Lisa Jardine CBE, born in Oxford, UK, in 1944. Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Centenary Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London. († 2015)
KB Fellow (1 September 2008 – 31 December 2008)
THE INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION OF SIR CONSTANTIJN HUYGENS (1596-1687)
During my two periods of uninterrupted study in the KB, between September and December 2008, it was possible for me to work intensively on manuscript materials I had been able to consult only briefly when writing my well-received book, Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s Glory. My KB Fellowship enabled me to make very considerable progress in transcribing and intellectually assessing and contextualising the epistolary output of Sir Constantijn Huygens. I made a number of very significant discoveries in the KB archives, particularly within the large body of letters written in French, which the editor of the hitherto definitive edition of the letters was not qualified to transcribe or edit. The KB has extended me Fellowship privileges for a five year period, and I have already been back on two productive occasions to do more work on the Huygens holdings.