1753. (BLACKMAIL FOR SODOMY)

Advijs Decisoir No. 44. (Court martial case about accusations of sodomy and blackmail (1753), in manuscript).

Written by hand with brown ink on good quality paper, marked as 'Copia', a copy. 32 x 20 cm. Two quires sewn together. 48 p., of which 5 are blank. 33-35 lines per page. Excellent condition. Beautifully written manuscript, the report of a court martial case where an officer Borkensteijn accused the elderly custos (verger) of the Broederkerk in Nijmegen that he had pointed to his pants to entice him to sodomy. In the end, the officer and an accomplice were demoted and dismissed from service, their swords broken, before being handed over to a civil court. The verger was cleared of all blame, released and given his money back. This extensive account of 42 handwritten pages largely corresponds to a printed article in the Nieuwe Nederlandsche Jaerboeken by Martinus Stuart (Vol. VII/2 (August 1753), p. 699-724). Incidentally, the court martial contains a nice detectivelike passage where the paleness of ink leads to the discovery that some notes were not written at the same instance. The lawyer response brings life’s details very close: ‘Voor redenen van de verandering van inckt geevende: off de verandering van pen, off het te diep instippen, en meerdere of mindere swaere hand, ofte oock het omroeren, off niet omroeren van den inckt, om dat er ook boomwoll in de kooker soude zijn geweest’: For reasons given for the change of ink: either the change of pen, or putting it in the ink too deeply, and a more or less heavy hand, or also the stirring, or not stirring of the ink, because there would also have been cotton in the inkwell. (p. 18 in the written text, p. 711 in the printed one).

Antiquariaat Fokas Holthuis - PaulbooksProfessional seller

Book number: 271770

Catalogue: LGBTQ - LHBT - Gay Homosexuality

1709. JUVENALIS, Decius Junius, & Aulus Persius FLACCUS

Alle de schimpdigten van Decius Junius Juvenalis en A. Persius Flaccus door verscheide Dichteren in Nederduitse vaarzen overgebracht.

Haarlem, Wilhelmus van Kessel, 1709. Leather-backed boards. 2 parts in 1 volume. (38), 330; (20), 66p. With engraved frontispiece by J. Goeree. 1st edition. Some coloring of the frontispiece and a few other unimportant stains. Shaken. 'All the satirical poems of Decius Junius Juvenalis and A. Persius Flaccus translated into Dutch verse by various poets.' Collection of Dutch translations from Juvenal's Satyrae and Persius, too. Dedicated in print to young Lukas Schermer, a most talented poet and translator, who was already very ill and doomed to die (1688-1712), but managed to write a great many poems in his short life plus a number of translations from Latin and Greek. In this book several of Juvenal's Satires that contain homosexual passages, were translated into Dutch by different poets. By comparing, we get an impression about how some 17th century Dutchmen looked at the mysterious phenomenon. / A modern translation into Dutch may be added to this anthology.

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Book number: 273183

Catalogue: LGBTQ - LHBT - Gay Homosexuality

1730. MEL, Coenraat

Het Gruwlyk Sodom Gestraft, Ter waarschuwinge aan Israel voorgestelt; in verscheide Boet- en Bededaags Predikaatsien Beneffens de gantsche Historie van Sodom, uit Genesis XVIII en XIX.

Amsterdam, A. Wor & Erve Onder de Linden, 1731. Modern leather-backed boards. (22), 264 p. Title page printed in red and black. 1st edition. Some use and waterstaining. 'Horrible Sodom Punished, Shown as a Warning to Israel, in various Sermons for Days of Prayer and Penitence, as Well as the Complete History of Sodom, from Genesis 18 and 19'. Conrad Mel (1666-1733) was a German theologian. In this book he identifies Sodom outright with Rome. The book was six times reprinted, from 1750-2027.

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Book number: 271734

Catalogue: LGBTQ - LHBT - Gay Homosexuality

1731. BYLER, Hendrik Carolus van

Helsche boosheit of Grouwelyke zonde van sodomie, in haar afschouwelykheit, en welverdiende straffe uit goddelyke, en menschelyke schriften tot een spiegel voor het tegenwoordige, en toekomende geslagte opentlyk ten toon gestelt.

Groningen, Jacobus Sipkes, 1731. Full calf. 60, 256 p. Title printed in red and black. 1st edition. Spine damaged, edges worn. With name of former owner: 'P.D. Koopman 1870'. Literally 'Infernal evil or horrible sin of sodomy, in its horror, and well-deserved punishment from divine, and human scriptures openly displayed as a mirror to the present and future generations'. Henricus Carolinus van Byler was minister for the villages of Faan, Niekerk and others in the rural northern part of the Netherlands, where grietman (judge and lord) Rudolf de Mepsche was relentlessly prosecuting sodomites and others falsely accused of this sin. We don't know who was the first to take up the scourge, but probably Byler and de Mepsche mutually excited each other to punish the enemies of God and themselves with horrible penalties. In 1741 a second edition was published. The text is identical, even the errata have not been used to enhance the book.