voetiaan heeft men niet van doen, en een Coccejaan {wilmen} niet, in ’tis oock {sra} veler oordeel ’buijten twijfel beter dat Franeker van studiosi Theologiae opgepropt is, als dat men hier {weer den droessem} (soo spreecken sommige, {siende} op de Hr. Wittichius) dienen nu quijt is, soude inhalen. En synd’ er wat minder studenten, de Theologie is hier weer noijt soo suijver geheet, als te deser {standt}. De Hr. Voet beroepen sijnde tot Utrecht, en ten minsten minen maackende van te willen gaan, heeft verkregen den tytel van Professor Iuris Practici, merers 400 gl. jaarlycks, sodat hij nu met den Hr. Noot gelijck staat; ’t geen <{…}> de Hrn. Matthaeus en Vitrarius \seer/ gespeten heeft. De Hren Noot en Voet vechten hier om de Roosenkraus dubio ad huc dum Marte, alhoewel dit jaar de schaal wat {schijnt} aan de kant vande Hr. Noot {overteslaan}. In de Medicijnen hebben wij een nieuw Anatomicus gekregen, ende Hr. Drelincourt is vande {last} vande Anatomie geexcuseert, behoudende evenwel sijn tractement. Maar dit sal UEdt buijten twijsel al langh bekent sijn. De Hr. Van Es is over 2 a 3 maanden Doctor Theologiae \van ons/ gemaackt, welcke tijtel hem door die van Haerderwijck gepraesenteert was. Veele meenen dat dit siet op de successie van de Hr. Gaillard. Maar ick geloof niet, dat de Hr. Van Es het sonder tractement soude begeren; en oock niet dat de Hren hem het op een ander wijs sullen geven. ’t welck, soo ’t evenwel geschiet, mirabor, quod hisce temporibus saepius feci. De Hr. Spanheim heeft voor 8 a 10 dagen een bastert pleuris gehadt niet sonder peryckel. Maar is tegenwoordigh weer {hoet} aande beterhaut. Verders weet niet dat hier iets meer nieuws is; soo dat ick sal eijndigen met UEdt te verseekeren dat ick waarlyck ben / Mijn Heer / UEdts ootmoedige Dienaar / B. De Volder / Leyden, den 9 maij, 1689,” British Library, Ms. Add. 24712, 76r–77r. Another curator protector of Cartesianism at Leiden was Cornelis van Beveren: see De Volder 1689, 1.
268.
See Chap. 4.
269.
See the letter of Bernoulli to Leibniz of 6 December 1698: “non dubito quin systema si quod componeres, felicissimum successum habiturum esset, sunt enim in Batavis nonnulli egregii Viri qui hunc Tuum ingenii foetum fortiter foverent et defenderent, interque illos ipse Dn. Volderus qui cum Cartesiana principia tanquam insufficientia et plurimum falsa ut ipse mihi fassus est iam a longo tempore deseruerit, si Tua semel probe percepisset et imbibisset, dubium non est quin ea gnaviter propagaturus suisque Discipulis quorum semper insignem numerum habet adeo esset inculcaturus, ut forte brevi dominium haberet supra Cartesianam et Aristotelicam, Veteresque cum modernis quasi reconciliaret. Rogo Te etiam atque etiam velis de hoc cogitare, deque Orbe philosophico bene mereri; consule quaeso nobis et posteritati, Tuoque nomini erige monumentum; quid Te Cartesio inferiorem putas?” A III7, 960.
270.
See, for instance, the letter of Leibniz to Johann Jacob Spener of 3 January 1691: “[c]eleberrimus Hugenius, qui Te Hanovera transiisse credebat in Epistola quadam sua inter alia et de Te quaesivit, meminitque nescio cujus experimenti a Te insinuati, quod nondum sibi Volderoque successerit Mercurium per Siphonem attrahere volentibus, credo mente tua non satis percepta,” A III5, 16. See also his letter to Cornelius Dietrich Koch of 29 May 1702: “Volderus philosophiae experimentalis cognitione praestat, et licet Cartesianus sit habitus, in non paucis tamen recedit a Magistro, et quaedam etiam mea assensu suo comprobavit,” A I21, 283.
271.
See the letter of Henri Basnage de Beauval to Leibniz of 12 September 1695 (GP III, 119–120) and of Leibniz to Basnage de Beauval of the second half of September 1695 (GP III, 120–123).
272.
See the letter of Leibniz to Simon Foucher of 16 April 1695: “[u]n professeur celebre à Leide, nommé Mons. Volder ayant publié sur la fin de l’année passée une réponse à la Critique de Mons. l’Evêque d’Avranches; un amy qui me la porta, me pria de luy en dire mon sentiment; En la lisant je fis des remarques, car il me sembloit, qu’il ne satisfaisoit pas assés. Un jour cela se pourra joindre à d’autres animadversions sur la philosophie de M. des Cartes, que j’ay faites, sur tout si l’on songeoit encor à une nouvelle edition de la Censure de M. d’Avranches,” GP I, 420–421. See also the letter of Leibniz of Huet of April 1695, mentioned in Sect. 2.2.3, The mid-1670s clash at Leiden and the foundation of the experimental theatre, and the letter of Leibniz to Joachim Bouvet of 15 February 1701: see A I19, 411. See Rapetti 1999, chapter 2; Laerke 2013.
273.
De Volder’s discontent with Descartes’s metaphysics is also testified to by Le Clerc: “[j]e l’ai ouï se moquer, plus d’une fois, d’une bonne partie des Méditations de Descartes, quoi qu’il les eût expliquées pendant long-tems […] il étoit ennuyé d’expliquer ces Méditations,” Le Clerc 1709, 398.
274.
See Sect. 3.2.3.1, The case of explanations in physiology.
275.
See Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 151.
276.
Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 100, 116 and 139–140. Before assuming this post, De Volder had been secretary of the Academic Senate in 1682 and 1691 (Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 363 and 371; volume 4, 12, 13, 70 and 87) and he was assessor of the Senate in 1685, 1692, 1693, 1700 (Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 61, 90, 100 and 173). He was quaestor in 1705 (Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 211) He acted as pro-rector later in 1698 (Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 172–173).
277.
“L’an MDCXCVII. il fut nommé pour être Recteur de l’Academie, & choisi par le Roi d’Angleterre; sans qu’il eût fait aucune démarche, pour s’attirer cet honneur, ni cessé de parler avec la même liberté, dont il avoit accoûtumé de se servir. Mais en ce tems-là, la haine du Cartesianisme, & les autres préventions, que l’on avoit autre fois données à ce Prince, s’étoient presque entierement évanouies. Il étoit parvenu à un degré de grandeur & d’autorité, qui le mettoit entierement au-dessus de toutes ces menues considerations. Aussi plusieurs de ceux, qui s’étoient opposez douze ans auparavant à son election, reconnurent que le Roi d’Angleterre lui avoit rendu justice; car enfin il avoit été très-utile à l’Academie, par le grand nombre d’Etudians, qu’il y avoit attirez; & personne n’avoit sujet de se plaindre, en quoi que ce fût, de sa conduite,” Le Clerc 1709, 386. See also Gronovius 1709, 35.
278.
“In aulis non curari religionem, sed utile. Ita Regem Angliae nuper demortuum, in Hollandiâ favisse Voetianis et simul in Angliâ Episcopalibus,” Warsaw University Library, Cod. IV oct. 49, 591–592. Transcription kindly provided by Martin Mulsow.
279.
See infra, n. 330.
280.
“J’ay parlé du depuis à Mr de Volder pour m’informer touchant ce que je vous avois mandé, qui m’a nommé encore quelques personnes qu’on pourroit proposer pour l’employ dans l’Academie inconnüe, mais m’a assuré en mesme temps qu’il n’en connoissoit pas de plus capable que le Sr Teiller dont vous m’aviez escrit. Il m’en a dit aussi touchant ses bonnes qualitez des choses que je ne scavois pas, et entre autres qu’il avoit voiagé en Italie[,] en Sicile, et jusqu’au Caire, et qu’il avoit dessiné en tous ces pais une infinité d’antiquitez et de belles vues. Au reste que sa solicitation ou celle de ses amis pour la profession de Mathematique à Utrecht n’avoit point reussi, seulement par ce qu’il avoit esté disciple de Mr Cranen, car ces partialitez du Cartesianisme et du Voetianisme s’etendent jusques mesme les professions où il n’est pas question de Theologie,” Huygens to Leibniz, 8 June 1694, GM I, 177–178.
281.
On him, see Sects. 2.4.2, De Volder’s retirement, death and legacy, and 3.1.3.1, The relation between material and immaterial substances.
282.
