VERONICA FRANCA (1546 – 1591)

VENETIAN POETESS AND COURTESAN

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Narrator:

“Seeing … in patriarchal terms is two-dimensional.  ‘Adding women’ to the patriarchal framework makes it three-dimensional.  But only when the third dimension is fully integrated and moves with the whole, only when women’s vision is equal with men’s vision, do we perceive the true relations of the whole and the inner connectedness of the parts.”[1]

“Adding women” in historical terms means adding the histories of women from all walks of life: stories of the “sacred” women or virgins or nuns like Enheduanna and Hildegard von Bingen alongside the “married” women like Christine de Pizan alongside “non-proper” women, like prostitutes and courtesans.

As long as women as a group remain divided into these three basic patriarchal subdivisions, we will not be able to construct the true, three-dimensional whole.  As long as women as a group are fragmented within, a true and solid women’s vision of their common past cannot exist.

“Women are not without history, they do not stand outside history.  ‘They are within history in a special position of exclusion in which they have developed their own mode of experiencing, their way of seeing, their culture.’”[2]

VITA OF VERONICA FRANCA

VERONICA’S FAMILY

Veronica:

Sono da famiglia Franca.  We are not patricians; our names do not appear in “Libro d’Oro da Venezia”.  Ma siamo cittadini originari, Venetian citizens by birth.  We even have our very own coat of arms or family shield, which everyone can see “at the entrance of the Calle dei Franchi in the “parocchia” of San Agnese in Venice”[3].  My family, together with the other “subpatriciate” families, is written up in “Libro d’Argente da Venezia”.

Narrator:

“This subpatriciate group constituted the salaried bureaucracy and professional order of Venice.  Denied high governmental positions or a vote in the Great Council (the Maggior Consiglio), this hereditarily defined caste nevertheless occupied positions in the ‘scuole grandi’, the Venetian confraternities, and the chancery.”[4]

Veronica:

I was born in 1546, the only sister to three brothers: Girolamo, Orazio e Serafino. My dear brother Serafino got captured by Turks in 1570, and I do not know whether he is still alive.[5]

My father was Francesco Franco[6].  Mio carissimo padre, I could never trust him with money.[7]

My mother Paola Francasa was “cortigana onesta” like me.  Her name was written in the “Catalogo di tutte le principal et piu honorate cortigiane di Venezia” (The Catalog of All the Principal and the Most Honored Courtesans of Venice) in 1565. She died soon afterwards.[8]

I was married off early, to Paolo Panizza, a doctor.  My mother provided the adequate dowry for this marriage.  We had no children.  I separated from my husband soon after marriage to pursue the profession of a courtesan.  In the 18^th year of my life, I became pregnant, with one of my lovers, probably Jacomo Baballi, but I was never completely sure.  As it was a custom for pregnant women, I wrote my first will in October of 1564 since one can always die during childbirth.  “[I requested] that [Jacomo di Baballi, a noble merchant from Ragusa (Dubrovnik)]… administer the care and financial interests of the boy and girl that was soon to be born, and as a token of [my] love [I bequeathed] to him [my] diamond.”[9]  Mio figlio Achille was born, and I recovered well.  I gave birth to my second son Enea six years later.  His father is Andrea Tron, who “[got] married to the Venetian noblewoman Beatrice da Lezze in 1569.”[10]    All together I had six children but four of them died.  I gave birth to all of them on Friday.[11]

Narrator:

Interestingly, the film “Dangerous Beauty”, which concentrates on the period when Veronica was involved with the Domenico Venier’s literary salon (circa 1570 – 1582), does not show her having any children even though she clearly had two during that period.  In “Letter 39” to Domenico Venier, Veronica apologizes for not “[fulfilling her] duty to answer [his] very gracious letters” earlier.

Veronica:

“I have neglected writing to you not by choice but against my will, since the misfortune has befallen me of my two young sons’ illness these past days – one after another has come down with fever and small pox.”[12]

 

VERONICA: THE HONORED COURTESAN

Narrator:

            “Already in the early sixteenth century, Marin Seruto, a Venetian patrician and famed Venetian diarist, recorded with alarm that there were 11,654 prostitutes in a city of 100,000 people.”[13]

            It is likely that such a large number of women were selling sex in Venice because this city on the Western coast of Adriatic Sea was a large port and commercial town, attracting a lot of men traveling without their female companions.  But there might be another reason that allowed prostitution to flourish in Venice: “paradoxically, foreign travelers’ descriptions of the scenes of Venetian daily life, in which the courtesan assumes a prominent place, often follow their praises of Venice as an exemplum of civic and social concord.”[14],[15]  “Both the social myth of Venetian pleasure seeking and the civic myth of Venice’s unmatched political harmony place a symbolic female figure in central position.  In the sixteen century, the female icon of Venice, depicting the republic’s unmatched social and political concord, joined in one civic figure a representation of Justice or Dea Roma with the Virgin Mary and Venus Anadyomene.”[16]

If the Venetian civic myth places the female icon openly at the center of Venetian social life while at the same time the society locked the “proper” patrician woman (a virgin daughter, a wife and a mother) within the private sphere, then the only real women who assumed the visible female part in the public life of Venice were the “meretrice” (prostitutes), and especially the “cortigane” (courtesans).

