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ABSTRACT
Throughout the nineteenth century, significant transformations took place in the understanding of Western homosexuality, shifting from the domain of criminal law to that of medical science. This article explores the role of European legal thought in laying the groundwork for such changes, particularly starting from the mid-eighteenth century. Examining the contributions of the Roman jurist Filippo Maria Renazzi (1745–1808), this research emphasizes his role among the thinkers who lived through the transition from the European ius commune tradition to the era of criminal codes. Renazzi, a conservative university professor in papal Rome, not unfamiliar with Enlightenment discussions, penned a successful criminal treatise in Latin between 1773 and 1786. His expertise was also in demand during the subsequent development of the criminal code for the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. By focusing on the figure of Renazzi, still not extensively studied, this article attempts to shed light on the transition towards the general decriminalization of non-reproductive carnal offenses, including sodomy. In the new penal code project, only acts committed against the will of others and public order remained generically condemned. This underscored the indifference of criminal law towards penalizing behavior that medicine would subsequently come to recognize as an inherent identity.
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Notes
1 Foucault, The Will to Knowledge, 43. The literature on this question is voluminous. For a concise recapitulation of the paradigmatic significance of this study, its critiques, and its developments, see Tamagne, “The Homosexual Age”. Among all the reinterpretations of Foucault’s paradigm, see Spector, Puff and Herzog, After The History (for global considerations); Halperin, How to do (in regards to homosexuality).
2 See Beachy, “The German Invention”.
3 Westphal, “Die Conträre Sexualempfindung”. Cited by Foucault, The Will to Knowledge, 43. See Crozier, Sexual Inversion.
4 Kertbeny, Schriften zur Homosexualitätsforschung. See Féray and Herzer, “Homosexual Studies”.
5 See Betteridge, Sodomy in Early Modern Europe; Gerard and Hekma, The Pursuit of Sodomy. See also Cifoneli, Du péché contre-nature.
6 Regarding the British context, see Trumbach, Heterosexuality and Third Gender; Norton, Mother Clap; Bray, Homosexuality in England. For the equivalent transition in Amsterdam, see Boon, “Those Damned Sodomites”; Meer, “The Persecution of Sodomites”. For Paris, see Rey, “Police and Sodomy”; Merrick, Sodomy in Eighteenth-Century France.
7 See Rocke, Forbidden Friendships (Florence); Ruggiero, The Boundaries of Eros (Venice).
8 See Baldassari, Bande giovanili.
9 See Scaramella, Un doge infame.
10 See Pastorello, “L’abolition du crime”; Ragan, “Same-Sex Sexual Relations”; Sibalis, “The Regulation of Male Homosexuality”.
11 For legal issues in the history of homosexuality, see Borrillo, Droit et homosexualités; Chamocho Cantudo, Sodomia; Leroy-Forgot, Histoire juridique de l’homosexualité.
12 Regarding the German context, see Michelsen, “Wider die Natur”. Concerning the French context, see Lever, Les bûchers de Sodome.
13 See Upchurch, Beyond the Law.
14 See Sibalis, “Male Homosexuality”; Ragan, “The Enlightenment Confronts Homosexuality”. Regarding the discussions on the crime of sodomy among jurists and legal reformers in France, see Merrick, Sodomites, Pederasts, and Tribades; Merrick and Ragan, Homosexuality in Early Modern France. For England, see Crompton, Byron and Greek Love; Upchurch, Beyond the Law. For Germany, see Hull, Sexuality, State.
15 Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, bk. 12, ch. 6, Of the crime against nature, 211–12, 212.
16 Voltaire, “Prix de la Justice”, art. 19, De la sodomie.
17 Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments, ch. 31, Crimes difficult to prove, 79–82, 79–80.
18 See Upchurch, Beyond the Law, 15–40.
19 See Hunt, Inventing Human Rights.
20 Renazzi, Elementa iuris criminalis. Regarding his figure, see Di Simone, “Renazzi, Filippo Maria”. The most recent studies on Renazzi, his scientific production, and the Roman context, along with an updated bibliography, can be found in Di Simone, Frova and Alvazzi del Frate, Filippo Maria Renazzi.
21 Collezione dei travagli.
22 Renazzi, Elementa iuris criminalis, vol. 4, pt. 2, chs. 1–6, 79–187.
23 Ibid., vol. 4, pt. 2, ch. 2, 116–28.
24 Ibid., ch. 6, § 2, 176–7.
25 See Nobile Mattei, “Dalla Lex Iulia”.
26 Renazzi, Elementa iuris criminalis, vol. 1, ch. 15, § 4, n. 1, 207–10. Ibid., vol. 4, pt. 2, 79–81.
27 Cumberland, De legibus naturae, ch. 5, § 46. Regarding his work, see Parkin, Science, Religion and Politics.
28 See Wiesner-Hanks, Christianity and Sexuality.
29 See Davidson, “Theology, Nature and the Law”.
30 Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, part II–II, q. 154, 461–83.
