Cyril Gorlla
email: cyril.m.gorlla@jacobs.ucsd.edu

Jared Thach
email: j1thach@ucsd.edu

Hiroki Hoshida
email: hhoshida@ucsd.edu

Development of Input Libraries With Intel XLSDK to Capture Data for App Start Prediction

Keywords: logging, threading, performance

Introduction

Despite computer processor speeds increasing year after year, there are still high usage programs and processes that interrupt workflows in our daily lives. Whether that interruption be lag when opening Zoom to join a meeting, or waiting for Google Chrome to open a link embedded in a Word document, these micro (or in some cases, major) stutters can cause a process meant to be relatively smooth to be a large source of frustration in the daily lives of an end user. One key point, however, is that these processes are actually often "scheduled" in a sense. That is, most people often repeat the same or similar tasks every day, and have a set routine. One example could be an office worker who opens Microsoft Excel almost every time they turns on their laptop at the office. These sorts of patterns can be studied, and by using machine learning, we can create predetermined schedules for users, allowing us to preload apps, or have processes ready before the user needs them. In other words, by analyzing user behavior, we can load an application the user would likely use next in advance, reducing wait and loading times.

By using Intel's System Usage Reporting library and the accompanying XLSDK, we can create "monitors" of user and computer activity, known as collectors or Input Libraries, and create activity logs which we can then analyze to provide preloading solutions for the user. We have been focused on the creation of these input libraries to have data to use in future collaboration with Intel, in which we would use the data we collected for analysis.

In order for us to create our own Input Libraries, the XLSDK provides a wide range of examples which can be used either as references or templates. Throughout the first ten weeks of working with Intel, we developed four different Input Libraries, each using a different template and measuring different categories of inputs from the user and computer. The first, the mouse_input Input Library, keeps a log of the cursor coordinates as the user moves the mouse around. Second, the user_waiting Input Library, keeps a timer based log of the cursor icon as the user uses the computer. The third, a foreground_window Input Library, creates a log entry whenever the foreground window (the window in front of all other windows) changes whether it be automatically (such as a notification pop up) or by user input (clicking the taskbar). Finally, the fourth Input Library is the desktop_mapper, which, when triggered by a change in the foreground window, maps all the windows on the desktop in z-order and stores pertinent information about each window e.g. position and size.

Each of these Input Libraries are coded differently in fundamental ways, and measure changes in different ways as well. By using the data provided by Libraries like these, we can determine preloading schedules for the individual user.

Methods

Understanding the structure of Input Libraries is essential in creating our own. In essence, Input Libraries are dynamiclink libraries (DLLs) that consist of four main functions. modeler_init_inputs specifies the number of variables the Input Library will track. For example, the "mouse inputs" Library would keep track of two, the x and y coordinates of the cursor location. modeler_open_inputs identifies the collected data by declaring the type of data as well as the variable names each point of data will be stored as.

modeler_read_inputs contains the code that pulls the data from the user or computer to log. For example, the mouse_input Library would obtain the mouse coordinate values from the OS. Finally, modeler_close_inputs closes the collector. Though every Input Library uses the above four main functions, depending on how the data is collected, they are used in different ways, and may contain even more separate standard functions. These differences can stem from how the polling for data is conducted, which are the main differences between the Input Libraries we created. "Mouse inputs" works as a static standard Input Library, which polls for values on a set timer. In modeler_read_inputs, we wrote a block of code that checks the coordinates of the mouse pointer every 100 milliseconds until the collector is stopped.

However, for the user_waiting and foreground_window Libraries, different methods of logging are used. More specifically, the user_waiting Library is a static pure event-driven Library, meaning that the collector only logs whenever some event happens, in this case when the cursor icon changes. The foreground_window Library is a static event-driven Library, as it collects data both on a set timer and on an event (polls every 1000 milliseconds, but also collects data whenever a mouse click is detected). In these two latter Input Libraries, a different function, modeler_listen_inputs, is used. The collector runs the code contained within in a dedicated thread, which allows for asynchronous data collection. From a general perspective, static standard Libraries run synchronously, and poll on a set timer. Static pure event-driven Libraries function only asynchronously, and static event-driven Libraries function both synchronously and asynchronously. The desktop_mapper Library is purely event driven, and is triggered when the foreground window changes or there is a click. This triggers a mapping of the desktop. Dynamic memory allocation and the use of critical sections was required to be able to store data for an arbitrary amount of windows at each mapping.

