Description

Book Synopsis
In 1432, the Office of the Night was created specifically to police sodomy in Florence. Seventy years of denunciations, accusations, interrogations, and sentencings left an extraordinarily detailed record, which Rocke uses to its fullest in this richly documented portrait. He uncovers a culture in which sexual roles were strictly defined by age, with boys under eighteen the ''passive'' participants in sodomy, youths in their twenties the ''active'' participant, and men in their thirties marrying women, their days of sexual frivolity over. This richly documented book paints a fascinating picture of a vibrant time and place and calls into question our modern conceptions of gender and sexual identity.

Trade Review
Rocke does a brilliant job of teasing out this wealth of material, and of presenting the complex relationships which underlie the criminal statistics ... this book makes a substantial contribution to the history of homosexuality. * Tim Hitchcock, Urban History *
remarkable ... Forbidden Friendships is a study of considerable importance. * Times Literary Supplement *

Forbidden Friendships

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    A Paperback by Michael Rocke

    £42.27

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      Book details

      Publisher Oxford University Press
      Published 7 September 1998
      ISBN-13 9780195122923
      978-0195122923
      ISBN-10 0195122925
      Also in:
      Social and cultural history Gender studies, gender groups LGBTQIA+ Studies / topics

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      In 1432, the Office of the Night was created specifically to police sodomy in Florence. Seventy years of denunciations, accusations, interrogations, and sentencings left an extraordinarily detailed record, which Rocke uses to its fullest in this richly documented portrait. He uncovers a culture in which sexual roles were strictly defined by age, with boys under eighteen the ''passive'' participants in sodomy, youths in their twenties the ''active'' participant, and men in their thirties marrying women, their days of sexual frivolity over. This richly documented book paints a fascinating picture of a vibrant time and place and calls into question our modern conceptions of gender and sexual identity.

      Trade Review
      Rocke does a brilliant job of teasing out this wealth of material, and of presenting the complex relationships which underlie the criminal statistics ... this book makes a substantial contribution to the history of homosexuality. * Tim Hitchcock, Urban History *
      remarkable ... Forbidden Friendships is a study of considerable importance. * Times Literary Supplement *

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