307. BEVERLAND (Adrien), "Le Péché Originel? Paris, Librairi - Lot 307

307. BEVERLAND (Adrien), "Le Péché Originel? Paris, Librairie de l'Académie des Bibliophiles and Bruxelles, Librairie européenne de C. Muquardt, 1868. In-12, xiv p., 184 pages. Bound in fir-green russian half-leather, red morocco title-pieces and date-pieces, gilt head, cons. cover. One of 235 numbered copies on Hollande, after 2 on chine. Adrien Beverland (1650-1716) was a Dutch humanist scholar who devoted his studies to finding evidence in ancient texts to support his thesis that humans are naturally concupiscent. His first opus, Peccatum Originale (Original Sin), was published in 1678 and a second time in 1679. In this essay, Beverland gives carnal desire as the original sin, and claims that Adam and Eve had sexual relations in the Garden of Eden. As punishment, humans would be dominated by their carnal desires. He proposed a solution: sexual freedom for men of high rank, who could responsibly enjoy the pleasures of the flesh, an unavoidable sin. For the same reasons, he later advocated the legalization of prostitution. This did not please the prudish society of the time. His work was censored, Beverland imprisoned and banished.