Once we decided the format and general structure we wanted to use for each Input Library, we had to decide on the specifics of the implementation. As the mouse_input Library is relatively simple, we just had to implement the coordinate-checking code in the static standard template. However, we had more choices available to us when implementing the other two. To create the user_waiting Input Library, we started with the static event-driven template. This allowed us to use polling as well as asynchronous logging of events and after performing the usual configurations and setups. Then, we initialized our global variables to keep track of the cursor icon state, cursor info object, and the various cursor handles to compare to. These were const char* cursor, CURSORINFO ci, and HCURSOR cursorArray[5], respectively. Once we had our global variables, we placed our cursor icon checks within the modeler_read_inputs function. First, the function fetches the current cursor icon shape and stores it in ci. Then, the function attempts to match the ci to a specific preloaded HCURSOR object in the cursorArray. We stored commonly seen cursor icons in the array, such as IDC_ARROW for the standard mouse arrow and IDC_IBEAM for the I-beam shown when hovering over text. Once found, cursor would then be reassigned to its respective IDC value. Finally, cursor is cast to a string and we log the result using the SET_INPUT_STRING_ADDRESS function. For the desktop_mapper, we iterate through all (up to a reasonable point we define, e.g. 20) windows open at a certain time in z-order and collect relevant information and collect relevant data for each window, storing them in the same inputs with multiplex logging. We implemented our window logger function in a dedicated thread, so that we can analyze a particular window independently of the main thread. Some of the information we capture includes the window's coordinates on the screen, whether it is covered by other windows, what z position it is in on the desktop, etc.

To help automate the collection of the data enabled by these Input Libraries, we created a batch script that would start the Intel ESRV and use Input Libraries that we specified. We then set this script to run on the startup of the computer, so that we would always be collecting data when the computer was in use. This allowed us to ensure that we were getting a fully representative collection of data that represented normal use as well as simplified our collecting process in general. In a production setting, we would utilize automation tools similar to the batch file to ensure that data collection was seamless and didn't impact the user's activities.

Data Science/Data Analysis

Data collection is only one step of the process. In order to uncover useful insights with our collected data from mouse_input, user_waiting, foreground_window, and desktop_mapper we must validate our data and then select the appropriate machine learning model to predict user patterns. Each of the four Input Libraries we have created collects different information from our user.

Beginning with our mouse_input library, we used a static standard template to capture user mouse coordinates at a fixed interval or sampling rate. Our library first gets the user mouse as an object which can then be used to save its X and Y coordinates every 1000 ms, for example. Finally, these X and Y coordinates are outputted as unsigned long long variables to our database file. These will serve as numeric features for our model. Next, our user_waiting library uses a static event driven template to both sample our user cursor icon every fixed interval as well as capture events (specifically, changes in cursor icon shape). We chose to sample every 1000 ms to ensure that we capture all cursor icon changes at a reasonable speed to minimize storage utilization. At the same time, we capture the cursor icon at every instance of icon change. These are then outputted as strings into our database file. These outputs will be useful in predicting a user's pattern as they are somewhat indicative of their desktop tasks.

Our third Input Library, foreground_window, uses a static event driven template as well. This library uses the same polling tactic as user_waiting to capture the foreground window even during unexpected events such as error messages appearing which would otherwise not be captured with a mouse hook. This library also uses event signaling to capture when a user clicks onto a new foreground window. Both methods capture the .exe file of the foreground window and outputs it as a string to a database file. These .exe strings will be highly useful data for our model because of the immediate information given about a user's activity and what they interact with the most. Here, we may also decide to capture whether or not a window is an immersive process because this feature may add predictive value to our model. Finally, our last Input Library, desktop_mapper, maps the Z-axis of a user's desktop as a series of windows layered on other windows. This library also captures the monitor specifications and links them to the different data structures as additional features in our data science approach. This last Input Library yields highly useful data as well because it "maps" the importance of various windows and may give predictive power for understanding what a user interacts with the most (when the window is at the top of the Z-axis) and what a user interacts with the least (when the window is at the bottom of the Z-axis).

