Porn Star: The Saga of Pietro Aretino: the Italian Genius Behind Shakespeare

Porn Star is an engrossing portrait of a man that is credited with being the originator of modern pornography: Pietro Aretino (1492-1556). Aretino was the most famous writer of the sixteenth century, and considered like his contemporary, Niccolo Machaivelli (1469-1527), a literary god in London. In fact, both writers came to symbolize in the minds of Elizabethans: everything devilish about the Italian people; "devils' incarnates" as they were called in Shakespeare's day. Vastly underrated today as a writer, Aretino's time has come-and he is a force to be reckoned with. Playboy, playwright, pornographer, poet, diplomat, shrewd man of affairs. Aretino typified the Renaissance man of action, embodying the mischievous genius of the Italian people. An immensely gifted polymath writer with an encyclopedic range of knowledge, experience and interests. Aretino's deadly "poison pen" aroused violent antagonism, as well as an idolatrous awe amongst his peers in his lifetime. He takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through the Italian Renaissance where we meet many of his illustrious friends, the most colorful people of the period-crazy kings, deviant popes, eccentric artists, beautiful whores, deadly dukes and con men. Aretino's outrageous life culminates in an explosive climax that leads to the destruction of the holiest city in the world, Rome, or as the great religious reformer Martin Luther called it-Babylon. Along the way, Aretino challenges William Shakespeare's title as the world's greatest writer.