‘Les meilleures architectes du roi’. Een onbekende brief uit 1628 over de vroege bouwperiode van het Huis Honselaarsdijk

This article examines a recently discovered letter written to Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik of Orange by his French agent Nicolas Tassin in 1628 concerning the improvement of the palace and gardens of Honselaarsdijk in the Netherlands. Although Frederik Hendrik had already started renovating his estate in 1621 there is very little information about the period between 1621 and 1633. The 1628 letter is therefore a rare and valuable source for the early phase of Honselaarsdijk’s history. With his letter, Tassin enclosed a ground plan for a redesign of Honselaarsdijk made according to the advice of the ‘best architects of the king’ [of France]. This confirms the hypothesis that French architects were involved in the design of Honselaarsdijk from an early stage. Although the 1628 ground plan did not survive, Tassin’s description of the plan suggested changes to the building, which were duly carried out by Pieter Post from 1646 onwards (figs. 4, 5, 8). Unfortunately, the letter does not mention the names of the ‘best architects of the king’ Tassin had consulted in France. It is, however, most likely that one of those French architects was Jacques Lemercier. Lemercier can be linked to two other Frenchmen who later worked for Frederik Hendrik: the master mason and architect Simon de la Vallée and the gardener André Mollet, who worked at the same time on one of Lemercier’s court commissions. De la Vallée and André Mollet both started to work for Frederik Hendrik in 1633.The 1628 letter reveals another interesting connection between France and the court of the stadtholder: Tassin had approached Jacques Boyceau de la Baraudière to design parterres for the gardens at Honselaarsdijk. This confirms the hypothesis that the celebrated gardener contributed to Honselaarsdijk’s gardens before the arrival of Claude Mollet in 1633. Although further details are lacking (such as Frederik Hendrik’s response and both previous and subsequent correspondence on these matters), the letter is an important early record of Frederik Hendrik’s royal ambitions as architectural patron

‘Les meilleures architectes du roi’. Een onbekende brief uit 1628 over de vroege bouwperiode van het Huis Honselaarsdijk

This article examines a recently discovered letter written to Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik of Orange by his French agent Nicolas Tassin in 1628 concerning the improvement of the palace and gardens of Honselaarsdijk in the Netherlands. Although Frederik Hendrik had already started renovating his estate in 1621 there is very little information about the period between 1621 and 1633. The 1628 letter is therefore a rare and valuable source for the early phase of Honselaarsdijk’s history. With his letter, Tassin enclosed a ground plan for a redesign of Honselaarsdijk made according to the advice of the ‘best architects of the king’ [of France]. This confirms the hypothesis that French architects were involved in the design of Honselaarsdijk from an early stage. Although the 1628 ground plan did not survive, Tassin’s description of the plan suggested changes to the building, which were duly carried out by Pieter Post from 1646 onwards (figs. 4, 5, 8). Unfortunately, the letter does not mention the names of the ‘best architects of the king’ Tassin had consulted in France. It is, however, most likely that one of those French architects was Jacques Lemercier. Lemercier can be linked to two other Frenchmen who later worked for Frederik Hendrik: the master mason and architect Simon de la Vallée and the gardener André Mollet, who worked at the same time on one of Lemercier’s court commissions. De la Vallée and André Mollet both started to work for Frederik Hendrik in 1633.The 1628 letter reveals another interesting connection between France and the court of the stadtholder: Tassin had approached Jacques Boyceau de la Baraudière to design parterres for the gardens at Honselaarsdijk. This confirms the hypothesis that the celebrated gardener contributed to Honselaarsdijk’s gardens before the arrival of Claude Mollet in 1633. Although further details are lacking (such as Frederik Hendrik’s response and both previous and subsequent correspondence on these matters), the letter is an important early record of Frederik Hendrik’s royal ambitions as architectural patron

Commemorating conquest: The triumphal entry of William III of Orange, King of England, into The Hague in 1691

