Michael Rocke is the Nicky Mariano Librarian of the Biblioteca Berenson at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, in Florence.
"A fascinating and groundbreaking study of the archives of the
Office of the Night....All levels."--CHOICE
"Rocke presents a careful and nuanced appreciation of language and
concepts of gender and sexual roles....The value of this highly
important study rests on the book's lucid prose and its learned
contribution to our understanding of human, or at least Western,
sexuality."--Library Journal
"This is a superb work of scholarship, impossible to
overpraise....It marks a milestone in the 20-year rise of gay and
lesbian studies."--The Advocate
"Michael Rocke here presents a careful analysis, using the records
of the Office of the Night, a magistracy created solely to
prosecute sodomy that operated from 1432 to 1502...This is a
valuable study that will be of interest to a wide range of
historians."--Men and Masculinity
"Rocke's book received excellent scholarly reviews but little
popular notice when it was published two years ago. Now issued in
paperback, it deserves a wider readership by gays. Many may find
the lives of men half a millennium ago and across the seas a
distant mirror of their own lives, full of fascinating similarities
and disconcerting differences...Rocke's book [is] fascinating and
occasionally startling reading, as well as a confirmation of our
own
continuity with the past."--Windy City Times
"Forbidden Friendships adds an important chapter to the history of
homosexuality and through it places Florentine politics in the
Renaissance in a new perspective."--Speculum
"A sort of Kinsey Report for Renaissance Florence...A must-read for
gay scholars, [the book] is the first attempt to clearly quantify
sexual norms for Renaissance Florence or, indeed, any other place
at such an early date...Rocke certainly establishes bisexual and
homosexual relationships long before John Addition Symonds's usage
of the terms."--Journal of Homosexuality
"A fascinating and groundbreaking study of the archives of the Office of the Night....All levels."--CHOICE "Rocke presents a careful and nuanced appreciation of language and concepts of gender and sexual roles....The value of this highly important study rests on the book's lucid prose and its learned contribution to our understanding of human, or at least Western, sexuality."--Library Journal "This is a superb work of scholarship, impossible to overpraise....It marks a milestone in the 20-year rise of gay and lesbian studies."--The Advocate "Michael Rocke here presents a careful analysis, using the records of the Office of the Night, a magistracy created solely to prosecute sodomy that operated from 1432 to 1502...This is a valuable study that will be of interest to a wide range of historians."--Men and Masculinity "Rocke's book received excellent scholarly reviews but little popular notice when it was published two years ago. Now issued in paperback, it deserves a wider readership by gays. Many may find the lives of men half a millennium ago and across the seas a distant mirror of their own lives, full of fascinating similarities and disconcerting differences...Rocke's book [is] fascinating and occasionally startling reading, as well as a confirmation of our own continuity with the past."--Windy City Times "Forbidden Friendships adds an important chapter to the history of homosexuality and through it places Florentine politics in the Renaissance in a new perspective."--Speculum "A sort of Kinsey Report for Renaissance Florence...A must-read for gay scholars, [the book] is the first attempt to clearly quantify sexual norms for Renaissance Florence or, indeed, any other place at such an early date...Rocke certainly establishes bisexual and homosexual relationships long before John Addition Symonds's usage of the terms."--Journal of Homosexuality
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
