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.
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
Related articles
Bibliography
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.
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