Adrian Beverland
Hadriaan Beverland (Hadrianus Beverlandus, September–December 1650 Middelburg, Zeeland — 14 December 1716 London) was a Dutch humanist scholar who was banished from Holland in 1679 and settled in England in 1680.
During his studies, Beverland befriended other humanist scholars: Jacob de Goyer, Nicolaas Heinsius, Jacobus Gronovius, Johann Georg Graevius, and Isaac Vossius.
From his early twenties onwards, Beverland focused on compiling a grand work on sexual lust, which would be titled ‘De Prostibulis Veterum’ (‘On the prostitution of the ancients’).
Yet he also made sure to point to the gross discrepancy between the official restriction of sex to marriage, prevalent in Calvinist doctrine and secular laws in early modern states, and the actual sexual behaviour of men and women in his contemporary society.
He came up with a simple solution the problem of lust: sexual liberty for the educated men of the higher ranks of society, who could responsibly enjoy the unavoidable sin.
He responded to Van Vesanevelt's accusations by asking the judges to treat him in a fatherly manner and to refrain from punishing him too harshly, if there was any evidence of sacrilege, blasphemy, heterodoxy, or obscenity found in his works.
In addition to a series of minor punishments, Beverland had to retract his heterodox and erroneous statements on the Bible, and had to ask God, and the people he offended with his work, for forgiveness.
[11] On 4 December 1679 Beverland signed a written statement, in which he promised to never again write or publish anything against the Bible or decent virtues, that he would hand over the ‘De Prostibulis Veterum’ manuscript, and that he accepted all the other punishments of the Vierschaar.
In March 1680, as part of his sentence, Beverland handed over the manuscript of the first book of the ‘De Prostibulis Veterum’ to the authorities of the University of Leiden and in the same month he travelled across the Channel.
Beverland did continue his classical studies concentrating for instance on Martial's epigrams, the satires of Juvenal, and De Rerum Natura of Lucretius.
In addition to classical scholarship, soon after his arrival in England Beverland started working as a sort of secretary, librarian, and broker in the service of Dutch friends, such as Vossius, and new English contacts, like Hans Sloane.
The University of Leiden retracted his conviction and in 1693 he received a pardon from King William III, the highest judge of the United Provinces in his position as Stadholder.
[14] An engraving of 1686 by Isaac Beckett, after a design by Simon du Bois shows Beverland, (in a parody of a respectable 1670 frontispiece by Abraham Blotelingh of Lorenzo Pignoria), amongst Egyptian antiquities, sketching a female nude.