“Ex Literis B. d. V ad A. v. E. / In Academia nostra nihil fit novi, nisi quod indies magis magisq[ue] innotescat, Theologos nostros tyrannidem quaerere in studiosos. Huius exemplum hoc sit. Ante sex septemve hebdomadas cum {examinaventur} studiosi, qui in Collegio Ordinum degunt, fuit, qui respondere Martio, quaerenti, cur Cristus diceretur aeternus Dei Filius? Causam huius esse, quod ab aeterno destinatus esset a Patre ad munus mediatoris. Quod cum bis terve repeteret, reconduit Martius, et accusarit hominem Socinianismi. Ita quidem tum discessum est. Circa vesperam adfuit studiosus hicce proregenti, excusavit factum, nescire se quid responderit, fuisse se animo perturbato, nunquam aut Roëlii libros aut Socinianorum legisse, sed in Burmanno, alioq[ue] eijusdem commatis, cuijus nomen non memini, omnem operam posuisse. De Roelii opinionem se nihil unquam intellexisse, nisi ex sermonibus inter studiosos habitis. Postmodum vocatus est ad Professores Theologos, sed ea lege, ut statim cogeretur illos adire, cum bedello, qui vetabat, ne cum ullo antea colloquium haberet. Conqueritur se ab illis acerbe receptum, praesertim a tuo \Triglandio/ illo cliente, quo neminem ait fuisse acerbiorem, ut Spahnemio meliorem neminem. Illos excusationem suam non accepisse: dimissum esse hisce cum minis, scire sese quid sibi hac in re faciendum foret. Proxime habito Curatorum conventu adiit eos Martius, rogans ut velint ipsis auxiliari, ne novae hae opiniones in nostra Academia propagentur: Curatores ea de re monuerunt Regentes Collegii, rogarunt, qualisnam hic juvenis foret; et cum uterq[ue] omnia bona de ipso testarentur, jusserunt, ut invigilarent huic negotio: talia ipsos ferre non posse: addideruntq[ue], se postmodum quid ipsis hac de re animi foret Regentibus indicaturos. Ex quibus mihi persuadeo rem dilatam in adventum Opdamii: ille enim aberat. Vides facile quidnam nostri moliantur, ut sc. reverentiam, quam putant sibi deberi, et quam meritis adipisci se posse desperant, metu obtineant, aut certe externum obsequium. / Lugd. Batav. a.d. 26 Decemb. 1691,” Amsterdam University Library, OTM hs. Gs 24.
283.
“Academiarum moderatores sunt apud vos Presbyteriani, apud nos Episcopalibus propiores, dogmatis sc. rigore, non institutis. Hi autem licet alteri ab alteris e diametro diversi, tamen utrobique in eo tertio tam mirifice consentiunt, quod stupiditati plerique, ceu Deae, immolent, (saniori cuiquam praeiudicatum nolo) quod puriori [sic, pro purioris] philosophiae et certitudinum mathematicarum sint osores et hostes capitales, ideo quia ignorantes: et si res ex eorum cederit voto, tractionem earum facultatum si non exilui plecterent, saltem tam angustis circumscriberent cancellis, ut parum esset reliqui. Habet Lugdunum Batavorum suum Fredericum Spanhemium, Theologum, qui clavo assidet, censoria potestate. Haec et similia in causa esse ferme audio, quod D. Burghero de Volder minus sit animi quaedam in publicum protudere, quamvis ego etiam metuam ne assiduo isto silentio, velut rubigine, torpeant ingenia,” transcription from Mojet 2016, 85. See also Mojet 2017.
284.
“Quas vero ad se non pertinere Magistratuum censuit prudentia, acribus quidem exarsisse initiis, sed incurioso sine sponte sua, vel rixarum non sine labore et absque emolumento exercitarum taedio si non compositas, ad silentium certe redactas. Neque enim existiment Magistratus, se suis edictis animis et opinionibus civium imperare posse. Quasi vero ut in Reip. regimine multa fiunt arbitrarie, quanquam haec ipsa eo meliori loco constituta est, quo maior in legibus, minor in Magistratuum arbitrio vis ac potestas est, itidem sese res haberet in scientiis. Quae vera sunt, sive velint, sive nolint, qui rerum potiuntur, erunt vera, nec ab horum sive favore sive odio dependent scientiae,” De Volder 1709, 13–14. Cf. Le Clerc 1709, 391.
285.
See supra, n. 225.
286.
“Il est vrai que Mr. de Volder, au moins depuis une vintaine d’années en çà, que j’ai eu l’honneur de le connoître, m’a toujours paru extrêmement porté pour la Liberté & pour la forme du Gouvernement, qui est la plus conforme aux Loix de ces Provinces en géneral & de la Hollande en particulier. Mais il n’y avoit rien que de louable, dans cette disposition, & il étoit très-éloigné de tout ce que l’on peut appeller esprit de brouillerie & de tumulte. Tout le desordre venoit de ceux, qui vouloient parvenir à leurs fins, par des voies extraordinaires, & non par la Justice & par la Raison. Au reste, on ne doit pas faire honneur de cela au Cartesianisme, ou à un esprit de nouveauté; Descartes, comme nôtre Philosophe le disoit à Mr. Fagel, n’a jamais touché ces matieres; mais Aristote a donné en ses livres de Politique, tous les principes, que l’on nomme Républicains, dans la plus grande étendue qu’ils puissent avoir. Dans les Républiques de la Grece & de l’Italie, en son tems, c’étoit un honneur, que d’être bon Républicain: au lieu que nous avons vû, da nôtre, regarder comme une espece d’héresie des sentimens; que l’on devroit faire enseigner publiquement dans tous les Etats bien reglez, en donnant de bons gages à ceux qui s’en acquiteroient le mieux. […] A l’égard des matieres d’Etat, il étoit extrêmement zelé pour la République & pour la Liberté, & il ne dissimuloit point ses sentimens là-dessus. La crainte même, où il étoit qu’il n’arrivât, pendant la guerre, quelque desastre, qui nuisît à la liberté de l’Etat, lui faisoit souhaiter passionnément la paix. Il ne s’échauffoít jamais tant, avec ses amis, que sur cet article & je me souviensque nous avons souvent parlé de cette guerre, avec un peu de chaleur; sans blesser néanmoins le moins du monde les égards, que les honêtes gens doivent avoir les uns pour les autres. J’aurois bien souhaité, qu’il eût pu voir la fin glorieuse de cette guerre. Il auroit eu meilleure opinion de ceux, qui y ont le plus contribué,” Le Clerc 1709, 367–368 and 399–340. Moreover, in his Oratio de novis et antiquis, De Volder praised the freedom granted by the States of Holland: “[q]uam ad rem nunquam sat magnis laudibus extolli poterit promulgatum ante paucos annos Illustrissimorum Hollandiae Procerum decretum, quod ut sententiarum admittit libertatem in iis, quae in controversia sunt, ita acerbitati tollit, moderationi praemia ponit quam iustissime,” De Volder 1709, 17. Le Clerc and De Volder met for the last time in Summer 1708: see Le Clerc 1709, 397.
287.
“Quis vero dubitet talem statum et ad humani generis, et ad cuiuslibet hominis conservationem esse inidoneum? Quis non concedat tale vitae periculum omnibus quibus fieri potest modi propulsandum et fugiendum esse? Quis non praeferendum existimabit perpetuo iamiam imminentis mortis metu amissionem libertatis? Hoc igitur communi mortis periculo ad societates constituendas adducti sunt mortales, cum intelligerent, sese in tali statu diu vivere non posse seque nullis pactis ad mutuum auxilium obstrictos, a vi externa tutos esse non posse, ob eamque causam accedente forsan instinctu cuiusdam, qui inter ipsos prudentior esse videbatur, societates constituerunt, seseque ad mutua auxilia obstrinxerunt, summumque imperium, sine quo societatem istam consistere non posse perspiciebant, vel uni, vel cuidam collegio concesserunt, quae societas respublica nominata est,” De Volder 1660, De republica, thesis 3.
288.
“Huic autem vel monarchae, vel collegio, quibus summum concesserant imperium, vel illimitatam dedere potestatem, quale imperium despoticum apud barbaros plerosque viget, quarum principes nullis legibus, praeterquam naturalibus et divinis, sese obligari patiuntur, vel quibusdam legibus, quas fundamentales vocant, limitatam quas ipsi principi reliquis legibus civilibus soluto non observare illicitum, qualia regna apud Christianos in usu sunt. […] Actus vero principis sive eius qui summum habet imperium a nemine mortalium irriti redi possunt, cum nullius iuri subsint. Unde pernitiosissima illa opinio falsitatis convincitur, quae docet, penes populum summam semper residere potestatem, eumque omnes omnino reges, si imperio abutantur coercere et punire posse. Quae opinio quam facile flagitiosis hominibus ansam tradere queat ad principum exitium conspirandi quis non videt? Quis talem opinionem, nulli firmae rationi subnixam quae tot malis occasionem dare possit ex hominum animis plane extirpandam non iudicet? Praesertim cum validissimae rationes contrarium astruant. Quidni enim populus regendi sui ius in principem transferre posset, nulla eius parte retenta, cum privatus sese tali modo alterius potestati subiicere queat? Quodque privato conceditur, cur populo sui iuris id denegabimus? Verum tamen est, si princeps ita se gerat, ut in totius populi perniciem conspirasse videatur, a populo ei iure resisti posse, rei iudicium et resistentia non cuilibet privatis competit, sed toti populo,” De Volder 1660, De republica, theses 4–5. In the corollaria, moreover, De Volder claims that some good is antecedent to God’s will (corollary 3) and that the pacts contracted by fear are anyway valid (corollary 8).
289.
“[…] summo argumentorum pondere, refutantem Hobbii principia, quibus ad omnia scelera Natura factum hominem, eademque, quae meditatur, ab aliis sibi metuentem fingit. Ostendisset contra iuris, aequi bonique principia, non ex externo a sceleribus patratis deducenda metu, sed ex rationis rectae repetenda fontibus. Hanc velle docuisset ad perfectissimum, quantum in nobis est, Dei exemplar, ad sanctissimam Divinae voluntatis normam, componenda esse nostra omnia. Facile autem Divina attributa contemplanti liquere, eam eius voluntatem esse, quae benignissimae, iustissimaeque Naturae respondeat. Ad quam si advertamus mentem, cognituros nos, non sceleribus, non caedibus, non cuiusvis generis maleficiis, Dei nos Naturam moribus exprimere, sed honesta vita, neminem laedendo, et suum cuique tribuendo, quae prima sunt iuris fundamenta,” De Volder 1679, 32 (unnumbered). See State 1991; Zagorin 2007, 2009; McConnell 2008; Greene 2010.
