Welcome to not just the tutors from History Hit.

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And if you're an app or listener, you can subscribe for new ad-free episodes within the app. Perhaps surprisingly, the first surviving mention of a condom dates to the mid-16th century and is in the writings of an Italian

anatomist better known for the discovery of the fallopian tubes. Born out of a

medical need to prevent the spread of syphilis, the condom was originally made from fabric,

normally linen, and later from animal cuts. They were multi-use, not particularly effective in stopping the spread of disease, and,

delightfully, some examples survive today.

In practice, condoms were merely the newest invention in a long history of contraceptive methods.

But how effective were these treatments, and how common was contraceptive use?

Did advances in technology come with changing attitudes towards sex, perhaps even sexual freedoms.

Joining me today is Dr Kate Stevenson, formerly cultural historian at the National Trust of Scotland,

whose work as a dress historian has taken her on a journey of discovery into the origins of the condom.

Dr Stevenson, welcome to not just the tutors. Thanks for having me. So can you first of all give some sense of the scene when it comes to contraception in the 16th and the 17th centuries.

What were the most common forms? Were they effective?

Yes, absolutely. As you can imagine with any subject that relates to sex, our information is a little bit disparate.

So we are drawing on religious texts, we're drawing on maybe an entry in a diary, maybe surviving examples if we're lucky,

but it is very spread out and we are making connections based on just a few examples or just a few pieces of evidence.

So some of that's quite hard to answer.

We definitely know that contraception was in use and we know that for a couple of reasons.

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