R915thand16thB

Theme: Changes in elite and popular culture, such as the development of new attitudes toward religion, the family, work and ritual.

B. Florentine Government sets up The Office of The Night (April 17, 1432).

On April 17, 1432, the Florentine Government established the special magistracy, the Office of the Night, to punish those who performed the act of sodomy. Sodomy meant all sexual acts between persons of the same sex. Sodomites were usually males. The Office of the Night’s board was composed of middle-aged married men. The board was elected annually and charged with pursuing and punishing sodomitical activity between males. Between 1432 and the abolition of the magistracy in 1502, about seventeen thousand men came to the Office’s attention. This represented a great number considering that the population was only about forty thousand.

MLA:

McKay, John P. __A History of Western Society__. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003