290.
Cf. the text quoted supra, n. 258. In his colloquium with Stolle, De Volder remarked on how James II was in fact Catholic: “[c]redere se Jacobum ex animo fuisse pontificium, alias se (propter religionem) non passus esse regno eiici,” University Library, ms. R 766, 454.
291.
De Volder commented upon Van Limborch’s De veritate religionis Christianae amica collatio cum erudito (1687) – viz. Orobio de Castro – in his letter to Philipp van Limborch of 3 November 1687. In the letter, De Volder does not show sympathy for the Cocceians, who stood for the so-called ‘prophetic theology’ (which was the case, at the time of the letter, of Salomon van Til and Campegius Vitringa; see Daugirdas 2017). Notably, De Volder shows appreciation of Van Limborch’s comparison between Moses (whose miracles, according to Van Limborch – probably under the influence of Spinoza: see Landucci 2015 – were impostures) and Christ (who performed actual miracles; see Van Limborch 1687, 172–175). Moreover, De Volder polemically refers to the Cartesian theology of the Franeker theologians, viz. Hermann Alexander Roëll and and his nephew Gysbert Wessel Duker (see Bordoli 2009). Cf. the full text: “Amplissime Vir, / Quod jamdudum factum oportuit, id nunc demum ago, gratias quas debeo, tibi ut agam maximas pro libro, quem ad me misisti. Fuit profecto ille mihi et dignitate, quam {tractas}, rei, et quod te Auctorem agnoscit gratissimis. Illa {qmdem}, quam instituis comparatio inter causas propter quas Iudaei Mosi, nos Christo credamus, mihi admodum placuit. Neq[ue] enim alia ratione arctius constringi {Iudaeis} potuit; Nisi forte Franequerani nostri aliam meliorem viam ex sola ratione invenerint. Sed quidquid huius rei {sit, nullius} dubito, {quni} ingenua tua confessione nullum talem, qualem Iudaeus ille quaerebat locum extare, offenderis publicae Religionis Theologos, et praesertim Coccejanos, quos vocant, qui, ut nosti, quam clarissim[missing text] se ubiq[ue] in veteri testamento Christum invenire depraedicant. In qua opinione confirmor ex eo, qud ante biduum duos ex eo genere, quorum tamen neutri prelectus erat libertinus, ratiocinantes inter se audivi de locis quibusdam e Psalmis et Ieremia, ex quibus evidentissime Iudaeos convinci posse asserebant. Sed hactenus de tuo libro nihil, quod {et}in causa est, cur te hisce tam tarde compellarim. Sperabam enim aliquid fore, quo nimiam {hancae} meam moram compensarem. Nunc cum spes haec frustranea fuerit, ad tuam ut confugiam aequitatem necesse est, quae facile {huic} meae negligentiae ignoscet. Vale et ama / Tuum ex asse, / B. De Volder. / Lugd. Batav. / a.d. III Nonas Novembr. / CIƆIƆCLXXXVII,” Amsterdam University Library, OTM hs. J 83 b. The identity of the two Cocceian theologians mentioned by De Volder cannot be ascertained. For a commentary, see Strazzoni 2019. Moreover, De Volder is reported to have commented upon Van Limborch’s Historia Inquisitionis (1692), judging it positively against Jacobus Trigland II (grandson of Jacobus Trigland, a contra-Remostrant): see letter 1640 of Locke’s correspondence (Van Limborch to Locke, 16 June 1693): “D. Voldero, non diu post editam meam historiam aderat cum aliis Triglandius Professor. Vidit historiam meam, eaque leviter inspecta rogat eum Volderus, an eam viderit ac legerit. Alter negat; additque: homines hi credunt se anno huius saeculi decimo octavo laesos, ideoque istud tempestive intempestive inculcare ac repetere solent. Volderus respondit, nihil horum, uno ne unum quidem verbum, exstare in tota hac historia; nisi fortasse existimet, lectores, qui hic processus Inquisitionis graphice depictos conspiciunt, credituros gesta anni decimi octavi hisce per omnia esse similia, atque ea ratione gesta haec libro condemnari,” Locke 1976–1989, volume 4, 695. Van Limborch refers to the Synod of Dordrecht (1618). See Simonutti 2002. See also Sect. 3.1.3.1, The relation between material and immaterial substances, where I analyze De Volder’s role in the Locke-Hudde dialogue (mediated by Van Limborch) on the uniqueness of God. On Jacobus Trigland II, see also De Volder’s letter to Braun: supra, n. 267. Also, in 1694, as member of the Academic Senate, De Volder helped Van Limborch in obtaining a copy of the academic testimonium given by Leiden University to the widow of Jacobus Arminius in 1611 (see Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 2, 18). De Volder himself noted a difference between the testimonium for Arminius, and the academic testimonium for Franciscus Gomarus (conceded to him in the same year, when he was going to leave his post after Conrad Vorstius, an Arminian, was appointed in replacement of Arminius himself). This was going to be remarked on by Van Limborch in his posthumous Relatio historica de origine et progressu controversiarum in Foederato Belgio de praedestinatione. See the full text of the letter by De Volder to Van Limborch of 16 November 1694: “Vir Reverende, / Commodum accepi tuas eo ipso tempore, quo mihi adeundus esset Senatus Acad. Quare statim quaesivi ex eo, qui Senatui est a Secretis hunc illumve Actorum librum, quorum jam binos frustra pervolveram, cum incidit, repertum in forte hoc testimonium inter acta quae diu dispersa jacuerunt, et nunc demum ante paucos annos sine ulla temporis ratione in unum volumen erant compacta; Adii itaq[ue] et illud, et cum jam de successu desperarem <{…}> obtuilit sese tandem hoc ut opinor, quod quaerebam, cujus apographum hic ad te mitto. Aderat simul et testimonium ab eodeom Senatu Gomaro datum adhuc reverti, et stationem suam relinquere meditanti. In hoc loco ejus, quod in Arm. testimonio est, (nam de controversiis non judicamus) habetur (controversias enim aliis relinquimus). Quod eam ob causam addo, ne forte existimes hanc clausulam Arminio peculiarem esse. Sigillum erat munus Acad. quo in litteris et testimoniis utitur Senatus. / Hodie novus hic, absente licet Obdamio, creatus est Medicinae Professor Dekkers, Auctum simul est salarium D. Bidloo ad 600 flor. Annuos, Ex quibus facile vides, aliis ex oris jam apud nos spirare ventum, quam solebat. Quid inde mutationis futurum sit dies docebit. Nil mediocriter exspecto sive boni, sive mali. Vale, et si quid porro sit, in qui tibi inservire queam, impera / Tuo / B. de Volder. / Lugd. Batav. / a.d. XVI Novemb. 1694,” Amsterdam University Library, OTM hs. J 83 c. For a commentary, see Strazzoni 2019. Cf. Van Limborch’s Relatio historica: “Gomarus professionem suam resignavit Academiae Curatoribus, et in eius locum vocatus est Joannes Polyander. Testimonium Gomaro perhibitum est a Curatoribus, perinde atque Arminio defuncto; nisi quod, cum in Arminii Testimonio legeretur, nam de controversiis non iudicamus, idem in Gomari verbis paululum immutatis expressum sit: controversias enim aliis relinquimus,” Van Limborch 1730, volume 1, 16. The testimonium for Arminius was then printed, in its full form, in the 1704 edition of the Epistolae praestantium ac eruditorum virorum, ecclesiasticae et theologicae varii argumenti (as epistle 5), edited by Van Limborch (first edition 1660).
292.
“[…] weis ich wohl, daß man von ihm nicht, wie von einem andern lieben Manne sagen kann: nihil est intus, denn das Gemüthe dieses holländischen Philosophi ist eine solche Tieffe, darinne viel sonderbahre Gedancken, und darunter allem Ansehn nach auch einige Atheistische verborgen liegen,” Warsaw University Library, Cod. IV oct. 49, 595–596. Transcription kindly provided by Martin Mulsow.
293.
See Sect. 3.1.2.2, Cartesianism under attack at Leiden in the mid-1670s.
294.
Marshall 2006, 481.
295.
“[F]requentissimus in lectione verbi Divini non tantum certis horis, sed fere quoties opera cessabat. Hoc inspicere solebat non decurrens, verum ad singulos articulos meditabundus, eosdemque non semel, crebro repetens; et siquid aut non satis arriperet, aut existimaret propius ad se pertinere, surgentem et velut in ruminatione acri, dum ambulat, susurrantem ac volutantem domestici saepe viderunt, sive infigere vellet memoriae, sive interiorem eius causam scrutaretur. Venit in manus meas charta, in quam coniecerat omnia rarius occurrentia Graeca vocabula Epistolarum Pauli Apostoli et reliquorum, etiam Apocalypseos, quae cum vetere versione contulerat, saepe ad scripto quod ipsi videretur; ut pateat ea ab illo emeditata fuisse. Extat altera, cui inscriptum est: Collectio eorum quae aperto sensu in SS commendantur ut omnino necessaria scitu vel factu ad salutem, sequentibus numeris ad denotanda illa loca. Et quam vim pietatis censeret, demonstravit affatim disciplina et forma vitae quam tenuit, velut ad sanctissimum aliquod praescriptum gubernata. Hinc potuit extrema Coemannii et Schachtii tam pie depingere, scilicet quod sibi in antecessum optaret similia evenire,” Gronovius 1709, 28–29. De Volder owned several editions and commentaries of the Bible: see Bibliotheca Volderina, 38–53.
