Category Archives: 16th century

1590: Men without pubic hair inclined to impotence

Phillip Barrough was an English physician who practised in the second half of the 16th century. In his 1590 book The Method of Physick, Barrough describes the signs of fertility and impotence:

“A woman that is fertile ought to have a moderate stature and height of the body, breadth of the loins, buttocks sticking out, a handsome and convenient greatness of the belly, a straight breast and large paps… The hot distemper of a man is easily known by the abundance of hairs, especially black hairs, upon the genitals and the places adjoining, from above unto the middle thighs.”

Men with no hair about their testicles, writes Barrough, are more inclined to impotence:

“A temperament that is too cold is declared by the parts about the stones being bald and without hair… They that be of this temperature be not desirous [or] prone to carnal lust.”

Source: Phillip Barrough, The Method of Physick, London, 1590. 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.

1583: The ‘horrible vice of pestiferous dancing’

Writing in his 1583 book The Anatomy of Abuses, the notorious Puritan moralist Philip Stubbes devotes an entire chapter to the “Horrible Vice of Pestiferous Dancing”. According to Stubbes, dancing is:

“..an introduction to whoredom, a preparative to wantonness, a provocation to uncleanness, and an entreaty to all kinds of lewdness… What clipping, what culling, what kissing and bussing, what smooching and flabbering of one another, what filthy groping and unclean handling is not practised everywhere in these dancings?”

Stubbes does offer a solution, however. Dancing is permissible but only if it takes place between:

“..men by themselves and women by themselves.”

Source: Philip Stubbes, The Anatomy of Abuses, 1583. 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.

1505: King seeks report on potential wife’s breasts

In 1505, the 46-year-old Henry VII, after spending two years as a widower, began to consider remarriage. One potential wife suggested by Henry’s courtiers was Joanna of Naples, 25, whose own husband had died a few weeks into their marriage.

Curious about the young Italian, Henry sent two envoys to Naples with orders to procure “a portrait of the young queen”. They were also issued with a 24-point list of “instructions for taking a survey of her person”, which required information about Joanna’s face, figure, complexion, personality, eating habits and financial position. Some of Henry’s specifics are quoted below, along with the written comments of his envoys:

[Henry] “…Mark the favour of her visage, whether she be painted or no, whether she be fat or lean, sharp or round…”

[Envoys] “As far as we can perceive or know she is not painted, and the favour of her visage is after her stature – of very good compass and amiable, and somewhat round and fat…”

[Henry] “Mark whether her neck be long or short.”

[Envoys] Her neck is comely, not misshapen, nor very short nor very long, but her neck seemeth to be shorter because her breasts be full and somewhat big…”

[Henry] “Mark her breasts, whether they be big or small.”

[Envoys] “They be somewhat great and full… they were trussed somewhat high, after the manner of the country, it caused them to seem much fuller…”

[Henry] “Mark whether any hair appear upon her lip.”

[Envoys] “She hath none.”

Henry was impressed enough with the report but the union did not proceed, most likely due to political considerations. Henry VII died in 1509 without remarrying.

Source: Document cited in Henry Bacon, The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry The Seventh, 1622. 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.

1598: Get rid of unwanted hair with drowned frogs

Christopher Wirtzung was a prominent German physician of the late 16th century. Wirtzung’s medical guide, The General Practice of Physicke, was written in 1598. It was translated into English in 1619 and subsequently became popular in Britain.

Much of Wirtzung’s medical advice is standard for its time. For example, Wirtzung attributes earache and deafness to “worms, fleas and little creeping things” that hatch and grow in the ears. To conceive a male child, Wirtzung suggests sprinkling one’s meat with a powder, made by drying and grinding:

“..the stone [testicle] of a bore hog being two years old, and the pizzle [penis] of a shag, shaven… two pairs of fox stones and 50 or threescore [60] sparrow brains… the pizzle of a bull and… cloves, saffron, nutmeg and rosemary.”

For women struggling with unwanted hair on the face or body, Wurtzel suggests the following homemade depilatory:

“Take a pint of wine, drown 20 green frogs therein, or as many as can be drowned therein, then set the pot 40 days in the warm sun… Afterwards strain it hard through a cloth, anoint the place therewith where you take away the hair…”

Source: Christopher Wurtzel, The General Practice of Physicke, 1598. 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.

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.

1551: Dr Kyr advises caution when eating cannabis

Cannabis sativa was grown widely in the late Middle Ages and beyond, though not for its narcotic properties. Most cannabis [hemp] was used for rope-making, while commoners sometimes used young plants, seeds and pressed oil for food.

Medieval and early modern physicians were aware that eating large amounts of cannabis-based foods could induce delirium or euphoria. Writing around 1551, the Hungarian physician Paulus Kyr urged caution when nibbling on cannabis:

“Cannabis seeds are bad for the head if eaten in great quantity. [They] create foul humours and dry up the genital seed. They are difficult to digest, but are not harmful if crushed with vinegar and honey.”

Source: Paulus Kyr, The Study of Health, 1551. 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.

1595: Beltrame banned from Venice for buggery claims

In October 1595, Giuseppe Beltrame was hauled before the elders of Venice, after falling out with a pretty actress named Giulia. Witnesses had observed Beltrame cursing at and abusing Giulia. He also publicly suggested that the young noblemen interested in Giulia were his sexual playthings, declaring that he had:

“..put it up the asses of the most excellent nobles who favoured the young woman [Giulia].”

Beltrame was banned from Venice for three years.

Source: Testimony of Giovanni Zenoni and judgement, October 1595, cited in E. Horodowich, Language and Statecraft in Early Modern Venice, 2008. 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.