Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence (Studies in the Histor
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In The Office of the Night was created specifically to police sodomy in Florence. Indeed, nearly all Florentine males probably had some kind of same-sex experience as a part of their "normal" sexual life. Seventy years of denunciations, interrogations, and sentencings left an extraordinarily detailed record, which author Michael Rocke has used in his vivid depiction of this vibrant sexual culture in a world where these same-sex acts were not the deviant transgressions of a small minority, but an integral part of a normal masculine identity.
Rocke roots this sexual activity in the broader context of Renaissance Florence, with its social networks of families, juvenile gangs, neighbors, patronage, workshops, and confraternities, and its busy political life from the early years of the Republic through the period of Lorenzo de' Medici, Savonarola, and the beginning of Medici princely rule.
Forbidden Friendships
His richly detailed book paints a fascinating picture of Renaissance Florence and calls into question our modern conceptions of gender and sexual identity. Reviews "A fascinating and groundbreaking study of the archives of the Office of the Night The value of this highly important study rests on the book's lucid prose and its learned contribution to our understanding of human, or at least Western, sexuality. Buy the selected items together This item: Ships from and sold by awesomebooksusa.
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Forbidden Friendships. Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence. Michael Rocke. Series: Studies in the History of Sexuality. "This is a superb. bahana-line.com: Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence (Studies in the History of Sexuality) (): Michael.
An Anthology of American Homosexual Writing, A History from Ancient Times to the Present. Letters Written by Italian Women, Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence. Sponsored products related to this item What's this? The secret to unlocking the male mind is simply to This book looks at the lives and works of the two famous novelists, explaining how they became literary giants and legendary friends in the s. A powerful holocaust memoir that will leave you breathless and heartbroken, yet, inspired and hopeful! How could a young child survive all this?
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This is a valuable study that will be of interest to a wide range of historians. Now issued in paperback, it deserves a wider readership by gays. Many may find the lives of men half a millennium ago and across the seas a distant mirror of their own lives, full of fascinating similarities and disconcerting differences Rocke's book [is] fascinating and occasionally startling reading, as well as a confirmation of our own continuity with the past.
A must-read for gay scholars, [the book] is the first attempt to clearly quantify sexual norms for Renaissance Florence or, indeed, any other place at such an early date Rocke certainly establishes bisexual and homosexual relationships long before John Addition Symonds's usage of the terms. Studies in the History of Sexuality Paperback: Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention study rocke sodomy form gay males homosexual important sex michael scholarly italy present men understanding analysis evidence scholarship pederasty considered.
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. This is a review of the Kindle version only, and so, it is a review of the implementation on Kindle and not a review of the content. Once i've completed reading the book i will add to this review.
I have only two problems with the Kindle implementation of this book: Awareness of being a group of people attracted to their own gender was raised by those who hated them and wanted them punished. A happy side effect of this bigotry is it helped those being singled out to find each other. I learned about the Court of Night, a title which made my imagination take flight and its role of controlling sodomy by cataloging and fining those involved. It was amusing and gratifying to learn that attempts to rid Florence of sodomy were so ineffective.
Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence
It was interesting to learn that the prominent homoerotic relationship that was accepted at the time was the same which existed in ancient Athens and Rome, that of an older man and a boy. It was educational learning about how sodomy was regarded by the law.
I could see the beginnings of classifiying people as a specific group which would later be called homosexuals with specific inclinations apart from acts of sodomy. Lacking an individual or a series of individual stories to follow took much of the joy out of the readers.
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The individuals whom did emerge for the prose made me despair of humanity having any hope for the future, willing vessels of hatred such as Bernadino of Siena and Savonarola. At the same time, I admire the author for learning from these vessels, uncovering kernels of truth from their rants, and using them to conduct a study of Florence as a whole. This is an excellent study, even if it neglected the story aspects of history which I prefer. For that, this book gets four stars. Feb 24, Monty Milne rated it it was amazing.
The Florentine "Office of the Night", set up to police "sodomy", has left an extraordinarily rich trove of material. If you were caught in a compromising position in Florence - or if you thought you might be - you could guarantee immunity from prosecution "forgiveness" by confessing and naming your partner s. A frequent result was that if a youth announced he had had sex with a man he then named, this could spark an avalanche of other men hastening to give themselves immunity by confessing th The Florentine "Office of the Night", set up to police "sodomy", has left an extraordinarily rich trove of material.
A frequent result was that if a youth announced he had had sex with a man he then named, this could spark an avalanche of other men hastening to give themselves immunity by confessing that they had also had sex with the same youth. The punishments for those convicted were very varied. Some men were burnt to death or publicly mutilated, but this was generally only in rare cases such as multiple offences including rape.
Many were "absolved", or fined, even for repeat offences with multiple partners. The sheer scale of the practice is remarkable. From the Night Office statistics and population studies, Rocke estimates that at one time towards the end of the 15th century approximately two thirds of the male population of Florence were implicated in sodomy. Essentially, everyone who was male was buggering or being buggered by everyone else. This all raises fascinating and perhaps uncomfortable questions for anyone who gives thought to the subject of human sexuality today.
Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence
Contemporary Western culture accepts male homosexuality - broadly speaking - only if it copies the pattern of traditional heterosexual norms - i. This is totally foreign to the Florentine experience - indeed, this contemporary Western pattern would have been regarded with particular horror and revulsion as being utterly "contrary to nature.
And it was generally accepted that almost all men were sexually attracted to teenage boys, and that almost all teenage boys were happy to play the submissive role with men. The typical pattern of sexual behaviour for a Florentine male seems to have been this: Once he was over 18 he ceased to play the passive role and started looking for younger males himself; he continued to play the active role in sexual relations with younger males until he reached the age of around thirty, whereupon he got married and confined his sexual interests to his wife.
Of course there were many exceptions to this pattern but it seems to have been a remarkably prevalent one. Given how utterly different it is to contemporary understandings of sexuality, it raises a mass of intriguing questions. Rocke deals with some of these questions - such as how the whole understanding of sex between males was understood as part of the wider pattern of relationships - social, political, commercial, cultural - within the Florentine city state.
But other questions are left unanswered - such as, why are we so different now?
It's as if contemporary discourse about human sexuality has given us a particular set of assumptions, and then we read this book and realise that perhaps almost all of those assumptions are profoundly inadequate for making sense of the fascinating world that Rocke reveals. Jul 25, Karen rated it really liked it. Rocke's findings concerning homosexuality and the male culture of early modern note, he prefers the terms early modern or late medieval and rarely uses 'Renaissance' - the title is probably the publisher's choice Florence, add another layer of nuiance to what we already know reguarding the power dynamics that existed between age, gender, and classes.
He uses homosexuality to illustrate how Florentine families seemed to use their teenage sons in the same way they used their daughters - to build Rocke's findings concerning homosexuality and the male culture of early modern note, he prefers the terms early modern or late medieval and rarely uses 'Renaissance' - the title is probably the publisher's choice Florence, add another layer of nuiance to what we already know reguarding the power dynamics that existed between age, gender, and classes.
Along the way, Rocke fleshed out the youth subculture that formed in a society that barred them from political power and marriage until they reached a certain age. Although I am not a Renaissance historian, this work strikes me as a case where a scholar had access to an incredible trove of documents, but didn't quite know how to make sense of them and resorted to trying to define them by statistics. His statistics don't always seem to add up and he fails to include crucial population numbers that would help to contextualize them.
The writing itself is extremely repetitive to the point that one is able to predict which anecdote he is going to pull out of his hat. By page 58 he is already using phrases indicating that he is repeating himself. These and other markers seem to indicate that the work was born out of a disertation. That stated, it is still a highly provocative read, even with some of his claims seeming to be a stretch.
Dec 21, Rachel Tidlund rated it it was amazing. This was an absolutely amazing book on renaissance Florence. This book gave me something a lot of history books don't, something new to learn and think about.
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I admit that I love history, but this book definitely gave me something more. I find that a lot of history books get "regurgitated" in a way that makes non-fiction history books somewhat dull to read for most.
I love how the author structured the book. I love how he approached the topic and how he analysed facts in certain ways. I apprecia This was an absolutely amazing book on renaissance Florence. I appreciate that he gave an opinion without being too biased. He approached the topic relying heavily on data rather than sources, but he used the sources to add depth to the facts. Overall, this book changed the way I look at Florence in a renaissance setting completely.
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If someone is looking at either history, gender studies, Italian studies, or even just investigating the identities that emerged in Italy, I would greatly suggest this book. I think this is one of the few books that really discusses this topic in depth, and it is amazing and unique because of it. I'd recommend this book in a heartbeat.
He uses homosexuality to illustrate how Florentine families seemed to use their teenage sons in the same way they used their daughters - to build Rocke's findings concerning homosexuality and the male culture of early modern note, he prefers the terms early modern or late medieval and rarely uses 'Renaissance' - the title is probably the publisher's choice Florence, add another layer of nuiance to what we already know reguarding the power dynamics that existed between age, gender, and classes. A Kingdom United Catriona Pennell. In the seventy years from to , some 17, men--in a city of only 40,were investigated for sodomy; 3, were convicted and thousands more confessed to gain amnesty. Jun 17, Edmund Marlowe rated it it was amazing. This book, more than any other single work changed my views on the nature and origin of homosexuality -- although such was not Rocke's purpose.
Sep 10, Nathan rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Forbidden Friendships is a remarkable study of Renaissance Florence and the homosexuals who lived there. Historically, there have been many attempts by societies to purge themselves of homosexuals. Forbidden Friendships is a tale of Florence's attempt at just that, and its a story complete with gangs, political persecution, sex courts, death and broken lives.
It's also fascinating and scary. Oh, and a good read. Mar 14, Michalyn rated it really liked it Recommends it for: I borrowed this book from my university library and I enjoyed it. It explores the practice of sodomy in Renaissance Florence and how it was policed. Apparently Florence had such a reputation for sodomy that a special office called the Office of the Night was created to police it.