Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, commonly known as Poggio, was a medieval church official, a classical scholar, and a learned Latin writer. Poggio was born in Tuscany in 1380. He received a scholarly education and went into the service of the Roman Curia. Poggio had 14 children with a mistress. Then, at age 56, he married a seventeen-year old girl with whom he had a happy and fruitful marriage. Poggio sought out and collected ancient Latin manuscripts and helped to transmit classical Latin texts to future generations. Moving against millennia of Greek and Latin literature disparaging men’s genitals, Poggio affirmed men’s genitals and men’s sexuality through humane, insightful stories. He exemplified the broad-mindedness of medieval Latin writers, their interest in the classical Latin tradition, and their willingness to transgress gynocentric norms to express men’s distinctive interests. Poggio’s work offers twenty-first-century intellectual life a swerve toward enlightenment that is urgently needed. Poggio died in 1459.
A medieval sailor much simpler than Odysseus didn’t understand that not all women are like Penelope. He desperately needed God’s help. … Read the post not Penelope: sailor’s wife claims God provided him with a son
The medieval poem Le Tumbeor Nostre Dame turned into Anatole France’s story Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame: honoring men’s sexuality became demeaning it. … Read the post sardonic literature necessary complement to romantic medievalism
Overwhelming below women in society, men need medieval Latin learning and guile to deal with women’s desire to be on top. A peasant rose up; so can you. … Read the post women’s desire to be on top benefits guileful man selling goose
Acting as a woman’s kitchen servant isn’t a way to win her heart or stir her loins. Chivalry is folly. Men must seek useful love knowledge. … Read the post folly of chivalry: women don’t want a man for kitchen help
In medieval Latin literature, large penises didn’t mean that Venetian men weren’t being cuckolded, and a woman having a wide vagina was no reason for pride. … Read the post whore ridiculed Venetian cuckolds for their large penises
As medieval men understood, husbands’ care for their wives’ sexual well-being encompassed care for their own bodies and for their own sexual self-esteem. … Read the post husbands care for their wives’ sexual well-being: two case studies
As the great medieval churchman Poggio recognized, a husband’s penis is highly sensitive and smart. It will withdraw from a repulsive, abusive wife. … Read the post Poggio Bracciolini’s vital, lost insight into husbands’ sexual failures
While many fathers yearn to have grandchildren, fathers should encourage gender justice, not cuckolding as in a medieval Latin story from Poggio. … Read the post fathers for cuckolding: the problem of gender justice & grandchildren
Through his love for a neighbor’s lovely wife, a friar taught of Ovid Naso in the aetas Ovidiana and equipped their boy with a nose. … Read the post aetas Ovidiana: friar labored to ensure boy equipped with Naso
According to a medieval Latin tale by Poggio, wives desperately seeking sex from their husbands should try farting, but not too often. … Read the post desperate wives should try farting to get sex from husbands