Contemporary sources described the triumphal entry of William III as the most magnificent spectacle of the so-called Dutch Golden Age. Triumphal arches and firework displays were built to mark William’s first return to the Republic since the Glorious Revolution while numerous foreign princes and diplomats travelled from far to meet the new King of England. Seventeenth-century observers focused on William’s representation in the triumphal entry, its temporary architecture and the medals struck to commemorate this occasion, rather than subsequent depiction of these events in prints, which has been the focus of modern scholarship. This thesis defines the triumphal entry as a form of ritual involving people and objects in order to analyze the relation between the event and its cultural and political significance. It argues that its design, purpose and impact can only be understood in the context of the Glorious Revolution and William’s constant struggle against Louis XIV of France. As a successor state, the Anglo-Dutch monarchy required the fabrication of new traditions to sustain an appearance of legitimacy and negotiate the break with the past. But the claims of the triumphal entry were ambiguous and reactions across Europe ranged from exuberant praise to accusations of tyranny and usurpation. French critics pointed out that William’s portrayal as a Roman conqueror revealed the true nature of his ambitions and contradicted the conciliatory promises of his post-revolutionary reign.  Collective identities and transnational networks in medieval and early modern Europe, 1000-180

Squalane is in the midplane of the lipid bilayer: implications for its function as a proton permeability barrier

AbstractA recently proposed model for proton leakage across biological membranes [Prog. Lipid Res. 40 (2001) 299] suggested that hydrocarbons specifically in the center of the lipid bilayer inhibit proton leaks. Since cellular membranes maintain a proton electrochemical gradient as a principal energy transducer, proton leakage unproductively consumes cellular energy. Hydrocarbons in the bilayer are widespread in membranes that sustain such gradients. The alkaliphiles are unique in that they contain up to 40 mol% isoprenes in their membranes including 10–11 mol% squalene [J. Bacteriol. 168 (1986) 334]. Squalene is a polyisoprene hydrocarbon without polar groups. Localizing hydrocarbons in lipid bilayers has not been trivial. A myriad of physical methods including fluorescence spectroscopy, electron-spin resonance, nuclear magnetic resonance as well as X-ray and neutron diffraction have been used to explore this question with various degrees of success and often contradictory results. Seeking unambiguous evidence for the localization of squalene in membranes or lipid bilayers, we employed neutron diffraction. We incorporated 10 mol% perdeuterated or protonated squalane, an isosteric analogue of squalene, into stacked bilayers of dioleoyl phosphatidyl choline (DOPC) doped with dioleoyl phosphatidyl glycerol (DOPG) to simulate the negative charges found on natural membranes. The neutron diffraction data clearly show that the squalane lies predominantly in the bilayer center, parallel to the plane of the membrane

From protons to OXPHOS supercomplexes and Alzheimer's disease: Structure–dynamics–function relationships of energy-transducing membranes

AbstractBy the elucidation of high-resolution structures the view of the bioenergetic processes has become more precise. But in the face of these fundamental advances, many problems are still unresolved. We have examined a variety of aspects of energy-transducing membranes from large protein complexes down to the level of protons and functional relevant picosecond protein dynamics. Based on the central role of the ATP synthase for supplying the biological fuel ATP, one main emphasis was put on this protein complex from both chloroplast and mitochondria. In particular the stoichiometry of protons required for the synthesis of one ATP molecule and the supramolecular organisation of ATP synthases were examined. Since formation of supercomplexes also concerns other complexes of the respiratory chain, our work was directed to unravel this kind of organisation, e.g. of the OXPHOS supercomplex I1III2IV1, in terms of structure and function. Not only the large protein complexes or supercomplexes work as key players for biological energy conversion, but also small components as quinones which facilitate the transfer of electrons and protons. Therefore, their location in the membrane profile was determined by neutron diffraction. Physico-chemical features of the path of protons from the generators of the electrochemical gradient to the ATP synthase, as well as of their interaction with the membrane surface, could be elucidated by time-resolved absorption spectroscopy in combination with optical pH indicators. Diseases such as Alzheimer's dementia (AD) are triggered by perturbation of membranes and bioenergetics as demonstrated by our neutron scattering studies

Active Membrane Fluctuations Studied by Micropipet Aspiration

We present a detailed analysis of the micropipet experiments recently reported in J-B. Manneville et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4356--4359 (1999), including a derivation of the expected behaviour of the membrane tension as a function of the areal strain in the case of an active membrane, i.e., containing a nonequilibrium noise source. We give a general expression, which takes into account the effect of active centers both directly on the membrane, and on the embedding fluid dynamics, keeping track of the coupling between the density of active centers and the membrane curvature. The data of the micropipet experiments are well reproduced by the new expressions. In particular, we show that a natural choice of the parameters quantifying the strength of the active noise explains both the large amplitude of the observed effects and its remarkable insensitivity to the active-center density in the investigated range. [Submitted to Phys Rev E, 22 March 2001]Comment: 14 pages, 5 encapsulated Postscript figure