Clever Little Books: Martial’s Epigrams and Sexual Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Clever Little Books explores the role of Latin commentaries on the Roman poet Martial as a medium for the transmission of sexual knowledge among male elites in early modern Europe. Valued for its wit and concision, Martial’s sometimes shocking poetry was highly regarded in early modern humanist culture, and editions with detailed scholarly commentary circulated widely.

Clever Little Books explores how unexpurgated editions of Martial’s poetry created a significant cultural space for discourse on illicit and non-procreative sexual practices in the early modern period. The early modern commentaries give detailed information on all aspects of sexuality described in the poems, and they constitute a fundamental site of encounter of the early modern period with the world of antiquity. Drawing on early modern scholarly discourse around canonical Latin poetry, as well as handwritten marginal commentary by individual readers such as the English playwright Ben Jonson, Ian Frederick Moulton traces the conflict between ancient sexual mores and the sexual culture and traditions of Renaissance Europe, including later attempts to censor Martial’s texts.

By focusing on the sexual knowledge transmitted through editions of Martial, Clever Little Books sheds light on an overlooked but important aspect of early modern sexual discourses, attitudes, and knowledge.