Laudator Temporis Acti

Barbara C. Bowen, One Hundred Renaissance Jokes: An Anthology (Birmingham: Summa Publications, Inc., 1988), pp. 25-26:

29. A Joke about Urinating (200, [Motto del Piovano Arlotto sendo in una compagnia che orinavano])

Andando a solazzo con certi suoi amici el detto Piovano, tutti si fermorono a orinare e il Piovano con loro insieme; e agiunsevi che fe' uno terribile peto, in modo che tutti si maravigliorono. Disse il Piovano: —Pigliate voi ammirazione sì grande d'uno peto abbi fatto: or non vi pare egli che uno trombone istà bene tra tanti pifferi?⁷

Witty remark made by Arlotto in a group of men urinating

While Arlotto was going to an outing with some of his friends, they all stopped to urinate, and Arlotto with them; and it happened that he let out a terrific fart, so that they were all astonished. But Arlotto said: "You are so astonished by the fart I produced, but don't you think that a trombone goes well with so many whistles?"<sup>7

7</sup> Breaking wind while urinating is a topic later discussed by the French doctor Laurent Jouben in his Erreurs populaires (1578).

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