296.
On Spinoza’s biblical hermenutics and its Dutch context, see Frampton 2007; Douglas 2015; Van Miert et al. 2017; Morrow 2017; Van Miert 2018b; Touber 2018.
297.
According to De Volder’s oration for Coeman, his friend had shown sympathies for Cocceianism, and entered into theological discussions (for instance, with Wittich) only on salvation: see De Volder 1679, 20–22 (unnumbered).
298.
In his Oratio, De Volder praises 1) Schacht’s approach to theology by considering Holy Writ only, 2) by comparing the Old and the New Testament, and 3) by using as the sole norm of Biblical interpretation Holy Writ itself. Such an approach had been inspired in Schacht by Heidanus, Johannes Cocceius, and Jacobus Trigland: see De Volder 1689, 9. See also Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 61.
299.
Le Clerc 1709, 398.
300.
See supra, n. 87.
301.
The main tenet of De Volder’s Oratio, as remarked also Le Clerc, is that it is absurd to favour a priori the ancients or the moderns, as both endorsed true and false opinions: see De Volder 1709, 2–5; Le Clerc 1709, 390–392. The Oratio is concluded by a commendation of Gale: see De Volder 1709, 18–19. See also Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 76∗–77∗.
302.
Viz. the Disputatio medico-philosophica inauguralis de imaginationis maternae viribus in foetum and the Disputatio medica inauguralis physico-anatomica de spirituum animalium vera existentia et operatione of Johannes Zoutmann, 1702.
303.
See Sect. 3.1.2.5, De Volder’s necessitarianism reassessed.
304.
See Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 216 and 220.
305.
See Huygens 1703, Praefatio, 8 (unnumbered).
306.
On Fullenius, see Dijkstra 2007; Dijkstra 2012.
307.
See Huygens 1888–1950, volume 22, 773–778. An extract is provided in Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 58∗–59∗. The testament was read at the University Senate on 8 February 1697: see Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 151–152. See also 183, 207–208, 310–311 and 118∗–119∗; Gronovius 1709, 27; Le Clerc 1709, 289. See, moreover, the letter of De Volder to Gregory of 31 December 1695, quoted supra, n. 261.
308.
“Perlustravi haec opuscula, et nihil non dignum reperi Auctoris sui existimatione. Legi quoque Vestram eruditam praefationem, quae licet etiam Cl. Fullenii nomen in fronte praeferat, a Te tamen conceptam conscriptamque esse sunt quaedam indicia quae me dubitare non sinunt,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 675, 176–181).
309.
“Nec possumus quin hac occasione referamus V. Cl. Newtonum nobiscum communicasse, recentioribus se experimentis accuratius didicisse, […]” Huygens 1703, Praefatio, 9 (unnumbered). No letter of Newton to De Volder or Fullenius is extant as to this point. Leibniz showed much interest in De Volder’s edition of Huygens’s posthumous works: see, for instance, the letters of Bernoulli to Leibniz of 17/27 December 1695 and 21/31 July 1696, and the letter of Leibniz to Bernoulli of 20/30 October 1695: A III6, 586–591, GM III, 295–302, GM III, 801–810. See also the letter of Leibniz to Antonio Magliabechi of 3 October 1702: A I21, 543–546. I will deal with Leibniz’s interests for De Volder’s editorial work on Huygens’s posthumous works also in Sect. 4.2.3.4.1, De Volder on non-elastic impacts. Notably, in his letter to Leibniz of April 1701, Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr reports to Leibniz that he would see Huygen’s manuscripts before their publication: “[n]och was neues muß ich vermelden, daß der Hl. Professor de Volder ein Tractat von dem Her. Hugenio von seinem Automate planetarum bald ediren werde. Bei Hl. Volder ist sein Automaton zu sehen, so sehr courieus. Sonsten hat Hugenius Hl Volder unterschiedl: Scripta zum ediren hinterlaßen, die aber alle affecta sint,” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek Hannover, ms. LBr 971, 60v, transcription from Briefwechsel Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr. This is confirmed by the letter by Johann Georg Eckhart to Leibniz of 23 June 1702: “H. Volder zu Leyden soll vom Hugenio eine Dyoptricam (wo mir recht ist) unter der Preße haben. Es hat besagter Monsieur die übrigen schedas Hugenianas bey ihm gesehen. Der nahme dieses frembden ist Joh. Gabr. Doppelmayer und ist er von Nürnberg bürtig: ich hoffe noch viel von ihm zuhören, wenn ich übermorgen als auf St. Johannis mit ihm nach Heringhausen fahren werde,” A I21, 33.
310.
“II n’y avoit pas long-tems, que Mr. Huygens étoit mort en ce tems-ci, car son Cosmotheoros, qui avoit été commencé à imprimer pendant sa vie, parut l’an MDCXCVIII avec un petit avertissement de Mr. de Volder, mais sans nom,” Le Clerc 1709, 389.
311.
On the Cosmotheoros, see Ait-Touati 2011, chapter 4; Van der Schoot 2011, 2014.
312.
“L’année suivante MDCCIV Mr. Hudde, Bourgmestre d’Amsterdam, mourut le 15 d’Avril, & pour montrer l’estime, qu’il faisoit de Mr. de Volder, il lui fit un légat de quinze cents florins. Il donna une semblable marque d’amitié à Mr. Hubers d’Utrecht, leur ami commun, dont il connoissoit aussi le mérite depuis longues années. C’étoit un grand Magistrat, & à la mémoire duquel la ville d’Amsterdam fera éternellement redevable,” Le Clerc 1709, 393. See supra, n. 257. The identity of Mr. Hubert, from Utrecht, could not be ascertained. He is mentioned in the correspondence of Locke, as a friend of Mattheus Sladus: see Locke 1976–1989, volume 2, 656 (letter 794); volume 4, 64 (letter 1286). He is also mentioned in the letter of Swammerdam to Thévenot of 30 October 1670: “Doctor Huyberts versta ik met gesontheid te venetien is gekoomen,” Lindeboom 1975, 53. Hudde’s posthumous papers are discussed by De Volder in his correspondence with Leibniz: see the letter of De Volder to Leibniz of 5 January 1706 (GP II, 279–280). In 1705, De Volder remarked that all his colleagues of 1670 had died in the meantime: De Volder 1705, 28–29.
313.
For instance, in the documents at Leiden University it is reported that on 20 April 1693 he could not travel to The Hague to meet the delegates of Dutch cities as a consequence of a colic: Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 110. De Volder’s problems of health are mentioned by De Volder in his letters Leibniz of 18 February 1699 and 5 January 1706, by Bernoulli in his letter to De Volder of 8 April 1699, and by Leibniz (who had heard about them from Bernoulli) in his letter to De Volder of 30 June 1704. As to Gronovius and Le Clerc, see the next note.
314.
“Undiquaque enim intentus amoenitati suae Volderus quum caveret acriter ne quem diem perderet, nec aliquod officii intermitteret munus, atque omnia desiderat habere evigilata, allevabatur quidem lenociniis istis et gaudebat animus. Corpus, quod ab ista primae aetatis macie inceperat iniustam aequalitatem ac congruentiam temperari et convalescere, satis firmum et par exantlando quod ab eo exigi debebat, denique vires suas obtundi seque hebetari interdum ostendit. Aetas quoque illum iam ad cellam frigidariam (senectutem intelligitis) admoverat. Corpus ergo velut destitui se querens et minans proditionem, nisi studiosius amare vellet, non omisit aliquoties admonere, ut parcius alteri indulgeret, non absumendo artus externos, sed interiore motu concitato, ac denique per vias a natura perforatas indicando, quantis miseriis premeretur. Saepius in morbos satis saevos ac truces coniectum vidimus; sed in eis tandem regnaverunt indicia icteri, non cute modo ad deformitatem flavae bilis tormento infecta, sed urina quoque fuscam nigredinem attrahente. Neque sic semel convellisse satis fuit; recurrebat identidem velut ad constitutum, quoties nihil moratus, solennia laboriosae vitae repeteret assidue Volderus; praesertim postquam sibi persuadens certum praesensque remedium ab Hoogmadio, Medico et longi temporis Amico, excogitatum esse, eo etiam post mortem istius utens experiretur sibi conducere. Sed qualiscunque tandem fuerit morbi istius sive remotio sive remissio, non fuit adeo coecus Volderus, ut non sentiret adesse aliquid, quo labefactaretur, et hostem in ulnis suis foveri. Quod ubi non tenui suspicione, sed rebus et documentis deprehendit, prudentiam deferens nunquam, in hac etiam parte iudicavit sanum esse oportere, praesertim quum exterreret iam cruentans se urina non sine cruciatu,” Gronovius 1709, 29–31. No precise information could be found on Hoogmadius. A certain J. V. Hoogmade, medical doctor in Leiden, is mentioned in the medical Opera omnia (1703) of Johannes Dolaeus as having appreciated his works in 1689. Moreover, Dolaeus provides the text of two letters of Hoogmade to him, of 1678 and 1687: see Dolaeus 1703, 17 (unnumbered), 28, 94. De Volder’s jaundice is mentioned in the letter of Leibniz to Bernoulli of 6 June 1704: see A III9, 373–375. See also Le Clerc 1709, 393: “[e]nfin l’an MDCCV. après avoir été incommodé quelque tems, en sorte que pour peu de mouvement qu’il se donnât, il rendoit de l’urine sanglante; comme il ne pouvoit plus faire ses leçons publiques & particulieres, sans s’incommoder davantage, il demanda sa démission à Mrs. les Curateurs de l’Academie.”
