The Banquet of Chestnuts, known more properly as the Ballet of Chestnuts, refers to a fête in Rome, and particularly (in historical terms) to a decadent banquet thrown on October 30, 1501, by Rodrigo Borgia, who had become Pope Alexander VI by this time.

The banquet was thrown in the apartment of the apostolic palazzo with, it is said, upwards of fifty prostitutes or courtesans in attendance. After the food was eaten, candles were lit and placed on the floor and chestnuts strewn about, which the prostitutes, naked and crawling between the candelabras, were encouraged to pick up. According to the diarist Johann Burchard, the papal Master of Ceremonies, an orgy then ensued.

According to William Manchester, "Servants kept score of each man's orgasms, for the pope greatly admired virility and measured a man's machismo by his ejaculative capacity. After everyone was exhausted, His Holiness distributed prizes — cloaks, boots, caps, and fine silken tunics. The winners [according to Burchard] were those who made love with those courtesans the greatest number of times." (1)

See also

• List of sexually active popes
• Pornocracy

References

• (1) William Manchester, A World Lit only by Fire, p. 79. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, New York and London, 1992. ISBN 0316545562
• John Burchard, Pope Alexander VI and his Court. Extracts from the Latin Diary of the Papal Master of Ceremonies, 1484–1506. Ed. F. L. Glaser, New York, 1921.