Francisco Correa Netto

Francisco Correa Netto (17th century Portugal ) was a Portuguese sexton whose gay love letters are the first extant letters of openly gay love in a modern language. His case is exemplary for a simple person of the late renaissance .

Life

Francisco Correa Netto worked as a sexton at the cathedral of the city of Silves throughout his life . His friend, the musician and instrument maker Manuel Viegas, also worked there. However, while Netto was homosexual, Viegas is described as bisexual. Both had a relationship and each exchanged several letters, some of which were very obscene and openly homosexual. Five of these letters have survived to this day. During the reign of King Alfonso VI. there was a lively gay scene in Lisbon , characterized by secret meetings and an early type of travesty . Francisco Correa Netto was obviously very well known there, as his name " Francisquinha " (Little Francisco) , which is typical of the scene, was passed down. King Afonso VI. was also homosexual himself. Correa Netto also wrote love letters to the Marquês de Vilhena, Dom João Pacheco. Little is known about this love affair.

Out of jealousy because Correa Netto supposedly wanted to become engaged to a woman, his former lover presented the letters to the Vicar of Silves. He handed the letters to the Inquisition in Évora on March 29, 1664 . Various witnesses testified that Correa Netto was "Sodomite" and the content of the letters, which was quite clear and did not shy away from sexual profanity, was cited as evidence. But the Inquisition showed itself to be unusually open: Correa Netto was neither arrested nor summoned, let alone brought to punishment. It was said that letters alone did not testify to anything as long as no anal act could be proven. The Correa Netto file was thus closed forever without any further consequences.

The letters, which have survived to this day, show an open way of thinking about homophile love, which is determined by genitality and sexual acts. The seduction of the other man is just as sought after as a basic tendency towards platonic love, which at that time showed a great bloom in Portugal.

literature

Luiz Mott and Aroldo Assunção: Love's Laboratories Lost. Five Letters from a Seventeenth-Century Sodomite , in: Kent Gerard and Gert Hekma (Eds.): The Pursuit of Sodomy. Male Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe , Harrington Park Press: New York 1989, pp. 91-104, ISBN 9780918393494 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Netto, Francisco Correa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Portuguese sexton
DATE OF BIRTH	17th century
DATE OF DEATH	17th century