The contrast between the Virgin Mary and Venus Anadyomene, inherent in the Venetian civic myth, was constantly present in the real life of the sixteen-century Venice.  The governmental bodies of the secular republic issued law after law trying to regulate the life and appearance of the “meretrice” and “cortigana”.  Patrician men were concerned that tourists would confuse the well-to-do courtesans with their patrician women.  On the other hand, they were alarmed because, besides being expensive, the “[sumptuous attire] challenged male authority”[17]: “Heavy spending on lavish dress could be viewed as doubly assertive, calling visual attention to individual identity and demonstrating the autonomous possession of wealth.”[18]  Therefore, the sumptuary laws were passed not only for “meretrice” and “cortigane” but for patrician women as well.  However, the rules for prostitutes and courtesans were stricter.  They were not allowed to wear “clothes of silk or put on any part of [their] person gold, silver, precious, or even fake jewels,”[19] and especially pearls.  Furthermore, prostitutes and courtesans were not allowed to enter churches during the main celebrations.

The definition of “meretrice” (a woman selling sexual services) and “cortigiane” (or “meretrice sumptuousa”, luxury prostitute), their appearance, and behavior were regulated by the Venetian laws, “the [honored] courtesan never received a precise legal definition of her own in the senate rulings of the sixteen century”[20] in Venice.  While courtesans in general lived in splendor, and were educated to some extent, the “cortigiane oneste”, the honored (meaning privileged, wealthy, recognized) courtesans were the ones who “had intellectual life, [they] played music, and knew the literature of Greece and Rome as well as of the present, [they] mingled with thinkers, writers, and artists.”[21]

 

Veronica:

Ha, the sumptuary laws!  How else would these gentle men suggest courtesans to entertain them if not by our good looks, impeccable and luxurious attire?  Of course, I add to all of these my wit, and knowledge of letters but who would listen to a poorly decked woman no matter how bright she is?  Il mio carissimo amico Tintoretto even painted me with pearls.  “I swear to you that when I saw my portrait, the work of [maestro Tintoretto’s] divine hand, I wondered for a while whether it was a painting or an apparition set before me by some trickery of the devil, not to make me fall in love with myself, as happened to Narcissus (because, thank God, I don’t consider myself so beautiful that I’m afraid to go mad over my own charms.)”[22]  Maestro Tintoretto concentrates “entirely on methods of imitating – no, rather of outdoing – nature, not only in what can be imitated by modeling the human figure, nude or clothed, … but by expressing emotional states as well.”[23]

Si, io sono una cortigana onesta come mia madre.  And you can find my name in the “Catalog of All the Principal and the Most Honored Courtesans” from 1565.  In my high days, I was admired, lavished by gifts and praise by many noble Venetian patricians.  I even entertained, and exchanged gifts with, his majesty, the king of France, Henri III, while he was visiting Venice in 1574.[24]

But there is no shinning destiny for a courtesan.  “Even if fate should be completely favorable and kind to a young woman, this is a life that always turns out to be a misery.  It’s a most wretched thing, contrary to human reason, to subject one’s body and labor to a slavery terrifying even to think of.  To make oneself prey to so many men, at the risk of being stripped, robbed, even killed, so that one man, one day, may snatch away from you everything you’ve acquired from many over such a long time, along with so many other dangers of injury and dreadful contagious diseases; to eat with another’s mouth, sleep with another’s eyes, move accordingly to another’s will, obviously rushing towards the shipwreck of your mind and your body – what greater misery?  What wealth, what luxuries, what delights can outweigh all this?  Believe me, among all the world’s calamities, this is the worst.”[25]

I hired Redofo Vannitelli as a tutor to my son Enea.  It was certain that he and my maid Bortola stole some of my valuables in May of 1580.  But in their fear, people can become heartless and mean.  Vannitelli countered my rightful accusation by denouncing me to the Venetian Inquisition Court.  In October of that same year, I was called to appear before the tribunal on the accusation of practicing witchcraft.

Vannitelli:

“If this witch, this public, masked, and cheating prostitute is not punished, many others will begin to do the same things against the holy Catholic church.”

