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This essay reflects on the history of the origins of atheism in the late sixteenth century through an analysis of the Inquisition proceedings against Flaminio Fabrizi, which began in Siena in 1587 and ended in Rome in 1591 with the accused being sentenced to death at the stake. This is a very intriguing case because Fabrizi, not a learned man, mixed different forms of heterodoxy and unbelief that surprised and disturbed the judges of the Holy Office. This essay aims to contribute to the history of religious nonconformism in Counter-reformation Italy and in Europe during the so-called "confessional era". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship between skepticism and sexual nonconformity in Italy from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. In the inquisitorial cases under examination, the praise of sexual freedom was supported by a heretical re-reading of the myth of the Fall from Grace. The criticism of religious deception is the link between sexual freedom and skepticism: these dissenters accused the elites of enforcing a morality based on a reward in the afterlife to keep people under control. Although these ideas have been mostly associated with seventeenth-century erudite libertines, this research shows them emerging almost a century before, in cross-class environments where forbidden books circulated widely. The article will explore how the written word was creatively re-appropriated in these composite social contexts, analyzing the influence of a Mediterranean tradition of radical doubt that cut across the boundaries dividing the three Abrahamic faiths. In particular, it will focus on the cultural exchanges between Christianity and Islam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the eighteenth century, scandalous literature perpetuated a strongly male-gendered image of dance spectatorship through its preoccupation with the moral and sexual status of female ballet dancers. The frequency with which authors of scandal sheets, novels, satire and political criticism alluded to liaisons involving elite men and dancers was, in part, a reflection of the period's broader fascination with the status of women on the stage. However, this active preoccupation with the sexuality of dancers was also allied to an interrogation of aristocratic and moral codes in Britain and France, and was used to instantiate a performative ideal of elite masculinity. This article focuses on the recurring figure of the opera girl, whose pursuit by aristocratic libertines aroused the contempt, curiosity and envy of readers. Incorporating a critique of extant dance criticism, the article explores the interpretative dilemmas that the opera girl's sensational sexuality has traditionally posed for dance scholarship on account of the tendency for the opera girl's attributes to be mapped onto representations of real-life dancers. Sampling sources as diverse as fashionable periodicals, works of history, sentimental novels and prostitute narratives, this article introduces the singular typology and rhetorical functions of the opera girl that distinguish her as a literary type. In the process, a more nuanced reading of opera girls is offered, one that stresses how opera girls refract the debates and anxieties of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Libertine writers and societies in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. Topics discussed include the friendship between writer Pietro Aretino and aristocrat Lorenzo Venier, as well as Aretino's writing, the Infiammati academy in Padua, and the writings of priest Antonio Rocco, "Alcibiade fanciullo a scuola."