After collecting the necessary data, it is important to ensure that it accurately reflects the user behavior we will eventually predict. We will now detail some of the points of interest for each IL that we must ensure is correctly collected. For mouse_input, it should be ensured that the input library records coordinates from all areas of the screen. For user_waiting, all relevant states of the cursor should be captured and the frequency of polling should be such that important changes are not missed. Next, the foreground_window IL should report the window name when a click happens, as well as through periodic sampling in case the window changes without user interaction. As such, the IL should be tested with both scenarios. Finally, the desktop mapper should give a comprehensive view of the windows currently open on the desktop as well as the relative importance of each window. When multiple windows are open simultaneously, with some occluded, the IL should also report this detail.

Results

Our data collected by the Input Libraries are stored in SQL database files upon exiting the collector. As each IL captures different sets of properties and attributes of the computer, the formats of each .db file created by each IL is slightly different. Every Input Library combined, however, allows for the tracking of the attributes in Figure 2.

Each input in the aggregate table is labeled with the Input Library that it came from. The user_waiting Input Library The mouse_input Library captures X and Y coordinates of the mouse cursor as integers, and samples the coordinates every 1000 milliseconds. The foreground_window Library captures the foreground window, or the topmost window showing on the screen. The executable process name of the window is stored as a string, along with two boolean values representing whether the window is immersive and whether the window is hung. This value is logged every 1000 milliseconds, but is also logged whenever a click is detected. For example, if a user clicks away from teams.exe to chrome.exe, the timestamp, chrome.exe, and the two properties are logged in the database. As of writing, desktop_mapper is in the final stages of development, and covers even more properties of the user's computer than foreground window. For example, it would log the locations and order of all windows, not just the foreground window.

The information gathered is robust enough to be able to discern some simple patterns and properties even before any sort of machine learning. For example, Figure 4 shows a histogram of the most commonly found executable file names in an Input Library output of a particular user. By seeing the programs used, such as devenv.exe, VsDebugConsole.exe, and DB Browser for SQLite.exe, we can be led to believe that the particular user tracked is a DSC180A student from this B14 Intel section, as all these are tools we used heavily throughout the quarter. Figure 6 shows the most commonly occurring mouse state is IDC_ARROW followed by IDC_BEAM and IDC_HAND, which makes sense as most of the time the mouse state should be in the arrow state. This information can be vital in discovering which programs exactly are causing hang ups and lag in a system. For example, if a particular dataset contains many IDC_WAITs at certain times during usage, we could investigate where exactly the wait times are occurring, and decide to do something to the culprit application, whether to preload it earlier in the background or lower its overall load on the system by disabling unnecessary features. Another simple analysis that could be done using the data collected can be seen in Figure 8, which illustrates the distribution of the X coordinate of the mouse with a histogram. The bimodal distribution with peaks at the 600 and 1400 coordinates show that the user likely uses some sort of split screen layout on their screen, which can be used as information to determine what should be preloaded earlier. For example, if the user often splits the screen between Chrome and Visual Studio, Visual Studio may be preloaded if the user opens and places Chrome on one side of their screen. After data collection, we will validate the dataset and clean up the data if needed. Then, we will evaluate the optimal model for our prediction task. As we are working with multidimensional time series data, we predict that our solution will use a model or a combination of models that emulate human interaction with computers. Because computer usage is typically rhythmic, that is, usage is often closely related to a daily schedule, we should be able to discern patterns with enough data gathered. We intend to convert our raw data from our Input Libraries into a structure that clarifies further which applications are opened when, and when they are opened. With this, we should be able to apply different models to create predictions. As previously mentioned, models of interest include a recurrent neural network, which captures a notion of "memory" such that periodic data can be modeled. Another is a hidden Markov model, which works by making the assumption that prior events influence future events in a chain-like structure, essentially matching the format and concept of our collected data. Computer usage usually has a set linear structure. Here is a simple example: A browser is used to download a PDF file -> A file explorer window is opened to access the file -> A PDF viewer is used to view the file. So, by using these time-series based models, we intend to find and develop commonly used chains of actions by each user, and use these to create predictions on which applications are most likely to be used next.

