The Secret Life of Nuns

Ragionamenti #1.I

by Pietro Aretino, Andrew Brown (Translator)

A prequel to The School of Whoredom, The Secret Life of Nuns is a witty and salacious dialogue between Nanna, and her confidante Antonia. Nanna is in a quandary as to what to advise her daughter, Pippa, as she chooses her path in life. Should she become a nun, a whore, or a wife? In pondering this, Nanna begins to tell of her own experiences as a nun, relating the adventures that ensued as she was accepted and initiated into convent life. In subverting the popular literary form of the dialogue, Aretino uses bawdy humor and colorful narrative to expose the human foibles and vice that he saw as inherent in religious life. The result is a vivid piece of prose that has endured for centuries. Italian satirist and poet Pietro Aretino was one of the most versatile writers of the 16th century; the author of plays, poetry, and letters, he is now principally remembered as the originator of European pornography.

Genres: Erotica, Classics, Fiction, Italian Literature

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1534

About the author

Pietro Aretino was an Italian author, playwright, poet and satirist who wielded immense influence on contemporary art and politics and invented modern literate pornography.

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nanna is an ageing Roman prostitute whose daughter wants to follow in her footsteps. In this, which is day one of six days of conversation, Nanna tells her friend about her own adolescent introduction to sex - in a convent.

Pietro Aretino was one of the most notorious European men of letters of the early Renaissance. Having written a series of 16 explicitly sexual sonnets to accompany a set of obscene engravings which had been recalled by the papal court, he went on to write his Ragionamenti 'the dialogues' in provocative imitation of the classical Platonic dialogues. His correspondance includes letters to Henry VIII (who gave him a gift of £75), Francis I of France, Charles V Holy Roman Emperor and various members of the Medici family including Pope Clement VII, a Medici pope. He was also friends with Titian and various other artists whom he hosted at his palazzo in Venice.

This extract from the Ragionamenti satirises the Catholic church, culminating in a full-scale orgy amongst the nuns and priests. While fairly explicit it is also very funny, very knowing, and very literarily sophisticated. Aretino makes fine use of a ventriloquised female voice to exploit the position of outsider, marginalised from the centres of power and thus able to both participate and comment at the same time. Despite the rather sensationalist title of 'father of pornography', porn didn't really exist as a separate category at this time (early C16th) and so this text has a self-conscious relationship to other mainstream erotic writings such as the love poetry of people like Wyatt and Sidney, romance such as the Faerie Queene and the Arcadias, and the writings of Donne, Shakespeare, Marlowe and less canonical writers such as Thomas Lodge, John marston and Thomas Nashe.

Hesperus rather exploitatively seems to be splitting each of the six days into a book and charging full price for each one which is a bit cheeky. I also prefer the translation of Rosenthal in Aretino's Dialogues (Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library) which is far more historically and literarily sensitive.

But if you're just interested in reading this for interest then this is fine, and a nice introduction to one of the most subversive writers of the European Renaissance.

[Júlia {fitzloved era} · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 ⭐️

Fue muy revolucionario en su momento y eso es de apreciar. Más allá de ese hecho, que es evidente ya por la temática tratada, lo que más me ha gustado a pesar de no parecerme excepcional, es el tono de comedia que mantiene en un escenario como el que retrata. Está en la línia de la narrativa un poco más erótica de Shakespeare y de esa etapa en general. Dicho todo esto, me lo he pasado pipa y flipando porque es mi tipo de chisme.

[Jacob Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

smut.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The man who, while he did not invent pornography, surely invented the pornography business. He was my primary research topic for a while, and his work, while maybe not the best stuff ever written, is incredibly important for its inflammatory, anticlerical, anti-upper class, nature.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of a trilogy also consisting of "The School of Whoredom" and "The Secret Life of Wives" and very likely the filthiest book I've ever read. So far.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nanna and Antonia are prostitutes discussing the youthful adventures of Nanna in a convent. Wonderful bawdy comedy written in the 16th century.