Sexual Positions
In the Third Tale of the Ninth Day (IX.3), we witness an especially amusing episode wherein the fool Calandrino is tricked by his companions into believing he is pregnant. He immediately blames his wife for his supposed condition: "Ah, Tessa, this is your doing! You will insist on lying on top. I told you all along what would happen" (661).
While we are meant to laugh at Calandrino's ridiculous comment, his explanation relies on contemporary canonical opinions regarding sexual positions. According to the church, any sexual positions other than what is now termed the "missionary position" (with the man lying on top of the woman) could not be condoned and were considered "unnatural." Just as we see in the Calandrino story, there were fears of reversing the natural order of male and female sexuality by having the female on top, in the superior or active role normally reserved for men. Intercourse a tergo, or from the rear, implied a similar threat; it was considered "beastly," and thus it confused the boundaries between human and animal behavior (Brundage, "Sex and Canon Law," 40). In fact, we can see an example of this in Dioneo's tale on the Tenth Day, IX.10, in which Father Gianni attempts to convince Neighbor Pietro that he can turn his wife into a mare by having sex with her from behind; thus, the position has "beastly" connotations even in Boccaccio's writing.
Anal and oral sexual practices were also considered unacceptable to Church authorities, but for a slightly different reason. These were seen as acts against nature, not because they interfered with standard male and female roles during intercourse, but because neither could possibly lead to procreation, which was considered the primary - and according to many purists the only - purpose of sexual interactions. Anal and oral intercourse were simply a means for sexual gratification, which the majority of canonists and theologians viewed as sinful in itself.
Some strange opinions existed regarding non-standard positions that could in fact lead to procreation (such as sex from behind). For example, suggestions that children conceived in "unnatural" positions might experience birth defects can be found in the famous thirteenth-century treatise De Secretis Mulierum (The Secrets of Women). Some authors even believed that personal preferences for certain sexual positions were determined by the order of the planets at one's birth (Brundage, 452).
As for punishments inflicted on those engaging in sexual intercourse in deviant positions, the earlier Penitentials (handbooks for confessors) had some very harsh suggestions: three years' penance for the woman on top and the same for both oral intercourse and sex a tergo, which was generally seen as the most sinful position, anal intercourse excepted.
Despite the fact that general opinion on the acceptability of non-standard positions remained static during most of the Middle Ages, some more progressive theologians and canonists began to question these ideas. Albertus Magnus, for example, named five sexual positions and ranked then in order of most to least "natural" as follows: missionary, side-by-side, seated, standing and a tergo. Although he considered the first to be the only completely "natural" position, he deemed the others "morally questionable but not mortally sinful" (Brundage, 452). In addition, he and others declared that in certain situations (involving extreme obesity, for example [cf. I.4]), positions other than the missionary position could be not only acceptable but even practical.
(A.M.S.) Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. Trans. G. H. McWilliam. New York: Penguin, 1972.
Brundage, James A. Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe. Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Brundage, James A. "Sex and Canon Law." Handbook of Medieval Sexuality. Vern L. Bullough and James A. Brundage, eds. New York: Garland, 1996. pp. 33-50.