The multilingualism of Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687)

This new study provides a comprehensive account of the multilingualism of Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687). Huygens used Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, Italian, English, Spanish and German in the majority of his correspondence and poetry. In his letters and poems he sometimes used just one language, whilst at other times he used more, engaging in bilingual or multilingual code switching, demonstrating his wit, learning and linguistic aptitude.