31 Farinacci, Praxis et theoricae criminalis, part 4, tit. 16, De delictis carnis, 415–574. Concerning Farinacci’s figure, see Mazzacane, “Farinacci, Prospero”.
32 Carpzov, Practica nova. Regarding his figure, see Jerouschelk, Schild and Gropp, Benedict Carpzov.
33 Bossi, Tractatus varii, tit. De raptu mulieris, 325–9. Ibid., tit. De coitu damnato et punibili, 329–39. Ibid., tit. De stupro detestabili in masculo, 339–40. Concerning his figure, see Di Renzo Villata, “Bossi, Edigio”.
34 Deciani, Tractatus criminalis, vol. 1, bk. 8. Regarding his figure, see Spagnesi, “Deciani, Tiberio”.
35 Claro, Sententiarum receptarum, § Fornicatio, 33–7. Concerning Claro’s figure, see Mazzacane, “Claro, Giulio”.
36 Renazzi, Elementa iuris criminalis, vol. 4, pt. 2, ch. 22, § 11, 117.
37 See Jordan, The Invention of Sodomy.
38 See Williams, Roman Homosexuality.
39 See Boswell, Christianity, 171–4.
40 See Cavina, “La soluzione dei conflitti”.
41 Rainaldi, Observationum Criminalium, vol. 2, ch. 21, Della sodomia, 239–64, § 1, n. 180, Sodomiam patiens punitur aque ac agens, 249.
42 See Dalla, Ubi Venus mutatur.
43 Azor, Institutionum moralium, vol. 3, part. 3, bk. 3, ch. 18.
44 See Cavina, Nozze di sangue, 60–8.
45 Renazzi, Elementa iuris criminalis, vol. 4, part. 2, ch. 6, § 2, 176–7.
46 Sinistrari d’Ameno, De delictis et poenis, tit. 4, De delictis contra castitatem, § 2, Sodomia, 254–68.
47 Deciani, Tractatus criminalis, vol. 1, bk. 8.
48 Archivio di Stato di Milano, Sezione storica, Autografi, Uomini celebri, scienziati e letterati, «Re-Rosse», 153, Letters of Filippo Maria Renazzi to Luigi Villa, Minister of the Interior, 26 February and 1 October 1803.
49 Collezione dei travagli, vol. 3, 221–53. Ibid., vol. 5, 141–59. See Tavilla, “Renazzi, Luosi e i ‘travagli’”.
50 Collezione dei travagli, vol. 3, 223–4.
51 Progetto del codice penale, 57–8. Ibid., 67–71.
52 “The second class consists of those crimes which are prejudicial to morals. Such is the violation of public or private continence, that is, of the police directing the manner in which the pleasure annexed to the conjunction of the sexes is to be enjoyed. The punishment of those crimes ought to be also derived from the nature of the thing; the privation of such advantages as society has attached to the purity of morals, fines, shame, the necessity of concealment, public infamy, expulsion from home and society, and, in fine, all such punishments as belong to a corrective jurisdiction, are sufficient to repress the temerity of the two sexes. In effect, these things are less founded on malice than on carelessness and self-neglect”. Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, bk. 12, ch. 4, That Liberty is Favoured by the Nature and Proportion of Punishments, 207–10, 209.
53 “Some crimes directly destroy society or its representative. Some undermine the personal security of a citizen by attacking his life, goods, or honor. Others still are actions contrary to what each citizen, in view of the public good, is obliged by law to do or not do”. Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments, ch. 25, The Classification of Crimes, 24–5.
54 Progetto del codice penale, 145.
55 Ibid., 149.
56 Ibid., 153.
57 Ibid., 131.
58 See Amelung, Rechtsgüterschutz.
59 Collezione dei travagli, vol. 3, 221–2.
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Tommaso Scaramella
Tommaso Scaramella received his Ph.D. in History, Cultures, and Civilizations from the University of Bologna in 2018. He currently holds a research grant in early modern history at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, following research and teaching experiences at the Universities of Verona and Bologna. His interests focus on sexualities, genders, bodies, and emotions during the early modern period. His publications include the book Un doge infame. Sodomia e nonconformismo sessuale a Venezia nel Settecento (Marsilio, 2021).