Antonio Rocco

Who was Antonio Rocco?

Antonio Rocco was an Italian priest and philosophy teacher, and a writer. Ever since 1888 when he was identified as its anonymous author, he is best known for his satirical homosexual text, L'Alcibiade, fanciullo a scola, written in 1630 and published in 1652.

The work was immediately suppressed, and only ten copies survived the attempts to destroy the whole print run. The survival of the work led to, in 1862, to its translation and publishing in Italian. Again the work elicited immediate condemnation. It was denounced by the police as a liber spurcissimus and largely destroyed.