Description

8vo. (12), 223, (5) pp. With woodcut printer's device to t. p. Contemp. calf with giltstamped label to prettily gilt spine (slightly rubbed). Leading edges gilt; marbled endpapers. First edition; rare. "One of his learned obsceneties" (cf. Bilder-Lexikon). Beverland (1650-1716), one of the most colourful figures of late 17th-century scholarship, had to leave Leiden University after creating a scandal hit with his treatise on original sin ("Peccatum originale", 1778). He proceeded to "live in England and write many pieces of filthy poetry" (cf. Rosenkranz, Hdb. einer allg. Geschichte der Poesie II, 30). An English translation was published in 1905 as "The Law Concerning Draped Virginity: An Academical Study". None of his works was banned by the Church, a fact which Reusch (II, 862) interprets as a sign of the increasingly desultory character of Roman censorship in the 18th century. - Front hinge beginning to split, otherwise a very appealing copy from the library of Armand Jules de Rohan (1695-1762), Duke and Archbishop of Reims (and uncle of Cardinal Rohan, notorious for the so-called Affair of the Diamond Necklace), with his engr. armorial bookplate on front pastedown. - Brunet I, 837. Ebert 2076. Bilder-Lexikon II, 126. Gay/Lemonnyer I, 819. Clément, Biblioth. curieuse III, 270.