To make our predictions more accurate, we will have to pre-process our data generated from the ILs and ensure that they are valid inputs for our potential models. For example, we may wish to normalize numeric coordinate values generated from the mouse_input IL to better discern differences in the data. For desktop_mapper, windows that are not visible are unlikely to be predictive of what the user will open, so we may filter the windows that are not visible out of the dataset before training our model with the data. After we apply considerations such as these to our data and select features from each IL, with the timestamp tying a particular sample of the data together, we will train our model. We will first test the model on data that we didn't train it on in order to determine its accuracy in predicting the window that will open next, given information about windows the user has recently opened. We will then train the hyperparameters of our model on yet another unseen validation set to optimize its performance. Finally, we will be able to fully deploy our model to predict what window a user will launch next at a given time, and the output of this model could be used to launch that application preemptively so the user will not have to wait. Our final deliverable after our second quarter will be an all-in-one solution, from data collection to processing to prediction. Ideally, the user should be able to run the collector, have the data processed, and preloads applied, all in the background of their daily usage of their computer.

Figure 2 .

 2 Figure 2. .db file with multiple ILs

Figure 3 .

 3 Figure 3. Cursor States, Source: MSDN

Figure 4 .

 4 Figure 4. Distribution of foreground window

Figure 6 .

 6 Figure 6. Distribution of cursor type

Figure 7 .

 7 Figure 7. Cursor type over time

Figure 8 .

 8 Figure 8. Distribution of mouse X coordinate

Acknowledgments

Jamel Tayeb and Bijan Arbab, Intel; Intel DCA Team


Pierre-Daniel Huet

New York

Volker Schröder

Halshs

Gérard Edelinck

Portrait of Nicolas De Largillière

Pierre-Daniel Huet in New York

VS

This year should not go by without a brief salute to Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630-1721), the Norman polymath who was one of the most brilliant and renowned intellectuals during the reign of Louis XIV. Regrettably, the tercentenary of his passing was not included on the calendar of France Mémoire: the only deaths of 1721 declared worthy of national commemoration were those of the painter Antoine Watteau and the bandit Cartouche. A decidedly less popular figure, the academician and churchman Huet was one of the last survivors from a golden age of humanist erudition whose gradual "decadence" he openly deplored. In the final chapter of his long life, he worked to consolidate his legacy, publishing his autobiography (written in Latin) and entrusting the Jesuits with his library of some 8,000 books (many filled with his personal annotations).

Perhaps the richest but also unwieldiest part of this legacy is Huet's correspondence.

Conscious of its potential interest for posterity, Huet carefully preserved thousands of letters sent to him by his many distinguished friends and interlocutors (princes, bishops, savants, poets…). In addition, convinced as he was of his own value, he kept drafts or copies of at least some of the letters he wrote; in 1712 appeared two volumes of "dissertations" derived from them. The history of these papers over the past three centuries has certainly been messier than Huet would have liked. Today, major ensembles subsist in Florence, Paris, and Caen, but smaller subsets and individual pieces have survived in many other public and private collections. To further complicate things, some letters are known in multiple versions, while others appear to have been irretrievably "lost" or have never been recorded to begin with.

Last year this blog presented some overlooked letters addressed to Huet by Anne Le but none by him: perhaps they were included in one of the "parcels" of autographs by "Foreign Ecclesiastics" that were sold on Day Sixteen of this historic auction. Some of the items are accompanied by references to the French and English sales where Morrison had bought them, mostly in the 1870s and 1880s. The earlier provenance is, as usual, murky; two letters (those to Boulliau and Colbert) were probably stolen from the Bibliothèque royale in the first half of the nineteenth century, when the library's manuscript collections were poorly guarded and the burgeoning autograph market created big incentives for thieves.

