Erotic Cultures of Renaissance Italy

Concentrating largely on the 'middle ranks' of Renaissance society this book addresses lacunae in current scholarship on the social and visual dimensions of sexuality in early modern Italy. Looking at neglected archival resources, amateur pornography and material artefacts often dismissed by historians of art and society, contributors here expose the existence of a pervasive erotic culture in which sexually explicit images, gestures and objects were considered essential to a variety of rituals and social occasions.