16th century
A01=Veronica Franco
advocacy
Author_Veronica Franco
capitoli in terze rime and lettere familiari a diversi
Category=DCF
Category=DNB
Category=DSC
cultural contributions
domenico venier
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_poetry
erotic
eroticism
feminism
gender study
honored courtesan
humanism
humanist education
ideology
intellectual integrity
italian writers
italy
letter writing
letters
literary studies
literature
patronage
poems
poet
poetry
power dynamics
protofeminist
sex
sexual relations
sexuality
subordination
translated works
translation
venice
Product details
- ISBN 9780226259871
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 15 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 15 Feb 1999
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Veronica Franco was a 16th-century Venetian beauty, poet, and protofeminist. This collection presents the eroticism and eloquence that set her apart from the chaste, silent woman prescribed by Renaissance gender ideology. As an "honored courtesan", Franco made her living by arranging to have sexual relations, for a high fee, with the elite of Venice and the many travellers - merchants, ambassadors, even kings - who passed through the city. Courtesans needed to be beautiful, sophisticated in their dress and manners, and elegant, cultivated conversationalists. Exempt from many of the social and educational restrictions placed on women of the Venetian patrician class, Franco used her position to recast "virtue" as "intellectual integrity," offering wit and refinement in return for patronage and a place in public life. Franco became a writer by allying herself with distinguished men at the centre of her city's culture, particularly in the informal meetings of a literary salon at the home of Domenico Venier, the oldest member of a noble family and a former Venetian senator.
Through Venier's protection and her own determination, Franco published work in which she defended her fellow courtesans, speaking out against their mistreatment by men and criticizing the subordination of women in general. Venier also provided literary counsel when she responded to insulting attacks written by the male Venetian poet Maffio Venier. Franco's insight into the power conflicts between men and women and her awareness of the threat she posed to her male contemporaries make her life and work pertinent today.
