Christiani Hugenii Zelemii, dum viveret, toparchae opuscula postuma, quae continent dioptricam. Commentarios de vitris figurandis. Dissertationem de corona & parheliis. Tractatum de motu. De vi centrifuga. Descriptionem automati planetarii

A decorative drop cap letter Q features floral and foliate patterns.Everyone who has even glanced at the threshold of Physics or Mathematics knows what a loss the death of the Illustrious Christian Huygens, which occurred a few years ago, was to the literary Republic. Indeed, such sharpness of wit shone in him, such a wealth of subtle inventions flourished, and such skill in these arts shone forth, that this age has produced few who can be compared to him, and certainly none who have surpassed him. Since this fact has been established more than sufficiently by the judgment of the greatest men, it does not require our recommendation, in our opinion. Therefore, leaving the proclamation of those highest gifts that illuminated this great man to those endowed with greater intellect and greater eloquence, we have deemed it necessary to mention only this one thing, which concerns the matter at hand more closely: it seemed good to the Illustrious Man to bequeath to the Academy of Leiden, in the documents of his last will, certain Mathematical writings, and at the same time to ask us to examine them, and to ensure that those which could be adapted for the press were published—specifically, the Dioptrics, the Treatise on the Motion of Bodies by Percussion, and likewise, On Forming and Polishing Lenses. When we set ourselves to this work, we encountered more labor in it than we had persuaded ourselves of at the beginning. For although most of these things that we present here were written many years ago, we found almost nothing that was completely brought to a finish,