The men of Renaissance Florence were so renowned for sodomy that "Florenzer" in German meant "sodomite." Indeed, in the late fifteenth century, as many as one in two Florentine men had come to the attention of the authorities for sodomy by the time they were thirty. In the seventy years from 1432 to 1502, some 17,000 men--in a city of only 40,000--were investigated for sodomy; 3,000 were convicted and thousands more confessed to gain amnesty. Michael Rocke vividly depicts this vibrant sexu...

A magisterial work of gripping history, City of Fortune tells the story of the Venetian ascent from lagoon dwellers to the greatest power in the Mediterranean - an epic five hundred year voyage that encompassed crusade and trade, plague, sea battles and colonial adventure.In Venice, the path to empire unfolded in a series of extraordinary contests - the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, the fight to the finish with Genoa and a desperate defence against the Turks. Under th...

Includes:•Charles River Editors original biography of Rodrigo Borgia•Arnold Mathews The Life and Times of Rodrigo Borgia , Pope Alexander VIAlexander never did what he said.Cesare never said what he did. Italian ProverbThere have been no shortage of controversial Popes who were accused by Catholics and other Christians of impropriety, but the most controversial of all was the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI. Born Rodrigo Borgia, the future Pope made his way up the ranks of the Catholic Church with...

Winner, Lambda Literary Award (LGBT Anthology)The Remedy invites writers and readers to imagine what we need to create healthy, resilient, and thriving LGBTQ communities. This anthology is a diverse collection of real-life stories from queer and trans people on their own health-care experiences and challenges, from gay men living with HIV who remember the systemic resistance to their health-care needs, to a lesbian couple dealing with the experience of can...

Gino Lucetti (August 31, 1900 - September 17, 1943) was an Italian anarchist and would-be assassin of Benito Mussolini. Born in Carrara, Italy, he fought as a soldier during World War I and later emigrated to France, returning to attempt to assassinate Benito Mussolini on September 11, 1926, in Rome's Porta Pia square. Lucetti was tried in June 1927 and condemned to 30 years in prison as was the politician Vincenzo Baldazzi, condemned for helping him prepare the attempt. In 1943 Lucetti es...

In the seventeenth century, Florence was the splendid capital of the Medici Grand Dukedom of Tuscany. Meanwhile, the Jews in its tiny Ghetto struggled to earn a living by any possible means, especially loan-sharking, rag-picking and second-hand dealing. They were viewed as an uncanny people with rare supernatural powers, and Benedetto Blanis—a businessman and aspiring scholar from a distinguished Ghetto dynasty—sought to parlay his alleged mastery of astrology, alchemy and Kabbalah into a ...

Colonialism and Homosexuality is a thorough investigation of the connections of homosexuality and imperialism from the late 1800s - the era of 'new imperialism' - until the era of decolonization. Robert Aldrich reconstructs the context of a number of liaisons, including those of famous men such as Cecil Rhodes, E.M. Forster or André Gide, and the historical situations which produced both the Europeans and their non-Western lovers.Colonial lands, which in the late nineteent...

Allan Antliff is the Canada Research Chair at the University of Victoria. He is the author of Anarchist Modernism: Art, Politics and the First American Avant-Garde, has written extensively for the anarchist press, and is currently contributing editor to the Alternative Press Review and art editor of Anarchist Studies.

An invaluable portrait and roadmap on how to thrive as an LGBT familyThe overwhelming success of Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” YouTube project aimed at queer youth highlighted that despite the progress made in gay rights, LGBT people are still at high risk of being victimized. While the national focus remains on the mistreatment of gay people in schools, the reality is that LGBT families also face hostility in various settings—professional, recreational, and social...

Learn what resources are needed for lesser-recognized LGBT health issuesMost literature that explores LGBT health issues concentrates on HIV/AIDS while leaving research studies on other vital issues lacking. Current Issues in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health addresses this inadequacy by presenting a broad range of LGBT health issues from an interdisciplinary and mixed-method perspective. Leading experts present both quantitative and qualitative descriptions of health ...

Gay Ethics is an anthology that addresses ethical questions involving key moral issues of today--sexual morality, outing, gay and lesbian marriages, military service, anti-discrimination laws, affirmative action policies, the moral significance of sexual orientation research, and the legacy of homophobia in health care. It focuses on these issues within the social context of the lives of gay men and lesbians and makes evident the ways in which ethics can and should be reclaimed to pursue t...

A down-to-earth look at the spiritual power of sexSex and the Sacred examines the spiritual dimension of human sexuality in a way that is free of religious affiliation but still open to traditional religion and belief in God. Dr. Daniel Helminiak, author of the best-selling What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality, looks at the relationship between sexuality and spirituality, first, from a humanistic perspective and, then, a more familiar Christian point of view. In particula...