Richard Davenport-Hines

Flirting in 15th-century Florence

In his history of male-male sexual relations, Noel Malcolm describes how a man in Renaissance Italy would seduce a boy in the street by seizing his hat and holding it ransom

Detail of Donatello’s bronze sculpture of David, c. 1440. [Getty Images] 
issue 20 January 2024

  • Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1750

    Noel Malcolm

    OUP, pp. 608, £25

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