Early Modern European Men Describe Things They Claim are Forbidden for Them to See

In my opinion, Ottaviano Bon represents the last of the male-authored accounts that appear to be solidly "original" as opposed to potentially recycling the material of previous authors. He also introduces the second motif that gets repeated by other authors: the cucumber anecdote. But overall, his descriptions are vague and ambiguous with regard to whether he's describing lesbian relations among Ottoman women, as opposed to unauthorized self-stimulation. (If a valuable attribute of young women in the sarail is the physical attributes of virginity, self-stimulation involving penetration is enough to be considered "wantonness" or "beastly uncleanness" within patriarchal society.)