And I’ll wear a black catsuit with a cape and wings while in the DJ booth.Īhem… back to Renaissance history. All I know is that if I ever live out my fantasy of being a DJ in a New York City club, that will be my nom de guerre. I’m not sure if the name sounds more like a low-sugar Nutella substitute or a dominatrix. Benedetta believed that she was possessed by a male angel named Splenditello. ( Photo Source) Splenditello, the Best Alter-ego Ever (2)Īlthough I pictured Splenditello looking like this, according to Benedetta, he took the form of an eight or nine-year-old boy. Nothing I’m about to write is new–whole books have been written about these wonderful characters from history: the Tuscan nun Sister Benedetta Carlini, her young lover (also a nun), and a randy male angel named – wait for it – Splenditello, who possessed Benedetta from time to time, and whose supernatural presence presumably both explained and condoned her lesbian relationship (at least in Benedetta’s own eyes). So…off I went to do some research, and the first example I came across was so wonderfully strange, so incredibly surreal, that, dear readers, I knew not only that I would bring it back to class, but that I would eventually share it with you here. What about lesbians? Do we know anything about Renaissance lesbians?ĭarn it! I’d been so focused on providing examples of female writers and artists that I’d overlooked the sexual orientation piece! And I was embarrassed to admit that day that beyond knowing they MUST have been out there, I had no actual examples of Renaissance lesbians to provide.
This particular post comes about because while we were studying Renaissance artists and authors, Fiona asked (apropos of Michelangelo and Leonardo): It seems like there was some sort of more-or-less openly gay culture in the Medici courts. My first year of full-time teaching kicked my butt–so much fun, but so many lesson plans to make! Now that I can take a breather, I finally have time to post here about some of the amazing women from history I’ve discovered in the last year–many of them the result of insightful questions asked of me by my students.
It’s hard to believe I haven’t posted in nearly a year. Renaissance Lesbians–the truth is stranger than fiction! ( Source)
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