Chastity belt: what is true and what is fiction?

In a tiny Italian town of San Gimignano there is a Museum of the history of torture. The entrance is preceded by a sign with harsh words: "Children and nervous it is better not to enter." Almost at the Museum there is a curious exhibition with dozens of various cingulum castitatis – male and female chastity belt.

Seems like their goal this fixture does not apply to instruments of torture, but still modern citizens can't pass up such zones, without thinking: "Brrrr, how good that do not practice!". What would you say if I assure you: these belts are not particularly practiced in ancient times? This is nothing more erotic than a myth. Now explain what makes me think so....

It is believed that there is a chastity belt during the Crusades. Going for the glorious victories of the valiant knight locked the belt on his lover and carried away the key. Fragile creatures long months, and sometimes years walking around in a heavy iron linen. Returning from the war, her husband first ran to his wife to hug her and to make sure he didn't hacked anyone the lock and forced him to wear the horns.

And then there is first doubt. Spread this protection could not receive because the woman would be unable for months to go in heavy, almost deep zone (it was only a small hole to answer nature's call). Anyway, what months is it? Even after a week of wearing this design in the groin region began the development of inflammation, suppuration, there would be some irritation. The fact that the chastity belt is not intended to conduct a full hygiene, especially after using the toilet or during menstruation.

According to the scientific blunders, husband, wife zakovali for 3-4 months would be a widower, with a probability of about 35%. After six months of incarceration the risk that a woman will die from infection and inflammation equal to 60%. If we are talking about a year or more, the probability to find his shackled wife alive and well falls to almost zero.

Even if an unhappy wife after wearing the chastity belt did not die by the time I returned caring husband, with almost 100% probability she had a very serious infection of the urinary organs. Given the level of development of medicine since centuries, about the full recovery after removing the belt could not be considered. Very likely the woman was unable to conceive or her condition no longer allowed to bear a healthy child.

So I ask, was whether the husband would put his wife in a chastity belt, knowing that on return she will either be dead or will remain fruitless? I doubt it. Wheresafer would be to sharpen the lady of his heart in a tower and set a guard and servants.

Where did the myth of the universal prevalence of the chastity belt in the middle Ages? Probably the fact that the chastity belt has a certain touch of mystery. The intimate life of people of different ages and countries has always attracted attention. For men chastity belt embody fantasies about sexual gluttony of beautiful ladies, for women is about male brutality and a desire for total control.

Enhances the effect the fact that the styles of belts presented in museums and described in the historical literature, were not deprived of "grace", from which run shivers: two holes for the administration of natural needs "were decorated with" graceful wrought-iron teeth, which in the case of the attempt on the innocence of the ladies was working dangerously. And here's the awesome view pushes another idea – in the fiction of the present invention.

The first image of the chastity belt belongs to 1405. It was a small illustration to the treatise of the German engineer Konrad Keyser's "Bellifortis". However, in the following pages, the author carefully paints the device of the military cloak of darkness, making this book virtually an encyclopedia of fantastic speculation.

Chastity belt frequently mentioned in the medieval stories, portrayed in a humorous engravings. This attribute is often featured in the humorous productions with a typical plot: a rich old husband is going on a trip and dresses her husband in a heavy belt against cheating. As soon as the husband goes over the threshold, into the lady's room runs picaresque view of a young man with a copy of the key in his hand. That is, the chastity belt was not seen as the real means of "antisex" and as an allegory of the stupidity of the jealous husbands. It is unlikely that such a reputation is a tool to widely spread.

Of course, I cannot exclude that the chastity belt was rare and used for the purpose intended. But I don't believe that they were as common as they want to convince us in this historic movies and books about the dark medieval times. In the end, some couples are addicted to BDSM games. And this is make movies and write novels. But that does not mean that such erotic entertainment practiced by all men and women and are considered norms. With the chastity belt the same thing – is nothing more than some element of role-playing game, not a real device that was widely used by jealous husbands.