Cuckoldry, Impotence and Adultery in Europe (15th-17th century)

Sara F. Matthews-Grieco is Professor of History and Coordinator of Women's & Gender Studies at Syracuse University in Florence, Italy. She is also the editor of Erotic Cultures of Renaissance Italy.

"This volume convincingly argues that historical studies have long reflected the double standard by which women are primarily blamed for adultery, while little scholarly attention has been paid to the male side of the coin. For the first time a team of historians, art historians and scholars of drama and literature investigate this ubiquitous aspect of the erotic cultures of the past by close reading of a wide and imaginative range of sources and contexts, including iconography. By so doing, contributors shed new light on a variety of diverse topics such as Renaissance comedy, medical empiricism, military culture and dynastic history. The book, which fills quite a curious gap, is highly recommended to scholars of Renaissance and early modern European society, of gender and the body, of sexual mores, and of imagery and stereotypes in the longue durée." - Alessandro Arcangeli, Universita di Verona, Italy"This interdisciplinary collection of relatively brief essays proposes to redress what the editor asserts has been an imbalance of scholarly focus on female adultery at the expense of cuckoldry. The collection is weighted toward Renaissance Italian case studies (seven essays), but also features chapters on England, Switzerland, and France, and authors engage with secondary and primary sources from wider early modern Europe. ... Chapters also refer to each other directly where relevant, which suggests good editorial direction and increases the sense of coherence across the volume."- H-Net Reviews

• Contents: Introduction: Sexual Transgression as Social Metaphor, Sara F. Matthews-Grieco. Part I Defamed Buildings and Shamed Bodies: Adultery, cuckoldry and house-scorning in Florence: the case of Bianca Cappello, Jacqueline Marie Musacchio; Vincenzo Gonzaga and the body politic: impotence and virility at court, Molly Bourne; Historical and literary contexts for the Skimmington: impotence and Samuel Butler’s Hudibras, M. A. Katritzky. Part II Impotence, Magic and Medicine: Impotence, witchcraft, and politics: a Renaissance case, Matteo Duni; The satyr in the kitchen pantry, Laura Giannetti; Impotence and corruption: sexual function and dysfunction in the early modern Italian Books of Secrets, Meredith K. Ray. Part III Horns and Visual Innuendo: ‘Divine cuckolds’: Joseph and Vulcan in Renaissance art and literature, Francesca Alberti; Niklaus Manuel and Urs Graf: cuckolds, impotence and sex workers in Swiss Renaissance art (c.1510-1517), Christiane Andersson; The cuckoldries of Baccio del Bianco, Louise Rice; Picart’s browbeaten husbands in 17th-century France: cuckoldry in context, Sara F. Matthews-Grieco. Index.