Title: Aretino's Satyr Sexuality, Satire, and Self-Projection in Sixteenth-Century Literature and Art
Abstract: institutions that isolated women to prevent contagion.In a context where beautiful prostitutes were seen as both a physical and moral threat to social order, the state's focus on these vulnerable women allowed Venetians to shrug off any possible culpa- bility or sense of individual responsibility for the spread of venereal disease.Just as venereal disease produced varied institutional responses, so did Italian writers showcase a great range of treatments on the subject matter.Domenico Zanrè examines Cinquecento Tuscan writers and demonstrates that syphilis func- tioned as an effectively fertile theme for a variety of literature that ranged from satir- ical treatments and parody, to attacks on specific groups and personal accounts of suffering from this illness.Venereal disease then could be mobilized for a wide range of literary objectives precisely because it was such a malleable metaphor.In a way, the variability in the uses, responses, and views on the Pox emerges as a central theme in the collection.Jon Arrizabalaga in his masterful chapter on