Metti Massere — agent of servants and maids — Zompini — Arti #42
Metti Massere — plate 42
The Arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia (1753, 1770, 1785, etc.), by Gaetano Zompini (1700–1778), contains sixty engravings of common, mostly poor people, peddling their trades on the streets of Venice in the mid-1700s.
Gaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 42 – Metti Massere – agent of servants and maidsGaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 42 – Metti Massere – agent of servants and maids – coloured
Text
El nostro nome xe meti massere;
Perche loghemo done per servir:
Ma semo a dirla quasi mai sinciere.
Translation
Our name is servant-placers; Because we let women to serve: But we're, to speak clearly, rarely sincere.
Notes
The meti massere were agents for domestic servants, so whoever needed a servant could go to one of these agents.
Don Questini, who wrote these poems, might have had some bad experiences with the meti massere.
Sometimes the meti massere would let the girl for other services too (#117 on the list).
All images
Gaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 42 – Metti Massere – agent of servants and maids (42b) – studyGaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 42 – Metti Massere – agent of servants and maids (42) – studyGaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 42 – Metti Massere – agent of servants and maids – colouredGaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 42 – Metti Massere – agent of servants and maids
Zompini, Gaetano. Le arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia inventate ed incise da Gaetano Zompini, Aggiuntavi una memoria di detto autore. Venezia, 1785. [more] 🔗
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