La Cazzaria <i>di Vignali e</i> Il libro dei perchè <i>di Manfredi</i>

Abstract

Vignali's La Cazzaria (ca. 1520) is one of the earliest experiments of obscene or sotadic literature in Italian, a genre which finds its models in the Latin priapaea. Vignali's lengthy treatise is an academic exercise which fakes a scientific mode of describing and extolling the nature and the functions of the genitalia, mostly of the penis. The article maintains that the "scientific" model behind the work is the Libro del perché by Gerolamo Manfredi, a work based on the tradition of the problemata of Aristotelian type. This model is supposed to dignify the obscenity of La Cazzaria and at the same time to enhance its comic quality.