Publishing Obscene Parodies: From Authorized Joyful Books to Forbidden Editions

Abstract

Obscenity and parody were two crucial pillars on which late medieval and early modern joyful culture was built. Investigating the interconnection between sexual obscenity and parody in joyful imprints can be done by analyzing texts that have hitherto been neglected by scholars. A case in point are sixteenth-century parodies of legal acts, in which a young woman rents out her body under a graphic leasehold. These texts were popular and printed in several editions until the early years of the seventeenth century. Because few copies of these editions have survived, it is important not only to look for scarce or lost originals, but also to take into account re-editions made in the eighteenth century, when these texts became popular again among readers of illicit literature. Considering the material context of these texts in the surviving volumes allows us on the one hand to understand the process of moralisation of obscenity that is at play in sixteenth-century imprints, and on the other hand to evaluate the appeal of such texts in the eighteenth century for new groups.