La Cazzaria: The Book of the Prick

La Cazzariais the most outspoken erotic text of the Italian Renaissance-a ribald dialogue about politics, sex, and desire written in 1525 by Antonio Vignali, a young Italian nobleman from Siena. Here, in the Rabelaisian depictions of personified genitalia and other bodily organs, a page of our sexual past is restored. La Cazzariais at once a comic fable about bodies and desire, and an outrageous political allegory. Composed as a dialogue between two actual members of one of the most prestigious literary societies of 16th-century Italy, it is organized as a series of fifty-two questions on subjects ranging from anatomy, to psychology, linguistics, and psychology. The text is remarkable for its frank discussions of sexuality and explicit homoeroticism-especially when compared to other texts of the period-and for its sophisticated treatment of sexual and political power. Written for circulation among a group of educated young men, the dialogue's elitism and misogyny also offers a powerfuland often disturbing picture of early modern gender relations. Outrageous and iconoclastic, La Cazzaria was a risque and provocative text in its day, and remains so today. This first English translation is extensively annotated, and the volume includes a detailed and accessible introduction by Ian Frederick Moulton, author of Before Pornography, which provides a historical and intellectual context for this unfamiliar by fascinating text. La Cazzaria is at once a stunning literary achievement, and essential reading for anyone interested in the history of sexuality.

Antonio Vignali (1500-1559), also known as Arsiccio Intronato, died in political exile Ian Frederick Moulton is Associate Professor of English at Arizona State University