Welcome to the second post for my “When in Rome” Blog Series! Today’s post features a bit of queer history in Rome – the setting for my Work In Progress! You can find out more about that here.
The fight for marriage equality for queer people is often considered an exclusively modern phenomenon. Certainly, the last fifty years have seen enormous (if still incomplete) strides in queer liberation not just in Western democracies, but throughout the world. The Human Rights Campaign estimates that 31 countries worldwide have legalized same-sex marriage through legislation and judicial decisions, and several more may do so this year.[1] While these developments have overwhelmingly occurred in the last few decades, gay marriage itself (or in a form we could recognize it as today) has been a fundamental aspect of queer people’s experiences throughout human history. This has been true not just in societies (ancient and modern) which openly accepted them, but even in contexts where queer people faced active discrimination and even the threat of capital punishment.
Queer Communities in Early Modern Europe
A growing body of scholarship is uncovering the history of queer communities and sub-cultures in early modern Europe. Chad Denton, for example, argues in “The Brotherhood: Male Same-Sex Love Among the Early Modern Court Nobility” that same-sex desires were both known and recognized in Europe during this era (though often with hostility). He adds that, with respect to his own work on early modern France, “the well-documented and uniquely claustrophobic environment of Versailles provides a unique opportunity for examining pre-modern, non-normative sexuality”.[2]
However, homosexuality (and the physical act of “sodomy”) was legally prohibited in much of early-modern Europe – including (in theory) at the court of Versailles. Historians have argued that the medieval era, from the thirteenth century onward, saw a heightened emphasis on criminalization of all forms of homosexual activity (including among women); discriminatory legal statutes which were developed in this era persisted, in some cases, into the modern period.[3]
A Roman Gay Wedding?
Homosexuality was officially illegal in Rome after the implementation of the Justinian Code in 533 C.E.[4] But despite official censure, and strong cultural prejudice which the Roman papacy reinforced, Renaissance Rome serves as the seemingly unlikely setting for a what would become a story of (attempted) gay marriage in the late 16th century.
The intriguing episode was documented first by contemporary French essayist Michel de Montaigne, and elucidated for modern audiences more recently by Gary Ferguson, Douglas Huntly Gordon Distinguished Professor of French at the University of Virginia. His book, Same-Sex Marriage in Renaissance Rome: Sexuality, Identity and Community in Early Modern Europe, considers the ceremony which almost occurred in July, 1578 at the church of Saint John at the Latin Gate.
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It was at this unassuming church that two men, Gasparo and a friar named Gioseffe, apparently intended to marry on a Sunday afternoon among their gathered friends and, presumably, witnesses to their union. Ferguson notes that “[t]he exact nature and purpose of the intended ceremony remain uncertain…What we know for sure is that the afternoon was to culminate, like most weddings at the time, in a celebratory feast and the consummation of the union – that is, in the couple (and, in this instance, perhaps others) having sex.”[5]
The story, unfortunately, has no fairy tale ending. Gioseffe did not arrive for the ceremony, but Gasparo (and several intended celebrants) were arrested and later faced trial for their roles in the attempted union. Gasparo himself was executed following a three-week trial, which itself provided much of the evidence about the intended marriage.[6] But despite the tragic outcome, Ferguson argues that the attempt to conduct a marriage ceremony likely had strong communal motivations; the gathered men may have been part of an emerging or established Roman subculture of queer men who wished to exercise the same marriage rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples. He adds that, “[s]ince the friends took the ceremony seriously enough to put themselves at considerable risk, it very likely served to recognize and sanction Gasparo and Gioseffe’s relationship, claiming that such a union should be possible.”[7]
From the 16th to the 21st Century
Numerous questions about this particular event in queer history remain. Even so, the episode showcases the risks which queer people in early modern Europe undertook to live, and love, authentically to themselves. Importantly, these glimpses of queer subcultures in Italy, France and throughout Europe during this otherwise overtly hostile era affirm that queer communities have existed (and perhaps even thrived) regardless of public policy, religious or social opprobrium. But even today, queer Italians continue to face barriers to full marriage equality. Although same-sex civil unions were legalized in Italy in 2016, LGBTQIA+ advocates have argued that the current laws fail to fully protect Italian same-sex couples with complete legal recognition. Moreover, gay “marriage” is still legally prohibited in Italy. As ever, history progresses in fits and starts, and the story of marriage equality – even in Western Europe – is still being written.
[1] The Human Rights Campaign, “Marriage Equality Around the World,” https://www.hrc.org/resources/marriage-equality-around-the-world
[2] Chad Denton, The Brotherhood : Male Same-Sex Love Among the Early Modern Court Nobility, Paris, Cour de France.fr, 2014, Article inédit mis en ligne le 1er juin 2014, https://cour-de-france.fr/article3332.html
[3] Ruth Mazo Karras, “The Regulation of ‘Sodomy’ in the Latin East and West,” Speculum, Journal of the Medieval Academy of America, Volume 95, Number 4, October 2020, https://doi.org/10.1086/710639.
[4] Jaymie Stopforth, “Homosexuality in Ancient Europe”, last updated July 4, 2021, https://www.prismfl.org/post/homosexuality-in-ancient-europe.
[5] Gary Ferguson, “A same-sex marriage ceremony in… Renaissance Rome?”, The Conversation, January 10, 2017, https://theconversation.com/a-same-sex-marriage-ceremony-in-renaissance-rome-68200.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.