Marakesh 𓅦 on Nostr: #TodayILearned > "Pope Sixtus IV (ca. 1471), who allegedly caught syphilis from one ...
#TodayILearned
> "Pope Sixtus IV (ca. 1471), who allegedly caught syphilis from one of his many mistresses, became the first pope to issue licenses to prostitutes and to levy a tax on their earnings, augmenting vastly the papal revenues in the process. Indeed the Roman Curia partly financed the building of St. Peter's by this tax and the sale of licenses."
— *The Sovereign Individual*, by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg (1997)
#TIL
Published at
2026-08-30 21:58:01 CESTEvent JSON
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