Forbidden Friendships

By Michael Rocke,

Book cover of Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence

Book description

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…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Forbidden Friendships as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book, now more than twenty years old, is still a key work in the history of sexuality. Rocke explores masculine culture in Renaissance Florence, focusing on seemingly rampant homoeroticism. He explores the topic from both proscriptive sources (sermons, laws, etc.) and through criminal trials against men accused of sodomy (as the practice was called). Contrary to what we might expect, he finds that sodomy was a relatively tolerated aspect of male culture, so long as it followed acceptable patterns. As with so much else in Renaissance Italy, here too the Florentines looked to the ancients, essentially recreating the ancient…

From Celeste's list on Renaissance Italy.

Want books like Forbidden Friendships?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Forbidden Friendships.

Browse books like Forbidden Friendships

Book cover of The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento
Book cover of Mad Blood Stirring: Vendetta and Factions in Friuli During the Renaissance
Book cover of Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,187

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Florence, Italy, and the Renaissance?

Florence 52 books
Italy 410 books
The Renaissance 97 books