Abstract
Abstract Evidence of male–male sexual relations from the Christian societies of the Western Mediterranean matches quite closely that from the Ottoman ‘Levant’ and North Africa. Age-differentiation was fundamental, with adults (especially in their 20s or early 30s) as active partners, teenaged youths as passive, and a threshold age between them of 18–20. The most detailed evidence comes from Florence, Lucca, Venice, the Aragonese Crown lands in Spain, and Portugal. Cultural evidence shows, as in the Ottoman world, that adult male desire for attractive boys was generally viewed as normal, even though acting on it was seen as wrong; there was a strong taboo against adult–adult male sex, especially where the passive adult was concerned.
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