The various ways in which the writer signed these letters reflect the progression of his social identity and ecclesiastical career: from the simple "Huet," to the complicated "L'Abbé Huet N. Ev. de S " (i.e. named bishop of Soissons -the pope left this nomination in limbo), and finally "P. Daniel A. Ev. d'Avranches" (i.e. former bishop of Avranches -he resigned the position for health reasons). What is constant throughout, except in the one Latin letter, is Huet's idiosyncratic use of a slash to mark the end of a German theologian working in Amsterdam, who went on to prepare the Dutch edition of Huet's Demonstratio evangelica and to argue with him over Spinoza.

The remaining three letters (to Boulliau, Colbert, and Bellaise) are, as far as I can see, unique and as yet not documented outside the NYPL catalog record. Pending a proper analysis by Huet experts, here are a few notes and snippets in English followed by full transcriptions of the French text, as a small and tardy contribution to this undercelebrated tercentenary.

Written in Caen on October 19, 1656, Huet's letter to the mathematician and astronomer Ismaël Boulliau is a reply to the latter's October 1 missive (known through copies in Paris and Caen), which itself was a belated reply to a June 21 letter from Huet (not preserved anywhere, it seems). It illustrates the young scholar's equal zeal for humanist philology (copying and collating manuscripts) and empirical science (observing comets and eclipses), and expounds his interest in the Hellenistic astrologer Vettius Valens, also mentioned decades later in Huet's autobiography. He inquires about Boulliau's forthcoming publications and makes a confession:

The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations

The letter ends with greetings to Jacques Dupuy (who would die four weeks later) and some banter about Christina of Sweden, at whose court Huet had stayed in 1652 and who was now touring France. his studious leisure was disrupted by the insolent actions of "farmers of the revenue" who tried to make a bounty from challenging his nobility. Having strenuously rebutted their first charge, "some years afterwards" he faced "the same molestation a second and a third time […] but the power of truth before equitable judges finally liberated me from this teazing persecution". The letter to Colbert shows that in August 1664 Huet felt the urgent need to appeal personally to the minister in this affair and to capitalize on his newly gained favor with the king (who had awarded him a first gratification the previous summer). His peroration eloquently conveys the climate of the early years of the reign of Louis XIV, and points already to Huet's future role as assistant tutor to the Dauphin:

The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations Legal vexations again plagued the last phase of Huet's life, when as Abbot of Fontenay (near Caen) he was embroiled in multiple lawsuits and conflicts. His 1706 message to Julien Bellaise, a Benedictine monk and antiquarian, proves that old manuscripts -such as an 1157 judgment in favor of the Mont-Saint-Michel abbey -continued to occupy his attention, but now for practical rather than purely academic reasons. This sheet is perhaps precious less for its contents than for its materiality, including the autograph superscription, folds, and well-preserved wax seal bearing the (former) bishop's coat of arms. Excerpts from this copy are quoted in Lea Caminiti Pennarola's edition of Gilles Ménage, Lettres inédites à Pierre-Daniel Huet (1659-1692), Napoli: Liguori, 1993. Another original letter from Huet to Ménage (dated September 28, 1684) can be found in the Ferdinand J. Dreer autograph collection housed at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. As for Huet's letter to Sandius, Pablo Toribio lists two autograph drafts in Florence as well as two copies in Paris and Leiden, but not the original in New York ("Notas sobre la correspondencia manuscrita de Christoph Sand," in Acta conventus neo-latini albasitensis, ed. Florian Schaffenrath et al., Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2020, p. 607).

4. For a summary of Huet's epistolary exchanges with Boulliau, see Léon Tolmer, Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630-1721): humaniste-physicien, Bayeux: Colas, 1949, p. 194-197 and 208. An

Fèvre

  (aka Madame Dacier), his collaborator on the series of classical editions ad usum Delphini. It is now time to highlight a small bundle of letters written by Huet himself which have ended up in a somewhat unexpected place: the Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, housed since 1986 at the New York Public Library. This intriguing medley of "Pierre-Daniel Huet manuscript material" comprises six letters and one quittance ranging over a fifty-year period, from 1656 to 1706. Along with numerous other autographs, Pforzheimer acquired them in 1919 at the sale of the monumental collection of Alfred Morrison. The printed catalog of the sale explicitly identifies only two letters written to Huet (by the Dauphin and Madeleine de Scudéry),

  Huet's letter to Colbert, too, relates to a passage in his autobiography and reveals what the published narrative obscures. In the 1718 book, Huet explains at length how in 1656 3 It is true that I have had all my life an incredible passion for Astronomy, but I have almost always been busy with other studies, and I have not been able to acquire all the knowledge of it that I would have desired. If I ever have some time at my disposal, I will apply myself to it for good. Then I will beg you Monsieur to serve as my guide and to teach me.

