Hoes before Bros

Venetian officials sought to stem a ‘plague’ of sodomy by promoting the heterosexual sex trade.

Boys just want to have fun: February scene from the Trivulzio tapestry, by Benedetto da Milano, after a design by Bramantino, Milan, 1504-9. On 26 March 1511 the Venetian diarist Marino Sanudo described how a terrifying earthquake struck the city:

The chimneys were swaying, the walls bursting open, the bell towers tottering, things on high were tumbling down, and the water in the canals – even the Grand Canal – was boiling as if it had fire under it.

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