Acknowledgments
This book is based on my DPhil thesis, which I completed at the University of Oxford in 2016. My research on Hadriaan Beverland received generous support from the Elizabeth Brandenburg Memorial Foundation and I would like to thank Ron Batten and Eugene Gulland in particular for their encouragements. In addition, I am grateful for the financial aid of the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund, the Ketel 1 Study Fund, the Hendrik Muller Fund, the Vreede Fund, and the VSB Fund.
My gratitude goes out, first and foremost, to my DPhil supervisors: Howard Hotson, whose extraordinary vision shaped this book, and Faramerz Dabhoiwala, whose critical eye never failed to challenge. Wijnand Mijnhardt introduced me to Beverland in 2011 and has been a great source of inspiration and support ever since. I am also grateful to Inger Leemans, for our chats on sex and science, and to Wiep van Bunge, for his criticism and encouragement during and after my Viva. I am obligated to Henk Nellen, for critically reading the manuscript and kindly sharing his findings in the letters of Heinsius and Graevius, and Jetze Touber, for commenting on my chapter on the Bible. I would also like to thank Han van Ruler, General Editor of Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History, for accepting and commenting on the manuscript and the three anonymous peer reviewers, whose detailed criticism emended the text substantially.
Deciphering Beverland’s Latin proved to be a great challenge at times. Thankfully, I could count on the help of a number of colleagues in my darkest hours of translation. I am indebted to Jelte Wiersma, who dedicated his time to reading Beverland with me and for me, and, again, Henk Nellen, who saved me from many mistakes. I spent many hours in Oxford discussing Beverland’s Latin with Floris Verhaart, often over coffee and speaking in Dutch, so that the obscene words and phrases we analysed would not shock those sitting nearby. I am immensely glad that he proposed to work on an official translation of Beverland’s De Peccato Originali together, which will be published in the coming year. I am also in the debt of Rudolf de Smet and Tim Wauters, who never failed to answer my questions about Beverland’s Latin. I am very grateful for their generous support of my research and for sharing their sources and wisdom on all things Beverland.
My never-ending search for books, letters, notes, and other documents composed, owned by, or mentioning Beverland led me to many archives and libraries around Europe. I studied his documents in the Special Collections of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, biding my time in the basement of the Radcliff Science Library at first and later on, literally moving up, spending many hours in the Weston Library. There were trips to London, to look at material kept in the British Library, and to Cambridge, to investigate documents preserved in the collections of St. John’s College and the Pepys Library. I also travelled to the Netherlands, visiting the libraries of the universities of Amsterdam, Leiden, and Utrecht, the National Library and National Archives of The Netherlands in The Hague, and the Zeeuws Archief in Middelburg, and to Germany, studying manuscripts and books in the extraordinary Forschungsbibliothek Gotha and in the library of the University of Erfurt. The support of the staff of these different archives and libraries, who generously shared their expertise, was of great importance for my research and I would like to thank them for their assistance in my quest for, sometimes forgotten or misplaced, manuscripts, books, and images. A special thank you is due to the Arnold, Bryce, Read Fund of the History Faculty of the University of Oxford, who supported the acquisition of pictures of essential documents preserved in the Ludwig Maximilian Library of the University of Munich. I am also in the debt of Albert Gootjes, who discovered and photographed a number of letters and works of Beverland at the Royal Library of Copenhagen.
My argument on Beverland’s banishment was shaped by the seminars and conferences I participated in between 2012 and 2016. The weekly gatherings of the Seminar in mainly British History 1680–1850 (the Eighteenth Century Seminar) and the Early Modern World Seminar during term times in Oxford offered a most welcome intellectual as well as social respite from my own research and I was lucky to be offered the opportunity to discuss my project in both seminars. Presenting papers at a number of conferences, from the Framing Premodern Desires conference in Turku in 2013 to the Enlightenment Sex(ualities) Workshop in Göttingen in 2016, strengthened my argument and the discussions with scholars from around the world at these occasions greatly contributed to my understanding of Beverland and his studies. I am also grateful for the opportunity to work in The Netherlands and Germany, as a Scaliger Fellow at the University of Leiden, a researcher for COST at the Huygens ING The Hague, a Visiting fellow of the Descartes Centre in Utrecht, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Gotha Research Centre. I would like to extend my gratitude to these institutions, and in particular to Martin Mulsow, Charles van den Heuvel, and Kasper van Ommen, for allowing me to focus solely on certain key documents and, coincidentally, for introducing me to a number of great scholars and new friends, like Richard Calis and Bernhard Schirg.
Last yet first, I want to express my profound gratitude to my family and friends. Emily, Hazel, and Céline were always around for a chat or a coffee, Floris made sure I will be remembered as ‘the girl who does sex’ in Oxford, Yannick served me numerous cups of tea and glasses of wine, and Eva provided me with unconditional love. My father Willem Hollewand was with me every step of the way and the encouragements of my mother, Marion Winkels, never failed to lighten the load. I thank my sister Annelies, for her wisdom and honesty, and Rune and Mattis, for making my heart smile. I am deeply grateful to Laurence, for always, always, understanding, and to Vigo and Otis, for enlivening the editing process. I dedicate this book to my grandfathers: Anton Hollewand (1921–2018) and Wim Winkels (1916–2002). Their loving presence in my life has made me who I am today.