One of the world’s oldest surviving condom from 1640.
It is still completely intact and was part of an exhibit devoted to The Cultural History of Sex at the Tyrolean County Museum in Austria back in 2006. The exhibit also included a condom from 1813 that was made out of pig intestines and was designed to be reusable.
It was accompanied with a user manual written in Latin that recommended the user to dip it in warm milk “to avoid diseases when sleeping with prostitutes”. While some may find this to be bizarre, it was a huge improvement over the recommendation provided by ancient Egyptians, which was to use crocodile dung.
In 16th-century Italy, Gabriele Falloppio (yes, fallopian tubes are named after him) was the first person to write about condoms and advocated its use to prevent syphillis aka De Morbo Gallico (“The French Disease”). In his writings, he recommends the use of linen sheaths soaked in a chemical solution and dried out before use. Fallopio also claimed to have run it through clinical trials with 1,100 men and reported that none of them contracted the disease.
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