Veronica:

I had to defend myself “not merely against Vannitelli’s vindictive accusations attesting to [my] ‘dishonest’ behavior but also against charges of performing magical incantations in [my own] house”[26], which were actually performed by some of my servants and their friends against my will.[27]

Narrator:

Veronica was acquitted partially because of her powerful connections with patrician men, and partially because of her successful self-defense.  Unfortunately, her splendid life as a sumptuous and honored courtesan was nearly over.  From her tax report in 1582, it is evident that she was already having financial difficulties.  This financial downfall was probably a result of a variety of factors: her dowry and some other goods were stolen (in spite of several official reports of robbery, she never retrieved the stolen items), Venice had hard time recovering from the devastating plague, and her major benefactor Domenico Venier died in 1582.

THE POETESS VERONICA

Narrator:

Veronica published a collection of poems “Terze Rime” in 1575.  This was very likely a self-published book under the sponsorship of Domenico Venier.  Veronica was not the only courtesan-poetess who put together her own collection of poems.  Tullia D’Aragona, “another courtesan-poet compiled a similar collection.”[28]

Veronica also edited several anthologies in honor of different men.  In her “Familiar Letters” as well as in some of her “Capitoli”, we read about her requests to Domenico Venier and others to contribute their poems to the collections she was working on.  “That she succeeded in realizing her projects is confirmed by the presence of editions and manuscripts in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice.”[29]  These texts suggest that she was well connected in the literary circles in Venice.  She frequented the respected Domenico Venier’s literary salon from 1570 through 1580 when all her literary projects were published.

“Ca’ Venier was the most important gathering place in Venice for intellectuals and writers during the mid-sixteenth century, with the possible exception of the late 1550s, when the Accademia della Fama flourished.  But the Venier household survived the academy’s demise in 1561.”[30]  Domenico Venier was a mentor to many poets and writers including several women among whom were: Moderata Fonte, Irene di Spilimbergo, Gaspara Stampa, Tullia d’Aragona, Veronica Gambara.  (It is interesting to note that there is no mention of these women in any of Veronica’s writing.)

Most of the intellectuals associated with “Ca’ Venier” rejected the Petrarcan poetic forms and use of language.  Under the influence of Domenico Venier whose “interest [was] in retrieving poetic models from a romance vernacular tradition, [the “Ca’ Venier”] poets turned to ode, ecologue, madrigal, tenso, and elegy in the vernacular, which they drew from even earlier roots – not only classical elegiac poets but also the Provençal troubadours.”[31]

Veronica:

I write mostly in “capitolo” form, “a verse form used by thirteenth-century Provençal poets for literary debate.”[32]  “Capitolo” is written in eleven-syllable verse and follows the three-stanza pattern of interlocking rhymes (aba, bcb, cdc, …).  The “proposta/risposta” (challenge/response) way of using “capitolo” was extremely popular among the members of our group, the Ca’ Venier.

Narrator:

Veronica uses this poetic form throughout her collection of poems in “Terze Rime”.  She exchanges verses with several poets, including Domenico Venier, Marco Venier, and Maffio Venier, whose “capitoli” (with the exception of the Maffio Venier’s poem “Veronica, Ver Unica Puttana”) appear alongside her own.

Veronica:

Marco…  Il magnifico Marco Venier, a Domenico’s nephew, a respected patrician of our beloved Venice.  We had… an intriguing relationship.

Marco:

Selected verses of Capitolo 1

Veronica:

Selected verses of Capitolo 2

Narrator:

This poetic dialog with Marco Venier, supported by a few others “capitoli” in “Terze Rime”, probably inspired the screenwriter of the film “Dangerous Beauty”.  The romantic love story between Veronica and Marco is one of the possible interpretations of her love poems.  One would wish that the end of Veronica’s real life would be as happy as the one in the film.  The concluding lines, projected across the image of gondola (where the two lovers passionately embrace) against the landscape of Venetian canals and palaces, tell us that Veronica and Marco were lovers forever after.  A beautiful fairy tale.

Margaret Rosenthal does not end her study “The Honest Courtesan” any better.  She loses herself in the “romantic” literary analysis of Veronica’s last poem “Capitolo 25”, a 565 line long praise of the villa Fume in the countryside of Verona where she stayed during the plague years.

Yet, Veronica’s life did not end in the arms of the beloved or in the beautiful countryside.  We do not know exactly where, how, and in what conditions she died in 1591.  Since she already had financial problems nine years before her death (as seen in the 1582 tax report), she very likely died in far less pleasant surroundings than the film and Rosenthal convey.  As most of the impoverished courtesans, Veronica Franco probably died in some poor prostitutes’ quarter of Venice, forgotten by powerful patricians that admired her at the height of her career as an honored courtesan of Venice.  “No poems, no letters have been discovered in which her death was noticed.  Only the official in charge of death records in Venice entered the event in his register: … 1591, 22 July.  Madam Veronica Franco, forty-five years old, died of fever on 20 July.  Buried in the church of Saint Moisé.”[33]

VERONICA AND WOMEN

Narrator:

“Although [Veronica] was by necessity an individualist making her own way, she also thought in a ‘we plural’ mode about women.  As a courtesan, she wrote about the situation of women who shared her profession, and beyond that, she wrote about the situation of women in general.”[34]

Already in her two wills, we see her concern for young poor women who could not afford a sufficient dowry for a decent marriage.