315.
“Et sane si ulli, hi certe, qui in Academiis docent, seclusi quasi a reliquis sibi tranquillissime viverent, nisi suam animi inquietudinem, sua vitia in hanc scenam afferrent, et quibus carerent haud difficulter, ipsi sibi turbas et molestias pararent. Hoc enim nisi foret, unde, quaeso, tot inter scientiarum cultores rixae, tot iurgia, tot simultates summis saepe cum inimicitiis exercitae? […] Quod cum omnibus extra partes constitutis, et rem recto iudicio ponderantibus perridiculum necessario apparere debeat […]. Quid ergo? Egone Otium tantopere appetendum censeo? Otium, quod omnium vitiorum audit mater; Otium, quod homines stupidos, inertes, sibique et aliis inutiles, et infructuosos facit. […] Ego vero Otium summopere laudo, sed non illud […] quod vera hominis vivi sepultura est, sed illud, quod studiis impenditur; quod in veri inquisitione, cognitioneque versatur; quod in mente perficienda elaborat; quodque nullam ob causam Otium dicitur, quam quia secretum a rebus huius vitae soli contemplationi vacat. […] At ego vitae meae genus mutabo nequaquam, sed faciam, nisi fallor, liberius, faciam iucundius. Neque enim id molior, ut me alii aut Disciplinae, aut Professioni addicam, sed ut in iisdem, quibus assuevi, studiis, placide consenescam; […] Potestne Academia ulla ratione conqueri, quasi a me praemature derelinqueretur, cum rari admodum sint, qui suam operam in una Academia tot, quot ego in hac feci, annos collocent? Si illis, qui ab una Academia ad aliam transeunt, id ipsum honori ducitur, non vitio vertitur, quanquam eos, qui id faciunt, sui emolumenti gratia id facere nemo ambigat, mihi ne crimini dabitur, quod non quaestus, sed quietis et tranquillitatis studio a laboribus Academicis discedam? Et discedam quidem post tanti temporis in ipsa moram, ubi ingruentis aetatis incommoda, quorum initia iam persentisco, effectura sint, ut minus porro ipsi prodesse queam,” De Volder 1705, 7–10, 21 and 26. See also Le Clerc 1709, 394–395.
316.
See Sect. 3.1.3, De Volder on substance monism.
317.
For instance, Gronovius reports how a young scholar from Brabant once came to Leiden – under pressure from others – to attack De Volder’s metaphysics, with himself posing as a defender of religion. After De Volder’s answers to him, this scholar – whose identity cannot be ascertained – agreed with De Volder. Moreover, Gronovius reports that during a journey by sea, a famous man from another town attacked De Volder’s ideas in the presence of De Volder himself, without knowing who he was. De Volder, not revealing his identity, managed to convince this man who only afterwards discovered that he had been talking with De Volder himself: see Gronovius 1709, 27–28. According to Le Clerc, when De Volder did not want other people to know his ideas, he used to give generic answers: Le Clerc 1709, 397–399. Le Clerc also underlines his respectful manners, for instance, in his criticisms to Huet’s Censura: Le Clerc 1709, 381.
318.
See supra, n. 101.
319.
“[N]ecesse est, ut scientiarum systemata tractemus, quae ad docendum ut sunt accommodatissima, et si ad perfectionis culmen pervenissent scientiae, omne punctim ferrent; ita hoc in rerum statu, quo a perfectione absumus quam longissime, scientiis promovendis multo magis nocent, quam prosunt. His, ut omittam, quae de rerum contentionibus modo attigi, accedunt innumerabiles logomachiae, quae sedem quasi suam ita in Academiis fixisse videntur, ut illis, prorsus abstinere omnino non liceat. Quid est, quod non tantum Academia, sed, et Ecclesiae cathedras maiori contentionis implevit strepitu, quam illa in principio philosophiae universalis de omnibus dubitatio? Ab his tanquam summopere necessaria propugnata, ab illis reiecta non modo, sed cum dubitationem Dei involvere videretur, scepticismi, atheismi, et nescio cuius non impietatis insimulata, cum tota haec res tantis utrinque animis agitata, si rite perpendatur, in mera consistat verbi controversia,” De Volder 1705, 18–19.
320.
In his letter to Johann Bernoulli of 21 May 1709, Noodt announced De Volder’s death and manifested his hopes that Bernoulli would succeed him. Moreover, Noodt praised De Volder’s ideas in physics and metaphysics, and his activities as director of the observatory: “[n]escio, Vir Clarissime, an allatus ad te sit nuncius de morte Viri admirabilis, Burcheri de Volder, Collegae mei, et communis nostri amici. Abiit ille ad plures a. d. 28. Martii: mihique et omnibus qui ejus virtutes norant, incredibile sui reliquit desiderium. Jacturam hanc sentit literatus orbis; sed maxime nostra Academia: cui doctrinae, ingenii, et sapientiae, veneratione ingens erat ornamentum. Quod restat, cogitant nunc, ad quos ea res pertinet, de substituendo ei successore qui possit tanti hominis vices supplere. Commendantur autem complures: inter quos aliqui neque absurdi, et doctrina spectati. Ego vero et amici mei quem tecum comparemus, nullum novimus: itaque quem lubentius accipiamus Collegam praeter te non desideramus alium. Quid futurum sit, nescimus: quamquam speramus, fore: ut in te possit cadere consensus procerum qui veram amant doctrinam. Nil tamen videntur tentaturi, quamdiu incerti sunt; utrum patriam Academiam nostrae sis praelaturus: cum praesertim timeant, spe sua iterum excidere cum aliqua Academicae dignitatis imminutione. Accedit, quod nesciunt, quibus conditionibus moveri possis ad suscipiendam apud nos Philosophiae et Matheseos professionem, exemplo Clarissimi Volderi, in omnibus suis partibus exercendam. Eget Academia nostra, praeter Physicam, in primis Metaphysices doctrina qua excelluit amicus noster. Sunt praeterea in turri Astronomica insignia Astronomiae instrumenta quorum negligi usum, minime convenit. Quis dubitet, tua opera, eruditione, fama, magnum ex omni Philosophiae et Matheseos disciplina ad Academiam nostram perventurum fructum?” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 713, 31–32). On De Volder’s death, see also the letter of Bernoulli to Noodt of 5 June 1709 (in Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli).
321.
“Quod vero attinet ad annuum salarium: loquar ut apud amicum, simpliciter. Habuit clarissimus Volderus quotannis mille et octingentos florenos nostrae monetae. His accedebant quinque et quinquaginta floreni pro honore togae, et pro redimendo jure venationis. Hae summae junctae efficiunt quotannis mille octingentos quinque et quinquaginta florenos. Nec tamen egregius ille vir semper fuit tanto fruitus stipendio. Primum stetit intra mille florenos. Adjecit deinde Matheseos doctrina, nisi fallor, quadringentos. Mox Physica experimenta ducentos. Jam senem Curatorum liberalitas, ante paucos annos ultro honoravit aliis ducentis annuis. Ita maximum quod habuit salarium, fuit mille octingentorum quinque et quinquaginta florenorum. Nec, ante Volderum, ullius Philosophi aut Mathematici fuit tantum. Nescio quoque, an totum impetraturus sis, ob aerarii quam dixi, inopiam. Eo tamen aut paulo minore si possis esse contentus: videbimus, quid procurare tibi valeamus per amicos qui amant famam eruditionis et nominis tui. Plus certe nihil impetrabis. Etsi, si Deus faveat fortunae Academicae, et tuae, fieri possit; ut aliquis deinde accedat cumulus: sic enim aliquando contigit, atque ipsi Voldero. Verum hoc, ut futura omnia, sperare potes, polliceri tibi non potes. Illud non silebo; (est enim alicujus momenti) quod omnes sumus immunes a vectigalibus vini, cerevisiae, saponis, coffae et theae. Ambulat praeterea annuatim per disciplinas Magnifici Rectoris dignitas, et munus Actuarii Senatus: utriusque vero emolumenta satis ampla. Alterum florenos reddit plerumque mille et quod excurrit: alterum sexcentos circiter aut septingentos. Nil opus addi de frequentibus Doctorum promotionibus: de his enim jam superiore dixi epistola. Etiam monui de domesticis scholis: dicam tamen, quod in his audiebant olim Volderum octuaginta Philosophi, saepe centum, et plures: a singulis autem pro honorario dabantur deni Philippici, sive Dukatoni. Pro Algebra vero in cujus explicatione habebat passim quatuor Auditores, plures nolebat, solvebantur a singulis imperiales centeni,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 713, 33–34). The Bronnen does not report De Volder’s very first salary. However, on 15 August 1671 it was raised to 1,000 guilders per year: see Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 252. In 1681, it was raised to 1,200 guilders: see Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 3, 369. In 1694, 1695 and 1696, he had a yearly salary of 1,600 guilders (including 400 guilders as a professor of mathematics): see Rosenboom 1697, part 1, 45, 49, 52 and 53; part 2, 60; see also part 1, 50 and 101, as well as Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 114 and 197 (where occasional, additional sums given to De Volder are mentioned). 1 Dutch ducaton amounted to 3 guilders; 1 thaler to 2.5 guilders. Anyway, Bernoulli complained about the conditions of employment in his letter to Noodt of 4 August 1709: “[q]uod addis Cl. Volderum postremo stipendio suo non semper fruitum fuisse, id lubens crediderim; ille enim qui fuit Belga aut Belgio vicinus, juvenis, Coelebs, et nullo alio in munere antea constitutus, ubi quantumvis parum sibi oblatum pro lucro habuisset, quid mirum, si primam quamvis conditionem amplexus est? Aliam vero meam sortem nunc esse; et longe diversam,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (original at Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Sammlung Darmstaedter, unknown signature). See also Bernoulli’s letter to William Burnet of 9 April 1710: “[v]ous dites Monsieur, qu’on n’a jamais offert à aucun professeur en Philosophie ces 1800 fl. et que Mr. de Volder ne les a pas obtenu qu’aprez 25 ans de service; je le veux croire, Mr. Noodt m’a dit la meme chose, mais il sçait ce que je luy ay repondu là dessus: Mr. De Volder n’avoit ni femme ni enfans, il n’avoit ni charge ni profession à quitter, sa Patrie n’étoit pas loin de Leyde, si j’étois dans ce cas là, je ne balancerois pas longtemps, j’acceptrois les offres à mains ouvertes, mais je suis dans un cas extraordinaire qui merite aussy quelque consideration extraordinaire,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 654, number 5). Discussions on employment conditions recur frequently in Bernoulli’s letters. According to Le Clerc, De Volder never asked for an increase in salary: see supra, n. 121.
