Description
Book SynopsisIn 1679 Hadriaan Beverland (1650-1716) was banished from the province of Holland. Why was this humanist scholar exiled from one of the most tolerant parts of Europe in the seventeenth century? To answer this question, this book places Beverland’s writings on sex, sin, and scholarship in their historical context for the first time. Beverland argued that sexual lust was the original sin and highlighted the importance of sex in human nature, ancient history, and his own society. His audacious works hit a raw nerve: Dutch theologians accused him of atheism, he was abandoned by his humanist colleagues, and he was banished by the University of Leiden. By positioning Beverland’s extraordinary scholarship in the context of the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic, this book examines how his radical studies challenged the intellectual, ecclesiastical, and political elite, providing a fresh perspective upon the Dutch Republic in the last decades of its Golden Age.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Tables and Illustrations Abbreviations and Translations Note on Translations Introduction 1 Studies on Beverland 2 The Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic 3 Sin, Scripture, Scholarship, Sex Prologue: Banishment (1650–1680) 1 Early Life and Student Years 2 First Publications 2 Trial and Banishment 1 Sin 1 The Fall of Adam and Eve 2 Ideas on Sex and Sin 3 Beverland and the Dutch Theologians 4 Conclusion 2 Scripture 1 The Bible in the Seventeenth Century 2 Philological Criticism 3 Composition and Conservation 4 A Spinozist? 5 Conclusion 3 Scholarship 1 The Humanist 2 Sex and Humanist Scholarship 3 Conclusion 4 Sex 1 Bars, Brothels, and Obscenities 2 Enticing Texts and Images 3 Truth and Liberty 4 Conclusion Epilogue: Exile (1680–1716) 1 Studies and Services 2 Return to the Dutch Republic 3 A Broken Man Conclusion Bibliography Index