5I

  beseech you Monseigneur […] not to allow that under a government that promises nothing but peace and happiness to the entire public, someone disturb the tranquility of those who apply themselves to the study of virtue, and who have put themselves under your protection. I have the glory of being of this number […] The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations Huet's supralibros and bookplate Bibliothèque nationale de France / Gallica For me, the "Pierre-Daniel Huet manuscript material" at NYPL demonstrates in a nutshell the scope and appeal of Huet's correspondence and the need for a critical, annotated edition of it. To be sure, such a project could only be carried out by a team of scholars of encyclopedic competence and would represent a huge, truly Benedictine labor. In the meantime, establishing a precise and comprehensive inventory of the extant papers would already be a great start and provide a most welcome resource for seventeenth-century studies. m'a donné la plus grande joye du monde, je ne pouvois deviner la cause de vostre silence, & pour vous dire le vray il me tenoit beaucoup en peine / Vous m'en avez tiré en m'assurant que ce n'a point esté aucun deffaut d'amitié mais seulement l'embarras de vos affaires qui vous a empesché de me faire l'honneur de me respondre / Cette precaution que j'ay prise avec vous Monsieur en vous demandant si vous ne serez point importuné de mes lettres & de mes prieres, & de laquelle vous vous plaignez si obligeamment m'a semblé necessaire, parce que ayant les occupations que vous avez, & travaillant utilement pour le public & pour la posterité comme vous faites, ie n'ay pas cru vous devoir oster la moindre partie d'un tems si precieux sans vous en demander la permission / Mais puisque vous avez la bonté de me la donner j'en useray avec liberté / Je vous supplie donc Monsieur de scavoir si M. Coquié ou quelque autre voudroit me copier les Manuscrits d'Origene qui sont dans la Bibliotheque du Roy / Il y a long tems que i'avois esté contraint par de tres facheuses affaires d'en abandonner le soin, mais en estant sorti heureusement depuis quelques mois i'ay repris la continuation de mes estudes / J'ay parcouru depuis peu le Manuscrit que i'ay de Vettius Valens / Je le trouve imparfait en bien des endroits & je suis resolu d'escrire au premier jour a M. Golius Professeur en l'Academie de Leyde pour le prier de m'envoyer les titres des chapitres du Manuscrit de cet auteur qui est dans la bibliotheque de l'Academie escrit de la main de Scaliger, & de suppleer les deffauts du mien / J'escrivis aussi il y a environ deux ans a M. Selden pour luy faire la mesme priere, mais il mourut avant que de m'avoir respondu, & maintenant je ne scay ce qu'on a fait de son Manuscrit / Cet auteur est aussi ancien que Ptolemée car il paroist par quelques endroits de son livre qu'il a vescu sous l'Empereur Hadrien / Il y a une infinité de choses curieuses & rares dans cet ouvrage, & je m'estonne qu'il ne s'est trouvé personne qui l'ait mis au jour / Lucas Gauricus en avoit r r r un exemplaire, & il est sans doute enseveli maintenant dans quelque bibliotheque d'Italie / Il en fist imprimer quelques Excerpta a Venise, & Joachimus Camerarius a Nuremberg, ie n'ay veu ny l'un ny l'autre, & s'ils se trouvoient chez les libraires de Paris, vous m'obligeriez bien de m'en donner avis & de m'en mander le prix / J'ay grande impatience de voir le traitté de Ptolemée Περι ̀ Κριτηρίου και ̀ Ἡγεµονικοῡ [Peri kriteriou kai hegemonikou] ie ne doute pas qu'il ne soit beau, puisque vous l'avez jugé digne de vos soins / Je ne scay si l'on trouve presentement chez les libraires les autres ouvrages imprimez de Ptolemée je vous prie de me l'apprendre / Je les cherchay bien soigneusement au dernier voyage que ie fis a Paris sans les pouvoir rencontrer / J'ay grande envie aussi de voir vostre livre de lineis spiralibus / Il me semble que vous me distes il y a deux ans que vous estiez sur le point de faire imprimer quelques observations Astronomiques, & entre autres celles de l'Eclipse du 6 Aoust 1654, faites moy la grace de m'apprendre si vous avez executé ce dessein / Il est vrai que i'ay eu toute ma vie une passion incroyable pour l'Astronomie, mais i'ay presque toujours esté occupé en d'autres estudes, & je n'ay pas pu y acquerir toute la connoissance que i'aurois bien desiré / Si jamais j'ay quelque tems en ma disposition, je m'y appliqueray tout de bon / Ce sera alors Monsieur que ie vous supplieray de m'y servir de guide & de m'enseigner / J'ay acheté les instrumens de feu M. Macé dont je vous ay parlé autrefois / Il y a entre autres un octant dont il fait mention dans son livre de la Comete de l'an 1618 / Il est entier, & est garni de pinnules & de son pied, & il ne luy manque qu'une personne qui s'en puisse bien servir, mais outre qu'il faut estre fort versé aux observations, ce qui est une estude particuliere, il faut avoir une profonde connoissance de l'Astronomie pour le pouvoir