The Prince's Person (1964)

[Simon]

   

WAS THE PRINCE OF MANTUA IMPOTENT?
In Italy in 1581-82 this was a question of such, in all respects, consummate political importance — having as it did a bearing on the Prince’s possible marriage to the Duke of Tuscany’s daughter — that the Church was moved to step, as it were, into the breech.
With Vatican sanction, a test, popularly known as the Congress of Venice, was arranged: the Prince was to deflower a virgin in the presence of witnesses, “in a single night, but in three attempts” — Pope Gregory XIII remarking: “The time seems reasonable to Us.”

'Admittedly scabrous. This extensive anecdote is diabolically comic. Gallic irony revelling in Latin folly' - The Time

'Elegantly translated by Peter Fryer, The Prince's Person is quite scurrilous and very, very funny' - Sunday Times

'History presides, a detached comic muse, and the effect is hilarious' - New Statesman