This fascinating collection of essays reflects closely the main areas of debate within gay historiography. For the last twenty years scholars have argued over the nature of early modern sodomy, responding in a number of different and contradictory ways. Questions addressed in the book include: was early modern sodomy the same as modern homosexuality? Were there homosexuals in early modern Europe? Did men who had sex with each other in this period regard their behaviour as determining their identity? What was the relationship between the grave sin of sodomy and the homoerotic images that fill Renaissance culture?. The volume includes essays on sodomy in English Protestant history writing, in Calvin's Geneva, in early modern Venice and the trial of sodomy in Germany.

Tom Betteridge is Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities at Kingston University

Introduction - Thomas Betteridge
1. Sodomy in and out of the Chronicle - Thomas Betteridge
2. On trial for sodomy in Early Modern Germany - Maria R. Boes
3. 'The sovereigns vice begets the subjects errour': The Duke of Buckingham, 'Sodomy' and narratives of Edward II, 1622-1628 - Danielle Clarke
4. Sodomy in early-modern Venice - N.S. Davidson
5. 'Wild, filthie, execrabill, detestabill, and unnatural sin': bestiality in early modern Scotland - P.G. Maxwell-Stuart
6. Sodomy in Early Modern Geneva: Various definitions, verdicts - William Naphy
7. Sexual identities: a medieval perspective - Sarah Salih
8. Boy's buttocks revisited: James VI and the Myth of the Sovereign School Master - Alan Stewart
9. Kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: gender inversion and Cantiles in godly spirituality - Tom Webster
Epilogue - Alan Bray