1574: Treviso sodomites to be nailed in the private male members

In 1574, the city leaders of Treviso, a few miles north of Venice, initiated a crackdown on sodomy. These campaigns were not uncommon in Renaissance Italy, though the Treviso statutes were unusual in that they also targeted women:

“If any person has sexual relations with another – that is, a man with another man (if they are 14 years old or more) or a woman with another woman (if they are 12 years old or more) then they have committed the vice of sodomy…”

As might be expected, the punishments were severe. The 1574 edicts ordered that female sodomites (fregatores, or ‘friggers’) be tied naked to a stake in Treviso’s Street of Locusts. After a full day and night they were to be taken down and burned alive beyond the city walls.

For males (buzerones, or ‘buggerers’) the punishment was similar, though with a painful addition:

“[He] must be stripped of all clothing and fastened to a stake in the Street of Locusts, with a nail or rivet driven through his private male member. There he shall remain all day and all night, under guard, and the following day be burned outside the city.”

Source: Statuta prouisionesque dudes civitatis Tarvisii, 1574. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.