The History of Sex: Venice and Florence -- An Early 'Joy of Sex' -- (Chap. IV, Pt. 5)

Like Aretino's language (which confirms something I've long suspected about aficionados of anal sex), what's most striking about the countless recreations of the Sixteen Positions is how modern they are: Romano and his imitators didn't gussy up the couples as gods and goddesses.

For that matter, the Vatican's God was completely out of the picture: whether it was man or woman on top (or an acrobatic variation on the theme), the couples were simply two people who were, in late-twentieth-century slang, getting it on (as well as off, up, in and out).

Another variation on Aretino's Postures or I Modi

As a matter of fact, the Positions look like an early Joy of Sex, complete with saucy jokes and a beardy bloke.

As someone who grew up in the latter's aftermath, I can attest to a time when kids used to sneak peeks at their parents' copies (or, um, friends' parents' copies) to try to work out the mechanics of intercourse.

Now, of course, anyone with a web connection can find a zillion ways of doing 'it' thanks to the miracle of IT.

But Aretino's Positions predated the discovery of Pompeii and appeared long before the likes of The Kama Sutra were widely circulated in the West.

Besides their obvious pornographic appeal, their collateral attraction was that they served as a de facto sex manual, popularizing Positions that most people hadn't the time or energy to come up with themselves.