Beverland / Bernard - État de l'homme dans le péché originel - 1714

Beverland, Adriaan (1653–1712). State of man in original sin, where one sees what the source, the causes & the consequences of this sin in the world are.
Printed in the World [Amsterdam], 1714 (fictitious publication year, bibliographically also set to 1715 or 1716). First French edition. Small octavo. 208 pages, 3 leaves. Title page with woodcut vignette, additional woodcut ornaments and final vignette. Contemporary full leather binding with gold-embossed spine title, floral spine gilding, red-stained edges and marbled endpapers. With ex-libris from the library of Dr. Moriz Grolig, Vienna, and an older monogram stamp. 16 x 10 cm
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The Dutch scholar Adriaan Beverland aroused considerable attention in 1678 with his Latin treatise “Peccatum originale.” There he questioned the traditional Christian doctrine of original sin and advanced the provocative thesis that the Fall of Adam and Eve was primarily to be understood as a sexual union. His arguments linked Biblical tradition, ancient literature, and a remarkably open engagement with human sexuality for the time. Beverland’s theses led to his persecution and condemnation by the academic and church authorities of the Netherlands.

The present French version appeared for the first time under the publication year 1714 and is predominantly attributed to the Amsterdam bookseller and writer Jean-Frédéric Bernard, though sometimes also to Fontenai. It is not a strictly literal translation, but a free adaptation that takes up Beverland’s ideas and develops them further in his critique of religious notions of sin, desire, and human nature. Topics include, among others, the causes and consequences of the Fall, the role of the devil, human passions, and the contradictions between church moral teaching and actual behavior.

Of particular note is the fictitious imprint “Imprimé dans le Monde,” which conceals the actual place of printing and places the work in the tradition of those religious-critique and freethinking publications that in the early 18th century were often circulated under false publisher information. The French edition made Beverland’s controversial thoughts accessible to a broader European audience and documents the growing questioning of ecclesiastical authority in the lead-up to the Enlightenment. An interesting testament to European intellectual, religious, and sexual history.

Provenance: With three ownership marks from the library of the French bibliophile Maurice Cohen (d. 1883): a typographic monogram ex-libris with the Latin motto ‘Haud immemor’ and two monogram stamps MCC. With several pages of lengthy, handwritten bibliographic and literary-historical notes by the Viennese bibliophile Dr. Moriz Grolig, dated 1904, as well as pasted historical catalog excerpts. The notes discuss the various editions and edits of the work, its authorship, and its contemporary reception. Later from the collection of Heinz Peter Barandun.
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The contemporary leather binding with lighter rubbing. Paper occasionally somewhat browned. Overall a handsome copy of this early religious-critical treatise in a decorative contemporary binding with interesting collector provenance.