It turns out that the chastity belts I saw at the Rothenburg Germany torture museum were most likely made in 19th century England, and the foolish devices were never used at all.
They certainly were no used by knights during The Crusades in the 1200s, as not a single reference exists to them in the literature.
All this I learned at a lecture this evening, “The Myth of the Chastity Belt,” by University of Arizona distinguished research professor Dr. Albrecht Classen.
It was a fascinating, riveting talk by a dynamic speaker. He really made the Middle Ages come alive, and he wove arguments of epistemology and evidence into his talk.
If I hadn’t visited the museum 15 years ago, I likely would not have had my curiosity sufficiently piqued to venture over to the Foreign Languages building.
Sorry the picture is a little blurry, but it’s got a chastity belt. So you win some, you lose some.
I'm a cognitive scientist and communication scholar who manages a psychophysiology lab at Texas Tech. I teach courses about the cognitive processing of media messages and research methods.
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…but you do still want to get 4 of them?