Poems and Selected Letters by Veronica Franco

Her later life is largely obscure, though surviving records suggest that although she won her freedom, she lost all of her material goods and wealth. There is evidence that her connections among the Venetian nobility helped in her acquittal. On her return in 1577, she defended herself with dignity in an Inquisition for witchcraft trial (a common complaint lodged against courtesans in those days). In 1575, during the epidemic of plague that ravaged the city, Veronica Franco was forced to leave Venice and lost much of her wealth when her house and possessions were looted. Successful in her two lines of work, Franco also founded a charity for courtesans and their children. She published books of letters and collected the works of other leading writers into anthologies. Franco was listed as one of the foremost courtesans of Venice in Il Catalogo di tutte le principale et piu honorate cortigiane di Venezia.Ī well-educated woman, Veronica Franco wrote two volumes of poetry: Terze rime in 1575 and Lettere familiari a diversi in 1580. In order to support herself, Franco turned to serving as a cortigiana to wealthy men.She quickly rose through the ranks to consort with some of the leading notables of her day and even had a brief liaison with Henry III, King of France. While still in her teens, Franco married a wealthy physician, but the union ended badly.

The daughter of another cortigiana onesta, Franco learned the art at a young age from her mother and was trained to use her natural assets and abilities to achieve a financially beneficial marriage.

Veronica Franco was perhaps the most celebrated member of the former category, although Franco was hardly the only onesta in 16th-century Venice who could boast of a fine education and considerable literary and artistic accomplishments. Renaissance Venetian society recognized two different classes of courtesans: the cortigiana onesta, the intellectual courtesan, and the cortigiana di lume, lower-class courtesans (closer kin to prostitutes today) who tended to live and practice their trade near the Rialto Bridge.

Poems and Selected Letters by Veronica Franco