faire avec fruit, & je vous confesse que i'ay peu de l'un & point du tout de l'autre / mais je ne m'apperçois pas qu'il y a long tems que je vous entretiens & que je devrois vous avoir desia dit que je suis de tout mon coeur Permettez moy d'assurer Monsieur du Puy de mon tres humble service / J'ay pris grand plaisir a lire ce que vous m'avez mandé de la Reyne Christine, mais mon plaisir eust esté encore plus grand si vous m'eussiez dit quelle fut cette response qu'elle fist a M. de Guise, ou du moins si elle fut contre les vertus Theologales ou contre les Cardinales, car elle a une Theologie & une Morale assez particuliere / Tesmoin la priere qu'elle a faite au Roy de rapprocher Ninon aupres de sa personne, qui est a la verité une jolie demande pour une Neophyte / Monsieur Vostre tres humble & tres obeissant serviteur Huet Pierre-Daniel Huet to Jean-Baptiste Colbert (NYPL Pforz Ms MISC 0525) [endorsed by Colbert's secretary:] M Huet aoust 1664 Monseigneur Vous me fistes l'honneur dernierement de m'assurer de la protection du Roy, et de la vostre d'une maniere qui me la fait esperer dans une occasion qui se presente, & me donne la liberté de vous la demander tres humblement / Il y a huit ans Monseigneur que je fus inquieté dans la recherche des usurpateurs du titre de noblesse, qui se fist en cette Province / Aprés une vexation estrange que je souffris de la part du Traittant / aprés cinq Voyages que je fus contraint de faire de Caen a Rouen, & une grande despense a quoy ie fus obligé, j'obtins enfin un arrest contradictoire de descharge et de maintenue / Je croiois aprés cela ma qualité assurée pour l'avenir, & moy a couvert de toute sorte de troubles que j'eusse pu recevoir de cette part / Cependant Monseigneur je me vois replongé dans le mesme embarras d'ou je [viens?] de sortir, par l'assignation que l'on m'a donnée depuis deux jours pour m'obliger a une nouvelle preuve de noblesse, & a de nouvelles peines, & par ce moyen l'on me met absolument hors d'estat de pouvoir faire continuer l'impression d'un ouvrage que j'ay entrepris pour l'utilité publique, & dont l'achevement demande mes soins et ma presence sans aucune intermission / Je vous e r r conjure Monseigneur de me donner des marques de vostre bonté en cette rencontre, & de me delivrer de cette persecution, soit en ordonnant a celuy qui me poursuit de consentir a ma descharge, soit en luy deffendant de me poursuivre davantage, & de ne souffrir pas que sous un gouvernement qui ne promet que paix & que bonheur a tout le public, on trouble le repos des personnes qui s'appliquent a l'estude de la vertu, & qui se sont mises sous vostre protection / J'ay [la] gloire d'estre de ce nombre, & de faire une profession particuliere d'estre tres respectueusement je fais a Paris ne me permettant pas, mon reverend Pere, de vous donner la copie que vous me demandez, donnez vous, s'il vous plaist la peine d'en ecrire a M. le Prieur de Fontenay, qui est saisi d'une des clefs du Chartrier, comme mon neveu est saisi de l'autre / Ils se joindront sans doute volontiers pour vous satisfaire / Mais de ma part je vous demande aussi une copie de ce Jugement rendu en faveur du Mont St. Michel, l'an 1157 / Il pourra nous estre utile dans une affaire qui est pendante au Parlement de Rouën entre mon Abbaye de Fontenay, & un Voisin, qui a la faveur d'une petite terre qu'il a achetée, & qui luy a cousté 17000 , a osé s'attribuer tous les droits des Fondateurs / Il est vray, mon reverend Pere, que la mortalité a esté grande a Fontenay / Il n'a pas tenu a moy que vos Peres n'y entrassent / & je serois encore prest d'y concourir / mais ils ont d'autres veuës, sur lesquelles ils pourront s'expliquer avec vous plus nettement qu'ils n'ont fait avec moy / Je vous felicite de tout mon coeur du restablissement de vostre santé / Je vous la souhaitte longue & heureuse, pour l'utilité de l'Eglise / Si vous ecrivez a M. le Prieur de Fontenay / Je vous supplie qu'il ne sache point que vous vous soyez addressé a moy / Je suis de tout mon coeur Mon reverend Pere Vostre très humble & très acquis serviteur A Paris 29. 8. 1706 / + P. Daniel A. Ev. d'Avranches. [address:] A mon reverend Pere Le reverend Pere Dom Julien Bellaise, religieux a l'Abbaye de St Ouën / A Rouën / Footnotes 1. For a recent in-depth study of Huet's manifold activities and relationships, see April G. Shelford, Transforming the Republic of Letters: Pierre-Daniel Huet and European Intellectual Life, 1650-1720, Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2007. 2. See Ludovic Lalanne and Henri Bordier, Dictionnaire des pièces autographes volées aux bibliothèques publiques de la France, Paris: Panckoucke, 1851, especially p. 76 (Boulliau), 100-101 (Colbert), and 169 (Huet).3. These two letters from Huet to Ménage are preserved in Paris in the form of an eighteenth-century copy which was meticulously corrected by a nineteenth-century bibliophile (Grangier de la Marinière) who was in possession of many of the originals.

