(5) Document 3	Francisco Barbaro, On Wifely Duties, The Earthly Republic ed. Benjamin Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978)
	Francisco Barbaro lived from 1390 to 1454. He was a Venetian nobleman and humanist. He wrote On Wifely Duties as a wedding gift for Lorenzo de' Medici and his wife.
	Indeed, the union of man and wife was first invented (as we said above), and ought to be esteemed especially, for the purpose of procreation The couple must mainly use intercourse in the hope of procreating offspring We can perceive and understand well enough that to most beasts there is a natural urge that leads them to follow certain rules of copulation, so that through the seed of mortal animals these same beasts are made immortal by a perpetual succession Thus, in this way animals provide an example for us who possess a freer and nobler appetite, that we should indulge in sexual intercourse not for pleasure but only for the purpose of procreating offspring Using the words of Julia, the daughter of Augustus, I admonish you that when the ship is full it should admit no more passengers Therefore, we should certainly not consider beasts to be beasts for the very reason that they never have sexual appetites when they are pregnant but only for the sake of procreation But if a woman should transgress these limits, I wish that she will curb herself so that she will be, or at least seem to be, chaste in that sort of temperance from which chastity is derived. It would be conducive to achieving this result if, from the very beginning, husbands would accustom themselves to serving as the helpers of necessity rather than of passion. And wives should bear themselves with decorum and modesty in their married life so that berth affection and moderation will accompany their lovemaking. Lust and unseemly desire are harmful to their dignity and to their husbands, even when they later say nothing about it