Veronica:

My first concern was always to provide for my immediate family.  But I never forget other unfortunate women.  I would secure a dowry to this or that young girl or to donate money to Casa delle Zittelle, “a charitable institution founded to shelter poor, unmarried girls, in order to prevent their loss of chastity and the ensuing loss of the possibility of marriage.”[35]

Poor mothers often see the only refuge out of their misery by turning their young daughters into courtesans.  Oh, I wrote many times, I begged these naïve mothers “not to destroy with one single blow [their] own soul[s] and reputation together with [their daughters’]… [They] speak of luck but I [keep telling them] there is nothing worse than giving [oneself] up to fortune that can more easily bring woe than benefit.  Sensible people, in order to avoid being deceived, built on what they have inside of them, and what they can make of themselves.”[36]  Oh, the wretched life of a courtesan, the perils, the injustices, false accusations, …

Maffio Venier, a cousin of Marco Venier:

“Veronica, veritably unique whore,

Franca, id est, foxy, flighty, flimsy, flabby,

Smelly, scrawny, scrimpy, and the biggest scoundrel besides,

Who lives between Castello, Ghetto, and the Customs.

A woman reduced to a monster made of human flesh,

Plaster, chalk, cardboard, leather, and wooden board,

A grisly spook, a scabby [poxy] ogre,

A crocodile, a hippogriff, an ostrich, a knock-kneed mare.

To sing of all that is wrong with you,

Your flaws, your faults,

Would take a hundred concepts,

Thousands of pens and inkwells,

And countless poets,

The prospect of bridges and hospitals.” [37]

Veronica:

Selected verses of Capitolo 16

Narrator:

When Veronica said, “when we women, too, have weapons and training”, she did not mean just physical prowess; she was alluding to education of women that did not exist in any systematic way in her times.  We do not know if she had any formal education (some rare schools for girls existed).  It is more likely that her knowledge was a patchwork of her brothers’ lessons, of her mother’s knowledge (as an honored courtesan she must had some knowledge of literature, Greek, and Latin), and, finally, of the resources in the Domenico Venier’s literary circle.

Cinquecento Italy provided a fertile ground for several women from all walks of life who became known and published as writers and poets.  Two major factors contributed to the favorable disposition of society towards women and their literary endeavors.  Following the example and ideas of an early sixteenth century humanist Pietro Bembo, Italian literati embraced Italian over Latin, and wrote literature in Tuscan, Venetian and other dialects.  Thus, many more women were able to read these new products.  And by developing of print, copies of the same texts became increasingly available.  On the other hand, one strand of Renaissance humanists acknowledged women as individuals with “same spiritual and mental capacities as men and [admitted that women too] may excel in wisdom and action.  Men and women are of the same essence.”[38]

Ludovico Ariosto:

Women, wise and strong and true and chaste

Not only in Greece and Rome

But wherever the sun shines, from the Far East

To the Hesperides, have had their home,

Whose virtues and whose merits are unguessed.

Concerning them historians are dumb:

Contemporary authors, filled with spite,

The truth about such women would not write.

But, women, do not cease on this account

To persevere in works which you do well.

Let not discouragement ambition daunt,

Nor fear that recognition never will

Be yours.  Good no immunity can vaunt

From change, Evil is not immutable,

And if in history your page was blurred,

In modern times your merits will be heard.”[39]

 

CONCLUSION

Narrator:

Veronica Franco’s poems in “Terze Rime” and her letters in “Familiar Letters to Various People” represent the “perfect history”[40] of the courtesan and poetess, of an individual woman whose life was well woven into the fabric of Venice in the second half of the sixteenth century.  She dared to raise her voice when women were supposed to be silent, she succeeded in pursuing an intellectual and public life when women were shut within the domestic sphere, she openly celebrated female sexuality when chastity was one of the highest virtues women could attain.

She used the tools of men to further the cause for women, to defend women against misogynist attacks, and to broaden men’s understanding of women as individuals who posses not only a body but a mind as well.

The mixture of reason and sensuality, present in Veronica’s writings, is what particularly mesmerizes me.  I believe this blending to be an extremely important jewel in the tapestry of the female vision, and an essential piece in the construction of humanity as a three-dimensional whole.[41]

NOTES