The famous courtesans were always one of the attractions of Venice. People came from all over, for the carnival, for the gambling and for the courtesans.
Venetian Stories
This post is an issue of our newsletter — Venetian Stories — which goes out every few weeks, to keep in touch and share stories and titbits from and about Venice and its history.
Everybody came for the courtesans.
When Henry III of Poland and France came to Venice on an official visit in 1574, the Republic of Venice made sure that he had the pleasant company of Veronica Franco, poetess and one of the most renowned Venetian courtesans of the time.
Veronica Franco is also mentioned in a rather curious document, which has survived to our times in just a few handwritten copies.
It is the Catalogo di tutte le principal et più honorate Cortigiane di Venetia — or the “Catalogue of all the principal and most honoured Courtesans of Venice.”
The introduction to the document speaks for itself:
THIS IS THE CATALOGUE of all the principal and most honoured Courtesans of Venice, their names, and the names of their go-betweens, and the rooms where they live, and even more it tells you about the district where their rooms are, and also the amount of money that those Gentlemen have to pay, who wish to enter into their grace.
Veronica Franco is number 204 on the list, and the entry simply reads:
Veronica Franca, at Santa Maria Formosa, go-between her mother, scudi 2
Her mother, Francesca, is also on the list as number 192:
Paula Franca, at Santa Maria Formosa, go-between her self, scudi 2.
A scudo was a medium-sized gold coin in common use at the time.
Prices
Almost two thirds of the 212 women on the list charged one or two scudi for their services. A few simply had “give what you want” as the price.
Some charged more, and some a lot more, up to 25 and 30 scudi.
How much was that?
It is very difficult to compare the value of money from the past because it depends on so many factors.
There is, however, one woman on the list who has an interesting note:
Franceschina Zaffetta, from Padova, lives in Cannaregio near the Ponte di Legno, near the baker, go-between her mother Madalena and Margarita Schiavona her servant lives in the ‘Paradise’ houses, pays rent of scudi 40. Scudi 6
It gives the impression that it is a high rent, and probably a quite nice home. Still, just one client a month would pay her rent easily.
In the Curiosità Veneziane by Giuseppe Tassini, we have an entry where in 1551, the celebrity playwright Pietro Aretino lived in a house near the Rialto, paid for by the Duke of Florence. It amounted to sixty scudi annually.
Another sign that many of these women did all right economically, is that in numerous cases the go-between is given as “her servant.”
Veronica Franco owned a house near San Moisè, which was looted during the plague epidemic of 1575–77, when she had left the city with her children.
Names, surnames and nicknames
Many of the names on the list are entirely plausible surnames. Several indicate crafts, probably that of their fathers, such as Caleghera (shoemaker), Favreta (smith), Tajapiera (stonecutter), Fornera (baker), Mastelera (basketmaker).
Others are derived from nearby cities and areas, like Furlana (from Friuli), Padovana (from Padova), Buranella (from Burano), Visentina (from Vicenza), and Trevisana (from Treviso). These are still common names in Venice today.
Some names stick out a bit, and might not be the real names. There are names related to physical characteristics, like Laureta Picola (small), Laura Grassa (fat), Elena Granda (big) and Laura Sporca (dirty). All of these, however, could also be proper names.
Then there are some more dubious names. There’s Isabella Bell’occhio, which means pretty eye, but it could also be a proper name. Vetorella Bella man apparently had nice hands, or maybe she did ‘nice’ things with her hands.
A bit more direct is Anzola Pesta la Salsa. The word pestare means to grind something in a mortar, and salsa was any kind of liquid condiment for food, but I suspect the name refers to certain repetitive movements of her hands, which perhaps she did a bit forcefully. Anzola means angel, but it wouldn’t be an odd name for a girl. It is the same as Angela.
Then, there’s a Lucietta Cul Streto, which literally means tight ass.
The name Orsetta mi nol vogio is a bit disconcerting. It literally means “I don’t want it” or “I don’t want him.” It might be a joke, or it might be something far more sinister.
A printed catalogue?
Apparently, somebody saw a business opportunity in this catalogue, or something similar.
In the archives of the Esecutori contro la Biastema — the Executors against Blasphemy, which were a kind of moral police — there is a case from 1566 against a printer named Hieronimo Calepin.
He was charged with having “printed the tariff of the whores without licence,” and given a fine of one Venetian ducat per copy confiscated. Another man, who had tried to sell the printed lists on the streets of Venice, was released from prison because he was destitute.
Nothing could be printed in Venice without a licence from the authorities, and it goes without saying that a petition to print the prices of the city’s prostitutes most likely wouldn’t get an affirmative answer.
Dating the catalogue
The handwritten lists aren’t dated, but it is quite common to see them dated to 1566, due to this legal case.
However, since none of the printed lists have survived — most likely they were burned by the Executors against Blasphemy — we cannot know if it was the same list.
Most attempts at putting a year on the catalogue focus on the presence or absence of courtesans known from other sources, and it is generally accepted that the catalogue must be from the 1560s, and definitely before the plague of 1575.
More about the catalogue
- Catalogo di tutte le principal et più honorate Cortigiane di Venetia (Venetian original)
- Catalogue of all the principal and most honoured Courtesans of Venice (English translation)
- A catalogue of Venetian prostitutes
- Commentary on the catalogue.
- Prostitution in Venice
Bibliography
Leggi e memorie venete sulla prostituzione fino alla caduta della Republica, a spese del conte di Oxford, 1870-72. Venezia, Tipografia del Commercio di Marco Visentini, 1872.
Tassini, Giuseppe. Curiosità Veneziane ovvero Origini delle denominazioni stradali di Venezia. 1863.
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