  autograph letter from Huet to Boulliau (dated III. Eid. Januar. MDCLV), which used to be part of the Boulliau papers in Paris, is now preserved at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Simon Gratz autograph collection). 5. Memoirs of the Life of Peter Daniel Huet, translated and annotated by John Aikin, London: Longman et al., 1810, vol. 1, p. 250-252. 6. A subsequent letter from Huet to Bellaise, dated January 10, 1707, survives in Paris and provides further details.

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  The text of three of the six letters has been known from manuscript copies kept in European libraries. They include two missives to the poet and scholar Gilles Ménage, Huet's close friend and lifelong correspondent: the first (dated Caen, July 8, 1660) discusses Ménage's neo-Latin poetry and Huet's research on Origen, while in the second (Aunay, August 1, 1687) Huet defends his comparison between Moses and Priapus and criticizes Ménage for turning down entry into the Académie Française. The third letter (Lutetia, XV. Cal. Mai. MDCLXXIX) is written in Latin to Christopher Sandius, a

	sentence / Despite a certain penchant for abbreviations, his script is generally neat and
	mercifully legible.
	Anecdota	Rare texts and images from early modern France
	About this blog On autograph letters On Madame d'Aulnoy	Information This entry was posted on December 31, 2021 by VS in Autographs, Correspondence, Manuscripts and tagged Anniversaries, Seals, Special Collections.
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