322.
“Il auroit pu continuer à tirer ses gages, sans rien faire, à cause de son in commodité, sans qu’on l’eût trouvé mauvais; car enfin après trente-quatre ans de Professorat, pendant les quels il s’étoit toujours aquité très-régulierement de sa Charge, personne n’auroit été surpris, qu’il eût cherché un repos, qui lui étoit nécessaire, au dépends de l’Academie, qu’il avoit servie si long-tems. Aucun Professeur n’avoit encore eu de semblable scrupule; & il y a bien de l’apparence qu’il n’y en aura guere, qui l’imitent. Comme il n’avoit jamais été marié, & qu’il vivoit sans aucun faste, quoi qu’il n’y eût rien de sordide dans ses manieres, & qu’il reçût & régalât ses Amis dans les occasions, aussi bien que ceux de son Ordre puissent le faire; il lui étoit assez resté de bien, pour pouvoir se passer des émolumens de l’Academie, sur tout à l’entrée de la Paix, qui se négotioit alors. Mais Mrs. les Curateurs ne voulurent pas lui donner son congé, de la maniere dont il le demandoit. Ils lui continuerent une bonne partie de son gage, & le prierent de demeurer dans l’Academie, sans l’obliger à faire aucunes leçons ni publiques, ni particulieres, & sans l’exclure des autres emplois, ou émolumens qu’on y peut avoir; seulement à condition qu’il ne refuseroit pas ses conseils à ceux, qui l’iroient consulter sur leurs études. Il accepta leurs offres, mais il ne voulut avoir aucune sorte de charge. Il s’employoit en cette occasion, avec beaucoup de zele & d’adresse, pour ses Amis, à qui il a souvent rendu de très-bons offices, en ces sortes de choses,” Le Clerc 1709, 394–395; cf. Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 220. See also Gronovius 1709, 31–32: “[e]nimvero tunc sibi consulendum ratus, non si omnia morarentur, Academica munera ulterius obire statuit, et e vestigio se iis abdicavit fere ante quadriennium, honoris ergo indulgens Ill. Curatoribus et Consulibus, ut tamen Academiae adesse et in hac urbe consistere perseveraret.” See Wiesenfeldt 2002, 92–93, referring to ms. ASF 299, ff. 75 and 91, preserved at Leiden University Library.
323.
Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 224, 231 and 236.
324.
See supra, n. 232.
325.
See supra, n. 321.
326.
Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 221. On him, see Juillard 1999; Palladini 2011, chapter 8.
327.
“Forsitan rumor ad te detulit, me laboribus Academicis valedixisse, et in id, quantum poteram, incubuisse, mihi ut succederet amicus noster communis Bernoullius, sed frustra cum ille se suis Basileensibus addixerit. Nostri interea Do. Bernard, qui scribit les Nouvelles de la Rep. des Lettres, facultatem dederunt docendi Philosophiam et Mathesin, quem tamen Professoris titulo non donarunt, visuri, opinor, rei successum. Clariss. Bernoullius mihi commendavit D. Hermannum, qui me dum ante paucos annos has oras inviseret, me compellavit, et cuius egregia quaedam iisdem in Novellis, specimina in Mathematicis vidi. Provocat noster ad tuum de eodem Hermanno testimonium, sed nihil adiungit, quidnam ille praestare queat in Philosophicis, Metaphysicisque. Qua de re si, quod nosti, perscribere non dedigneris, possit hoc aliquando in eius utilitatem cedere,” GP II, 280. Hermann had published in 1704 a Méthode géométrique et générale de déterminer le diamètre de l’Arc-en-ciel, in the Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres. Cf. Leibniz’s answer: “P. S. Dom. Hermannus apud Basileenses vir doctus, de quo sententiam meam quaeris; in Mathesi, ut scis, egregius est. Quid in aliis praestiterit, equidem satis exploratum non habeo, cum neque collocutus sim unquam, neque nisi de Mathematicis cum eo per literas communicaverim: Non dubito tamen, qui possis majus, posse minus, et cum Theologiae se dederit, philosophiam excoluisse,” GP II, 283. Hermann, actually, had already been recommended for a chair in philosophy mathematics at Utrecht by Bernoulli to De Volder: see the letter of Bernoulli to De Volder of 5 January 1705. Hermann thanked Bernoulli with a letter of 3 December 1704. In turn, De Volder indicated the name of Hermann to Pieter Burman with a letter dated 27 January 1705, to which De Volder’s attached his copy of a part of Bernoulli’s letter. In his own letter, De Volder noted that “[i]n rebus philosophicis quid praestiterit ignoro prorsus.” On Hermann’s missed appointment at Utrecht, see also the letter of Johann Bernoulli to him of 28 June 1704, in which it was traced back to the internal quarrels at the academy: “[v]idebis Lycaeum ad quod Te pertrahere tentavi esse Ultrajectinum, theatrum sane, si ullum aliud, in Orbe splendidissimum quod Famae Tuae augendae foret accomodatissimum, ubi meam quam ob sonticas rationes quamvis aegre recusavi sedem, debuisses adimplere; difficultatem quam nonnulli studiis melioribus parum faventes de juvenilibus Tuis annis et fama nondum satis magna excitata movent, amovere conabor: putem tamen veram causam frigiditatis illius, de qua Volderus, esse, motus illos et tumultus civiles, qui in Provincia Ultrajectina ut et in aliis circumjacentibus ab aliquo tempore grassantur et Procerum animos ab academia restituenda hactenus avocant; quibus autem sedatis spes forte melior affulgebit,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 659, number 3). Bernoulli might have been referring to Burman. Hermann had personally met De Volder at Leiden in May 1701, according to Hermann’s Stammbuch (beloning to a private collection in Basel), as well as his letter to Johann Jakob Scheuchzer of 20 June 1703 (in Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli).
328.
See his Disputatio philosophica inauguralis de sensibus internis memoria et imaginatione, 6 July 1693.
329.
See the full text of the letter: “Celeberrimo viro / Petro Burmanno / S. P. / B. de Volder / Quod tuo iudicio, id quod egi, probes, in eo mihi admodum gratulor. Verum est, quid ais, id nos tarde demum consequi posse, sed quid agas? Praestat pauculo tempore otio frui, quam nullo. Quae porro adiungis de iis, quos proceribus nostris commendavi, ea docent te satis fido usum amico, quae et accurate et vere tibi, quae acta sunt, exposuit, modo illud addiderit, licet eius mentionem nullam {facias}, me eos commendasse, tanquam tales, qui in Academia res suas egregie peregerant, in Philosophicis et Mathematicis prae caeteris elaborarant, et de quibus spes esset, eos, si iisdem studiis post discessum ab Academia porro operam dedissent, quod me nescire {probitebar}, et ad professionis munus evocati, iisdem {pentas incumberent}, aliquid egregi {praestituros}. Eadem spe me vocatum, vocatum Senguerdium, et, quod unico addo, vocatum vestrum Vriesium. / De Boerhavio tecum sentio, illum a vestris {…} non posse. Idem de Oosterdyckio sentire, nisi ex amicis ejus nonnulli mihi in aurem insusurrassent, illum frequentissimae et molestissimae praxeos medicae onere oppressum, non abhorrere a professione, si illa tolerabilius conditionibus ipsi offeratur, etiamsi magnam {…} partem eo amissurus esset. Quae si vere sentit, ut mihi ferme persuasum est, nae ille haud mecum sentit. {Sed} hoc nihil ad rem, cum ipsius negotium agatur. Credo tamen ejus rationem maiori cum emolumento et suo, et Academiae haberi posse, si forte professio Medica vocaverit. / Schuylius Medicinae Doctor est Delftis. Illum ante aliquod annos commendaram Groninganis, sed ei ex Hugenii commendatione merito praelatus est Bernoullius. {Commendavi} quoque nostris, sed Bernoullii verbis, quem et vobis antehac commendarat, D. Hermanni (nisi quod adderem, me quaedam eius in Mathematicis egregia specimina vidisse) de quo plura ex Celeber. Viro Leibnitio sciri posse, Bernouillius adjunxerat. / De Serrurerio nihil habeo, quod addam. Ex dictis enim constat, quid de eo existimem. Unicum illud scrupulum mihi facit, quod nesciam, qui vitam suam transegerit, postquam a nobis discessit, num his studiis nostris valedixerit, an vero iisdem porro se oblectaverit. Priori enim in casu non ausim hominem vobis commendare, in posteriori vero minus forem difficilis. / Haec de iis, quae petis, tibi dicere habeo, quibus ut in commodum Acad. vestrae utaris, ut non intercedo, sic a prudentia et aequitate tua expecto, ut caveas, me, quem libere et ex animi sententia tibi dixi, mihi {nullam} apud vos, quorum interest, invidiam {…}. Vale / Lugd. Batav / a.d. XIX Novembr. / CIƆIƆCCV.” Leiden University Library, ms. BUR Q 27. See also the letter of Huygens to Wicher Wichers of 15 June 1694: Huygens 1888–1950, volume 10, 620–621 (letter 2858). In fact, Bernoulli was recommended by Huygens after the efforts of L’Hôpital in securing him the position: see Sierksma 1992; Van Maanen 1993. See also Wiesenfeldt 2002, 243–245 and 256. On Bernoulli, see also Fleckenstein 1977; Heimann 1977; Bell 1986, chapter 8; Dunham 1987; Aiton 1989; Sierksma 1992; Shafer 1996; Sierksma and Sierksma 1999; Guicciardini 2017.
