Horologium Oscillatorium — Title Leaf
Christiaan Huygens, 1673
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, Wrong shape: a 14% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buy"The pendulum clock, or geometrical demonstrations concerning the motion of pendula as applied to clocks" — the title leaf of one of the great physics books of the seventeenth century, printed in Paris in 1673. Huygens dedicated it to Louis XIV; in it he derived the cycloidal pendulum, the theory of evolutes, and the formula every physics student still learns for the period of a swing. For a study wall it is the quietest kind of trophy: the printed birth certificate of measured time.
- Maker
- Christiaan Huygens
- Date
- 1673
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- BEIC digital library, via Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- BEIC digital library, via Wikimedia Commons · via Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00535
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 8 x 12 in | 127 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 11 x 14 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 12 x 16 in | 87 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 18 in | 84 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 16 x 24 in | 63 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 24 in | 58 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 30 in | 50 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 24 x 36 in | 42 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 40 in | 35 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 48 in | 29 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 60 in | 25 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,055 x 1,528 px, b-w
- Tone
- Darks 33, lights 255 of 255; 79.9% clipped light, 2.3% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 103.14
- Notes
- Pure white on 80% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white
The Complication
Huygens’s pendulum, Harrison’s chronometer engravings and the astronomical tower.
All 19 pieces from The Complication
