Veronica Franco (–1591) was an Italian poet and courtesan in 16th-century Venice. She is known for her notable clientele, feminist advocacy, literary contributions, and philanthropy. Her humanist education and cultural contributions influenced the roles of courtesans in the late Venetian Renaissance.

In her notable works, Capitoli in Terze rime and Lettere familiari a diversi ("Familiar Letters to Various People"), Franco uses perceived virtue, reason, and fairness to advise male patricians and other associates. She exercised greater autonomy in her authorship than any other traditional Venetian woman due to her established reputation and influence.

Early life and education

Veronica Franco was born to a family in the Cittadino class. She developed her position in Renaissance Venetian society as a cortigiana onesta (Honest Courtesan), who were intellectual sex workers who derived their position in society from refinement and cultural prowess. They served in contrast to other sex workers such as cortigiana di lume or meretrice ('harlots') who were lower-class prostitutes.

Franco received a respectable humanistic education at a young age from her brother's tutor, an unusual opportunity for Venetian women. She continued her education by mixing with learned men, writers, and painters.

Franco learned additional skills from her mother, Paola Fracassa, who had an interest in finding suitable clients for her, as well as marrying her off.

Career

Franco wrote two volumes of poetry: Terze rime in 1575 and Lettere familiari a diversi in 1580.

In 1565, when she was about 20 years old, Veronica Franco was listed in the Catalogo de tutte le principal et più honorate cortigiane di Venetia (Catalog of all the Principal and most Honored Courtesans of Venice), which gave the names, addresses, and fees of Venice's most prominent prostitutes; her mother was listed as the person to whom the fee should be paid (her "go-between").

She became involved in the 1570s with Domenico Venier's renowned literary salon in Venice, who served as a literary adviser not only to male writers but also to many women poets of the Veneto region.

As one of the più honorate cortigiane in a wealthy and cosmopolitan city, Franco lived well for much of her working life, but without the automatic protection accorded to "respectable" women, she had to make her own way. She studied and sought patrons among the learned.

In 1575, during the epidemic of plague that ravaged the city, Franco was forced to leave Venice and lost much of her wealth when her house and possessions were looted.

The embodiment of her role in the public realm was made evermore tangible, amongst the literary circles and the Venetian public during her polemic literary battle with Maffio Venier. The poem referenced above, Capitolo XVI, A Challenge to a Poet Who Has Defamed Her, is believed to have been one of the many directed to Maffio Venier. These poems are Capitolo XIII, Capitolo XVI, and Capitolo XXIII of her literary publication Terze Rime.

Personal life

From extant records, we know that, by the time she was 18, Franco was briefly married to a mature, wealthy physician named Paolo Panizza. During her marriage she gave birth to her first child. She would eventually have six children, three of whom died in infancy.

Catherine McCormack portrays Veronica Franco in the 1998 movie Dangerous Beauty, released as A Destiny of Her Own in some countries, based on Rosenthal's book.

In the 2000s Franco prompted scholarly inquiries on "what it meant to be a public woman in Cinquecento Venice". This directly pertained to her duality as both a courtesan and a published poet. Franco is said to have been a "living performance of public art—a renowned courtesan whose body was available to a certain exclusive clientele, a published author, and a public presence."

In 2013, her work was interpreted as adopting "a position of public authority that calls attention to her education, her rhetorical skill, and the solidarity she feels with women." In her writing she embodied a duality, toggling between and addressing matters of both private and public life. Her publications have allowed her work and proto-feminist efforts to transcend time.

Further reading

  • sample of poems and letters by Veronica Franco 2013 Veronica Franco Project, USC Dornsife.
  • portraits, attributed to Tintoretto 2013 Veronica Franco Project, USC Dornsife..
  • Michael Asimow, Dangerous Beauty: The Trial of a Courtesan UCLA Law School, (May 1998).
  • Rosenthal, Margaret F., "Veronica Franco's Terze Rime (1575): The Venetian Courtesan's Defense" Renaissance Society of America Renaissance Quarterly 42:2 (Summer 1989) 227-257
  • Adler, Sara Maria. "Veronica Franco's Petrarchan Terze rime: Subverting the Master's Plan," Italica 65: 3 (1988): 213–33.
  • Diberti-Leigh, Marcella. Veronica Franco: Donna, poetessa e cortigiana del Rinascimento. Ivrea, Italy, 1988.
  • Jones, Ann R. The Currency of Eros: Women's Love Lyric in Europe, 1540–1620. Bloomington and Indianapolis, Ind., 1990.
  • Phillipy, Patricia. "'Altera Dido': The Model of Ovid's Heroides in the Poems of Gaspara Stampa and Veronica Franco," Italica 69 (1992): 1-18.
  • Stefano Bianchi, La scrittura poetica femminile nel Cinquecento veneto: Gaspara Stampa e Veronica Franco, Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 2013.

References

  • Biography
  • Project Continua: Biography of Veronica Franco