The rediscovery of a homoerotic poem by Torquato Tasso: Ganimede rapito

By Francesco Ottonello Early Modern, Queer Philologies

Torquato Tasso composed a poem on Ganymede and Jupiter, but self-censored it because of its underlying theme: homoeroticism.

A Polymorphous Activist: Mario Mieli

By Maria De Capua Queer Philologies

Activist Mario Mieli plays with language and vocabulary as a stylistic and political tool promoting queer and revolutionary ideas.

The Italian Invert: A Gay Man’s Intimate Confessions To Emile Zola

By Michael Rosenfeld Author Interviews

A very queer tale, The Italian Invert is one man’s story of love affairs, sexual adventures, and the pursuit of happiness at the end of the nineteenth century.

How to Write the History of Pederasty in the Age of Groomers

By Rachel Hope Cleves Childhood and Youth

Rachel Hope Cleves closes out the symposium on her book Unspeakable: A Life Beyond Sexual Morality.

Unspeakable Practices Under the Capri Sun  

By Alessio Ponzio Childhood and Youth

Alessio Ponzio guides us through transformations in Italian sexual culture in this second post in our online symposium on Rachel Hope Cleves’s Unspeakable: A Life Beyond Sexual Morality.

Of Polymaths and Pederasts: Reflections on Rachel Hope Cleves’s Unspeakable

By Joseph Fischel Childhood and Youth

Joseph Fischel reflects on histories of sexual ethics, pederasty, and power in this first post in our online symposium on Rachel Hope Cleves’s Unspeakable: A Life Beyond Sexual Morality.

The Beauty and the Terror

By Catherine Fletcher Author Interviews, Early Modern

The Italian Renaissance was far stranger and darker than many of us realise, and that sex and sexuality played an important role in this unsavoury side of the sixteenth century.