Book contents
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures in Volume III
- Tables in Volume III
- Contributors to Volume III
- Editors’ Preface to the Series
- 1 Sex in Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries bce
- 2 Sex in Rome in the First Century bce and the First Century ce
- 3 Sex in Constantinople in the Sixth Century ce
- 4 Sex in Chang’an in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries ce
- 5 Sexuality in Baghdad in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries ce
- 6 Sex in Heian-kyō (Kyoto) in the Tenth through Twelfth Centuries ce
- 7 Sex in Iceland in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries ce
- 8 Sex in Florence in the Fifteenth Century
- 9 Sexuality in Tenochtitlan in the Early Sixteenth Century
- 10 Sex in Sixteenth-Century Istanbul
- 11 Sex in Geneva in the Sixteenth Century
- 12 Sex in Eighteenth-Century Edo (Tokyo)
- 13 Sex in Eighteenth-Century Paris
- 14 Sex and Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia
- 15 Sex in Nineteenth-Century Cairo
- 16 Sexual Pleasures and Perils in Nineteenth-Century London
- 17 Sex in Manila in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- 18 Sex in Lagos from the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Century
- 19 Sex in Bombay in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- 20 Sexuality in a Distant Metropolis: Buenos Aires from the Late Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Century
- 21 Sex in Early Twentieth-Century Berlin
- 22 Sex in Sydney in the Twentieth Century
- 23 Toronto the Good, Toronto the Gay: Sex and Morality in the Twentieth Century
- 24 Sex in Shanghai in the Twentieth Century: Intimate Negotiations
- 25 Sex in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro
- Index
- CONTENTS TO VOLUMES I, II, AND IV
- References
8 - Sex in Florence in the Fifteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2024
Book contents
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures in Volume III
- Tables in Volume III
- Contributors to Volume III
- Editors’ Preface to the Series
- 1 Sex in Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries bce
- 2 Sex in Rome in the First Century bce and the First Century ce
- 3 Sex in Constantinople in the Sixth Century ce
- 4 Sex in Chang’an in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries ce
- 5 Sexuality in Baghdad in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries ce
- 6 Sex in Heian-kyō (Kyoto) in the Tenth through Twelfth Centuries ce
- 7 Sex in Iceland in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries ce
- 8 Sex in Florence in the Fifteenth Century
- 9 Sexuality in Tenochtitlan in the Early Sixteenth Century
- 10 Sex in Sixteenth-Century Istanbul
- 11 Sex in Geneva in the Sixteenth Century
- 12 Sex in Eighteenth-Century Edo (Tokyo)
- 13 Sex in Eighteenth-Century Paris
- 14 Sex and Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia
- 15 Sex in Nineteenth-Century Cairo
- 16 Sexual Pleasures and Perils in Nineteenth-Century London
- 17 Sex in Manila in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- 18 Sex in Lagos from the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Century
- 19 Sex in Bombay in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- 20 Sexuality in a Distant Metropolis: Buenos Aires from the Late Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Century
- 21 Sex in Early Twentieth-Century Berlin
- 22 Sex in Sydney in the Twentieth Century
- 23 Toronto the Good, Toronto the Gay: Sex and Morality in the Twentieth Century
- 24 Sex in Shanghai in the Twentieth Century: Intimate Negotiations
- 25 Sex in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro
- Index
- CONTENTS TO VOLUMES I, II, AND IV
- References
Summary
Florence in the fifteenth century was in transition from the medieval to the modern world, and sexual attitudes and practices were very much in flux. The most distinctive feature of Florentine sexuality was the city’s international reputation as a hotbed of ‘sodomy’. Traditional structures of marriage and the family coexisted with a widespread culture of male homoeroticism. Female prostitution was sanctioned by the state, in the hope that it would reduce both male homoeroticism and adulterous relations. At the same time the new ideal of romantic love was spreading to all social classes, bringing changes to the ways people thought about marital and intimate relations. This chapter focuses both on the idealization of male homoeroticism in humanist culture and on the repression of male homosexual activity by the Office of the Night, the judicial branch that policed sodomy. It contrasts the celebration of physical beauty in Florentine visual arts with the preaching of the Dominican reformer Savonarola, who harshly condemned worldly luxuries. Savonarola’s public execution by burning in 1498 provides an ironic contrast to his own bonfires of the vanities, in which luxury goods were burned, but it also mirrors the public burning that was the traditional punishment for sodomy.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities , pp. 150 - 171Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024
References
Further Reading
Alberti, Leon Battista. The Family in Renaissance Florence. Trans. Renée Neu Watkins, Long Grove, IL: Waveland, 2004.Google Scholar
Barkan, Leonard. Transuming Passion: Ganymede and the Erotics of Humanism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beccadelli, Antonio. The Hermaphrodite. Trans and ed. Parker, Holt. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Brown, Judith, and Davis, Robert C., eds. Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy. New York: Longman, 1998.Google Scholar
Brucker, Gene A. Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Cohn, Samuel Kline, Jr. Women in the Streets: Essays on Sex and Power in Renaissance Italy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finucci, Valeria. The Manly Masquerade: Masculinity, Paternity, and Castration in the Italian Renaissance. Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Herlihy, David, and Klapisch-Zuber., Christine Tuscans and their Families: A Study of the Florentine Catasto of 1427. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Kent, Dale. Friendship, Love, and Trust in Renaissance Florence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuehn, Thomas. Illegitimacy in Renaissance Florence. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, Allison, ed. Sex Acts in Early Modern Italy: Practice, Performance, Perversion, Punishment. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2010.Google Scholar
Milligan, Gerry, and Tylus, Jane, eds. The Poetics of Masculinity in Early Modern Italy and Spain. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Molho, Anthony. Marriage Alliance in Late Medieval Florence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Mormando, Franco. The Preacher’s Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Murray, Jacqueline, and Terpstra, Nicholas, eds. Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Renaissance Italy. New York: Routledge, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rocke, Michael. Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Ruggiero, Guido. Machiavelli in Love: Sex, Self, and Society in the Italian Renaissance. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talvacchia, Bette. Taking Positions: On the Erotic in Renaissance Culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Trexler, Richard C. Public Life in Renaissance Florence. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Vitullo, Juliann. Negotiating the Art of Fatherhood in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy. New York: Palgrave, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinstein, Donald. Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.Google Scholar