The Act of Sodomy in Florence during the Italian Renaissance

The Act of Sodomy in Florence During the Italian Renaissance During the Italian Renaissance, the sexual environment of fifteenth-century Florentine society is described as Florentine men partaking in some kind of same-sex experience. These same-sex acts were not just wrong doings, but a fundamental part of Florentine masculine identity. More specifically I will focus on sodomy, the act of anal or oral sex, which can be heterosexual or homosexual. What I will be analyzing in this paper is the term sodomy in fifteenth-century Florence. The Church in Florence considered this act to be both criminal and sinful and it will be presented through government documentations from Gene Brucker’s anthology The Society of Renaissance Florence: A Documentary Study. While the harsh treatment of sodomy was generally due to religious beliefs, I believe the act of sodomy in Florence established the harsh treatment it did not solely because of religious beliefs, but also due to social, moral, and demographic features. According to documents within Brucker’s anthology, the criticism against sodomy is due to religion within the Florentine society. The government document titled â€Å"Legislation Against the Vice,† dated 1418, states sodomy was â€Å"†¦so contrary to nature that the anger of the omnipotent God is incited not only against the sons of men but also against the community†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Brucker 202). This assertion expresses how much Christian religion played into the treatment of sodomy. Within thisShow MoreRelated William Shakespeare and His Works Essay3349 Words   |  14 Pagesplays and several works of poetry. Of course his plays would be well underappreciated during his time (as with all great artists), but later, such titles as King Lear, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth would only begin a list of some of the most appraised scripts ever written (Armstrong, 1-5). While these plays carry the weight of Shakespeare’s legacy, he was also a dedicated poet. During the years of the black plague in the late 16th century, theaters were closed from 1592