330.
“Tibi interim Vir Cl. hanc meam mentem volui aperire, sed tamen adhuc silentio committendam; ut cum nullus hucusque successor Ordinarius Tibi suffectus sit, mihi quantocyus scribere digneris, an ex Tua commendatione aliqua mihi vocationis spes supersit, et quales conditiones sperandae; nosti vero haud dubie illas quas Trajectini postremo mihi obtulerunt; Non crediderim Trajectinos nunc alium desiderare Professorem mathes. et philos. postquam Cl. Serrurierium Tuum quondam discipulum vocarunt, res haud dubie satis feliciter et ex voto gerentem; quare illos mei jam oblitos esse facile colligo, eoque magis quod Cl. Burmannus jam a longo tempore ad ultimas meas ad se datas nihil respondit,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 675, 189–190). In his letter, Bernoulli also commends De Volder’s otium. De Volder provided recommendations also on behalf of Huygens and Leibniz. In his letter to Leibniz of 29 May 1694, Huygens wrote to Leibniz that he was going to ask De Volder whether he knew of any suitable candidate for a position as professor of mathematics at the Ritterakademie of Wolfenbüttel (about which Leibniz had told him in his letter of 26 April/6 May 1694). Huygens refers to Johannes Teyler – a colour print fabric producer, and former professor of mathematics at Nijmegen between 1670 and 1676, who was known to Leibniz: see the letter of Huygens to Leibniz of 29 May 1694: Huygens 1888–1950, volume 10, 609–612 (letter 2854). In his letter to Leibniz of 8 June 1694, Huygens reports that De Volder had recommended Teyler (who he seems to know well) for the position, above all the other possible candidates. However, he remarks that his recommendation of Teyler at Utrecht had been unsuccessful, because Teyler had been a student of Craanen, at a time in which the struggle between the Cartesians and Voetians was still lively. Indeed, Teyler succeded at Nijmegen to Craanen himself in 1670, and left his position in 1676. See supra, n. 280. The position at Wolfenbüttel was not filled by Teyler, who apparently did not accept it. See also Huygens’s sommaire of the letter: Huygens 1888–1950, volume 10, 617–618 (letter 2856). For the whole story, see Grieser 1969. Moreover, on 10 March 1709, Johannes Scheuchzer reported to Bernoulli the text of an undated letter from Pieter Valkenier, dealing with the discussion on 18 February about the assumption of a professorial post of botany and medicine by Boerhaave (up to that time a lector at Leiden). Apparently, Bernoulli wrote to De Volder asking about the position (vacant after the death of Petrus Houttuyn), probably in favour of Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, brother of Johannes: his letter (now lost), forwarded by Valkenier, was returned to him as the post was taken by Boerhaave: “[l]e 18. de ce Mois [viz. February] il y eut un grand debat entre Mess.^rs les Curateurs à Leyde sur nôtre affaire de succession de tous les Pretendents personne ne Venoit en consideration que Vous et Mons.^r Bourhave, mais celuy-cy l’emporta à la fin, par le moyen de tant d’Amis qu’il a. On alleguoit, qu’en le prenant on menageroit les 600 Florins, qu’il tiroit deja en Lecteur, et qu’on n’auroit à faire quelque depense pour son transport, ce qui seroit pourtant necessaire, quand on prendroit un etranger, outre ce que M.^r Bourhave avoit deja promesse de la premiere place Vacante dans la faculté, et qu’il avoit aussi avancé, qu’en cas qu’on luy prefereroit un autre, il vouloit quitter son Lectorat, et se retirer ailleurs avec bonne partie d’Estudiants, principalement des Anglois, Ecossois et Irlandois, lesquels il possede presque tous. – J’ay donné adresse à la Lettre de Mons.^r Bernoulli pour Mons.^r Volder, la quelle me fut rendue un jour apres, qu’on eut disposé du Professorat,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 668, number 29∗). See also Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 242.
331.
“Il y a quelque temps que je voyois quelque apparence pour y retourner, en ce qu’on m’avoit offert la chaire de Mathematique à Leyde vacante par la mort de Mr. de Volder, mais les conditions n’etant pas comme on me les fit esperer auparavant, et meme moindres encore que celles qu’on m’a presentées autrefois à Utrecht, je n’ay pas encore accepté cett’offre,” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 674, 108). Indeed, Bernoulli had been offered a chair in mathematics at Utrecht in 1703. In his letter to Bernoulli of 30 August 1709, William Burnet reported to have heard that Bernoulli was De Volder’s successor at Leiden (in Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli).
332.
See Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV–MDCCCLXXV, column 780. On ’s Gravesande’s education, see Gori 1972, chapter 2; Van Besouw 2016.
333.
“Il sembloit, pendant quelque tems, que Mr. de Volder se trouvât mieux, & même il parut tout à fait délivré de l’incommodité dont j’ai parlé. Nous le vimes à Amsterdam l’Eté passé, en assez bonne santé. Mais vers l’automne il tomba peu à peu dans un dégoût si grand, qu’en fin il ne pouvoit souffrir aucune chair, & qu’il ne se soûtenoit qu’en buvant du lait. Cela le jetta dans une si grande langueur, qu’il fallut enfin qu’il gardât le lit, o ù il mourut tranquillement le 28. de Mars au matin, cette année MDCCIX,” Le Clerc 1709, 397; cf. Gronovius 1709, 31–32: “[q]uanta erat illa tarditas in ingressu? In rebus plane omnibus nausea, aut immensa indifferentia? Ut quasi exul ab vita, quam carpebat, suas ipse per singulos passus exequias duceret. Perinde et ipse opinatus fuit, ita ut more Scythico solum lac admittens amicis interdum clare fatentur nolle se ulterius morbum alere; tanquam vivere molestum foret ultra quam posset esse utilis, et neque ipsi quidquam posset esse utile nisi iam plane migrare ad propiorem usum eius, partim cogitando, partim Divini scriptis legendis hic tam calide perceperat.”
334.
