Supposedly spurious devices used to prevent infidelity and for birth control. The first chastity belts were developed and used in Italy in the 14th century, and the custom spread across Europe. Attempts to use such devices made them the object of satirical stories and obscene jokes throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1889, however, the skeleton of a female still wearing a chastity belt was discovered in a 15th-century Austrian grave. In the early 20th century, chastity belts became the subject of museum displays and private erotica collections. The most famous public collection was that displayed at the Cluny Museum in Paris, while the most notorious assemblage was in the possession of Egyptian King Farouk I—though the latter collection was rivaled by that of eccent
By the 19th century, the demand for chastity belts was much greater than the supply, and a small industry developed to fulfill collectors’ needs. Given the cruelties and crudities of the Middle Ages, people were prepared to believe husbands widely employed these devices. However, by the middle of the 20th century, it was found that the overwhelming majority of those in existence were forgeries. Not only would the wearing of chastity belts have been terribly uncomfortable, but they would have made simple acts like sitting down impossible. More importantly, they would have been impossible to keep clean, in spite of the hole through which feces, urine, and other bodily fluids could theoretically pass.