Just past Santa Croce’s gate, you can find the state archives. The archives, which are open to public but require registration in person, contain documents dating as far back as the eighth century. In a leather-wrapped ledger over 500 years in age, I discovered the names of thousands men accused of sodomy at the height of the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci is one of the many men accused of sodomy during the Renaissance. He was accused, in 1476 at age 26, of hiring a male sexworker. Sandro Botticelli also faced accusations, and sculptor Benvenuto Celelini was twice convicted for sodomy.
It is well documented that in the 15th century, Florence was an important European centre for queer culture and sex. The records that have survived describe a place where, according to historian Michael Rocke in Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence, Men had sex “in nearly all the thirty to forty inns and taverns scattered throughout the city, as well as the public baths” and “in the alleys, streets or fields surrounding taverns.” The Baldracca was the city’s proto red light district, where men were able to conduct a thriving business of sex. Even the Duomo became a common place for hookups. On the balconies and passageways leading up to the cathedral’s dome, men were often found “kissing each other and giving each other the tongue”—so much so that public access to the cupola was eventually banned.
The gay history of Rome is almost completely forgotten today. Brunelleschi’s dome, once open to all, is no longer a secret. But the infamous Baldracca area was demolished in mid-16th-century to make way for the Uffizi. 5 million A year, the museum receives more than 50,000 art-seekers. The museum has famous works such as Da Vinci’s Adoration of Magi; Botticelli’s Birth of VenusAnd a muscular, barely clothed St. Sebastian, The following are some examples of how to use early adopted gay icon, by the painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi—better known as Il Sodoma (yes, for the reasons you might imagine). However, there are few guides who mention Leonardo’s or Botticelli’s sodomy charges, or Michelangelo’s creation of David He had composed thirty love poems for a young nobleman. Since I met you, this has happened: a bittersweet, yes-and-no feelings move me. he wrote. “Certainly it was your eyes.”) Florence’s true queer history is often forgotten and relegated only to footnotes.