“Denique quum in sedente, stante, incedente omnis calor se frangeret, ut ipse mihi ante dies confitebatur, ab nimio frigore in lectum prostratus traxit usque ad horam sesquisextam matutinam diei octavi et vigesimi mensis Martii. Qui enim truculentos hiemis gelidissimae rigores toleraverat et integer transierat, illius noctis paucarum horarum frigore sic dilaceratus, sic ustus fuit, ut aliam hiemem intravisse appareret. Itaque assiduum tunc intra labra, sed inarticulatum nec intelligendum murmur in eo observatum fuit, sive id ipsum querente, sive Dei implorante auxilium. Tandem ad horam quintam mente instantem migrationem divinante quum clamavisset transferri se debere in alium lectum, qui in eodem cubiculo die praecedente stratus erat, dum ad id omnia parantur, videns famulus capite nimis depresso et humili incommode cubare, rogansque an pluribus cervicalibus fulciri mallet, ubi visus fuit assentire, insiliens in lectum et divaricatis pedibus levans aegrum, ut pulvini commode stiparentur, repente comperit eum dilabi, anhelitum pressiorem esse et fauces arctari, ut vix advocatis praestantissimis Viris et huius morientis longe suavissimis Amicis et tunc hospitibus Vanden-Endiis Patre et filio, in eorum conspectu defecerit, cum admirabili aequanimitate exantlatis tot truculentis senectutis et mortis oppugnationibus, migrante anima ex illo lecto, quod per corpus praedixerat,” Gronovius 1709, 32–33. In his Oratio qua repurgatae medicinae facilis asseritur simplicitas, held on 20 March 1709, Boerhaave lamented De Volder’s absence: see Boerhaave 1721, 31. De Volder wrote an attestation of studies for Boerhaave: see Testimonium voor Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738), August 1683, The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, ms. 121 E 4. Two letters by De Volder to Abraham vanden Ende, traced to 1686 and 1691, are extant at Amsterdam. In the first letter, dated 6 May 1686, De Volder informs about and comments upon the Walloon Synod taking place at Rotterdam of April 1686, concerning the declaration of faith to be subscribed by Huguenot pastors (see Cerny 1987, 63–64; Van Eijnatten 2003): “[e]x Literis B. d. V ad A. v. E. / Interfuit Synodo Roterodamensi Spanhemius, Le Moyne, Gaillardus: quorum ille casu, ut ait, paucis ante inchoatam Synodum diebus Roterodamum venit; Le Moyne a suo Synedrio erat deputatus: Gaillardus vero accessit Synodum licet non deputatus, more, ut fertur, apud Gallos satis solemni. Formulam cui subscribere ex Gallia profugi, antequam ad munus Ecclesiasticum hisce in regionibus vocari possunt, concinnandum dedit Synodus quatuor Professoribus, adjungns tribus illis modo nominatis D. Jurieun, unà cum quatuor pastoribus. Formula autem continet tria capita. I. Ut suscribant Synodo Dordracenae, Confessioni, Formulis consenus, seque subijciant disciplinae Ecclesiasticae, quae sic obtinet. 2. Ut promittant se illas opiniones, quae ante aliquot annos Galliae Ecclesias turbantur, nec publice nec privatim docturos. 3. Ut eos qui Pelagianismum in Ecclesiam per Gratiam Mediatam introducere tentant se non toleraturos spondeant, nec cum iis facturos. Primum caput solemne est: hoc enim ut agant quotquot sive Gallicae sive Belgicae Ecclesiae fiunt pastores, necesse est. Hoc et egit noster Le Moyne cum ad hanc Ecclesiam vocaretur. Alterum caput Amyraldistas, Tertium, ut nosti, Pajonistas spectat. Laudant nostri inde reduces moderationem Spanhemianam, quanquam nonnulli addunt, illum, secus hi egisset, nihil profecturum fuisse. Huic jam formulae centum octoginta subscripserunt. Verum duo, qui de Pajonismo maxime suspecti sunt, vocati se non stitere, sive quod itineris molestia et sumptus, Groningae enim commorantur, ipsos abstenuerit, sive quod incerti quidnam illis subscribendum foret maluerint exitum rei absentes exspectare. Praeter hos duos neminem esse audio, quem haec formula feriat. Ita quidem agunt placidissime confecta et transacta esse omnia. / Lugd. Bat. pridie nonas majas / CIƆIƆCLXXXVI,” Amsterdam University Library, OTM hs. Gs 24. As to the second letter, see supra, n. 282. Besides the correspondents of De Volder mentioned and discussed in this section, it is worth mentioning that De Volder corresponded with Albert Jansz. van Dam, nephew of Dirck Rembrantsz. van Nierop. Albert asked for De Volder’s opinion on Henry More’s criticism of Descartes in a letter dated 8 November 1677 (extant in Oostwoud 1754–1759, volume 6, 402–403; Rijks 2012, 249; I briefly discuss it in Sect. 6.2.2.3.4.1, De Volder’s review of Huygens’s report on the first trial at sea). No answer from De Volder is extant. A previous letter of Van Dam to De Volder is mentioned in a letter (dated 16 October 1677) by Van Dam to Klaas Dirksz. Zalm, student at Leiden, who had to forward it to De Volder: see Oostwoud 1754–1759, volume 6, 316–317; Rijks 2012, 247–248. In this letter to Zalm, Van Dam also mentions De Volder’s teaching of algebra: see supra, n. 207. Moreover, De Volder corresponded with Theodorus Janssonius van Almeloveen, physician and professor of Greek and history at Harderwijk, to whom De Volder sent two copies of his 1698 Oratio on 19 March 1698: one for him, and one for Johannes Meyer, professor of theology. Two minutes of a letter of thanks by Almeloveen to De Volder, dated 22 October 1698, are extant at Utrecht: Utrecht University Library, Hs. 995, 163–164, and Hs. 996, 458–460. Finally, a letter by De Volder to the Rotterdam printer Reinier Leers, dated 14 May 1695, is extant at Leiden. In it, De Volder points out errors he has found in a book he received from Jakob Perizonius: namely, the Mémoires de mathématique et de physique tirés des registres de l’Académie Royale des Science (1693), of which De Volder owned a defective copy: Leiden University Library, ms. PAP 15.
335.
De Volder 1705, 30; Gronovius 1709, 33–35.
336.
Gronovius 1709, 7.
337.
Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 238–239 and 178∗. Apparently, De Volder lived on the corner between Houtstraat and Rapenburg, as in a letter of Christiaan Huygens to his brother Constantijn it is reported that Christiaan and De Volder could observe the canal (which is on Rapenburg) with a lens: see supra, n. 229. On De Volder’s home and burial place, see Inventaris van het stadsarchief van Leiden: 1313–1343, Registers van te Leiden begravenen, register 1329: 1704 maart 29–1709 juni 1. 1704–1709, 265.
338.
As to De Volder’s Collaterale successie, see Inventaris van het stadsarchief van Leiden, Memoriaalboek, inventarisnummer 210+6, 71v–75r. Further money was given to De Volder’s heirs for his academic duties in February and December 1710: see Molhuysen 1913–1924, volume 4, 241 and 246.
339.
See supra, nn. 135 and 233.
340.
“3 Winkelhaaken. 1 Koper Paralel Liniaal. 2 Kopere Trekpennen […] 1 Cartesiaanse Studeer-Lamp met een blikke Tregter. 1 Toetsteen. 1 Stuk Moscovis glas. 1 Landkaart van Moscovia door Nic. Witsen. 1 Curieus Verkeer-bort met de Schijven en twe Blikke kandelaaren. 1 Seer Curieus Notebome Schaakbort met des selfs curieuse Yvoire en swartes Ebbenhoute stelsel. 1 ——— Dito. Alle door Haka gemaakt.[:] 1 Palmhoute Heaubois. 1 ——— Dwars-Fluyt. 2 ——— dito kleynder. 1 Ebbenhoute Dwars-Fluyt. 1 ——— dito kleynder. 1 ——— Flute doux. 7 Boeken-kassen getekent N. 1. 2. 3. 1 Staande dubbelde Studeer-lessenaar met twee Kasten daar onder boven met Rusleer bekleet en met goede slodten voorsien. 1 Lessenaar op deselve wijs bekleet en een goed slot daar aan,” Bibliotheca Volderina, 95–96.
341.
“Puisque je me suis mis en train de Vous ecrire une longue lettre, je veux bien vous la communiquer, j’espere qu’elle vous fera plaisir, d’autant plus que c’est par cette meme demonstration que j’eus le bonheur, il y a environ 23 ans, de convertir feu Mr. de Volder Vôtre Predecesseur, rigide Cartesien, s’il en fut jamais, apres que Mr. Leibnitz employa inutilement tous ses arguments (dans un long commerce de lettre qu’il y avoit entre eux deux et qui passoient toujours par mes mains) pour le convaincre de la verité. Il seroit à souhaiter que les heritiers de Mr. de Volder voulussent vous communiquer ses papiers, vous y trouveriez une de mes lettres, datée je crois dans l’année 1700 qui contient la demonstration dont je Vous parle et dont voici le contenu […],” transcription from Briefwechsel von Johann I Bernoulli (Basel University Library, ms. L Ia 674, 50–61).
342.
“Der Herr Professor Volder ist eine kleine Person, dabey untersetzt von Leibe, und ohngefahr über 50 Jahre alt. Ob er wohl ein Mathematicus ist, so siehet man es ihm doch nicht an. Er ist höfflich, ohne viel caeremonien. Seine Philosophie ist Ecclectica hat aber viel Cartesianisches an sich. Er ist hierinn einer von den berühmtesten Professoribus in Holland. Das Latein, so er wohl spricht, gehet ihm fertig vom Munde. Er hat ein groß ingenium, und weis artig zu schertzen; Sein Judicium scheint nicht geringer zu sein. Wenn er was schreiben sollte, so würde er ohnezweifel einen Satyricum agiren, denn er ist ein spitziger Gast. Allein er hat nicht in Willens die unzehliche Menge der Bücher zuvermehren, die man vielmehr vergeringern sollte. In der Conversation ist er ein großer Politicus, wenigstens hat er sich gegen uns so erwiesen. Denn er redet wenig, und denckt viel, was er aber redet, bringet er nett und kurtz vor, und behauptet es mit ungemeinem Nachdruck. Er ist mehr ernsthafft als freundlich, doch macht ihn dieses nicht so verdrüßlich, als daß er seinen Mund so gar sehr menagiret. Denn er fängt nicht leicht selbst zureden an, und wenn auch eine 4tel Stunde silentium sein sollte; und wenn man ihn gleich auf einen discours bringt, so sagt er doch fast nichts mehr, als was er gefragt worden. Die Ursache hiervon ist mir verborgen, das aber weis ich wohl, daß man von ihm nicht, wie von einem andern lieben Manne sagen kann: nihil est intus, denn das Gemüthe dieses holländischen Philosophi ist eine solche Tieffe, darinne viel sonderbahre Gedancken, und darunter allem Ansehn nach auch einige Atheistische verborgen liegen,” Warsaw University Library, Cod. IV oct. 49, 593–596. Transcription kindly provided by Martin Mulsow. The reference is to the common saying ‘nihil est intus / dixit Carolus Quintus’: see, for instance, Oertel 1842, 35; Lenau 1993, volume 7, 295.

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Strazzoni, A. (2019). The Life and the Works of Burchard de Volder. In: Burchard de Volder and the Age of the Scientific Revolution. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol 51. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19878-7_2

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The Life and the Works of Burchard de Volder