Adrian Damman Explained

Adrian or Adriaan Damman of Bysterveldt a native of Ghent,^[1] He was a diplomatic agent of the Dutch Republic in Scotland in the 1590s.^[2] Damman was an author, and taught at the University of Edinburgh.^[3]

Damman was godfather or a baptismal witness to a son of Adrian Vanson, a Flemish portrait painter working in Edinburgh, and a daughter of Jacques de Bousie a confectioner.^[4] The Lord Chancellor of Scotland, John Maitland died on 3 October 1595. James VI composed an epitaph and Damman translated it into Latin.^[5]

In February 1598, Damman became involved in controversy when he contributed to a succession tract, a pamphlet arguing that James VI of Scotland should become King of England. The English diplomat George Nicholson reported that David Foulis had directed the printer Robert Waldegrave to publish a Latin succession tract written by Walter Quinn, a tutor to Prince Henry and corrected and edited by Damman. Such works argued that James VI should be Elizabeth's successor. Waldegrave was reluctant to print it. No copies of this work are known to have survived.^[6] This work was A Pithie Exhortation to her Majesty for Establishing a Successor to the Crown, printed by Waldegrave in 1598.^[7]

Works

Published works of Ardrian Damman include:^[8]

• Schediasmata Hadr. Damanis a Bisterveld gandavensis (Edinburgh, Robert Waldegrave, 1590), a description of the voyages of James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark and their wedding.
• Bartasias; de mundi creatione (Edinburgh, Robert Waldegrave, 1600), a translation of works by Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, a poet admired by James VI.

Notes and References

1. Jacques Alexandre de Chalmot, Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden, vol. 5 (Amsterdam, 1800), pp. 206-8.
2. Esther Mijers, 'Diplomatic Visit', Steven J. Reid, Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Boydell, 2014), 266.
3. James Maidment, Letters and State Papers during the Reign of James the Sixth (Edinburgh, 1838), p. 23.
4. 'Extracts from the Register of Baptisms', Edinburgh', vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 174: Michael Apted & Susan Hannabuss, Dictionary of Painters in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1978), p. 98, citing National Records of Scotland, Old Parish Records, Edinburgh, vol. 1, fols. 9, 32, 59, 101.
5. Thomas Thomson,Historie and Life of James the Sext (Edinburgh, 1826), p. 350-1
6. [John Duncan Mackie]
7. Tara L. Lyons, 'Male Birth Fantasies and Maternal Monarchs', in Helen Ostovich, Holger Schott Syme, Andrew Griffin, Locating the Queen's Men, 1583–1603 (Ashgate, 2009), pp. 196, 259.
8. Peter Auger, 'Translation and Cultural Convergence', Tracey A. Sowerby & Joanna Craigwood, Cultures of Diplomacy and Literary Writing in the Early Modern World (Oxford, 2019), p. 125.