Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener discretion advised. Around the
Speaker 1: halfway point of the nineteen ninety eight drama film Dangerous Beauty,
Speaker 1: the movie's protagonist points a sword at the throat of
Speaker 1: the man who has just publicly mocked her, and she
Speaker 1: challenges him to a duel. What follows is a battle
Speaker 1: of both body and wit, as the swordsman and swordswoman
Speaker 1: trade poetic verses while.
Speaker 2: Engaging in a flamboyant fencing match that ends on a
Speaker 2: boat in a Venetian canal. It's very cinematic and an
Speaker 2: incredibly fun scene to watch. I'm especially fond of the
Speaker 2: classic moment when our heroine finds the fabric of her
Speaker 2: dress punctured, so she removes the skirt to reveal a
Speaker 2: pair of pants underneath in a bit of delightful nineties
Speaker 2: feminist revisionistm The fight in the movie is a turning
Speaker 2: point for these two characters, who have previously been cordial.
Speaker 2: Earlier in the film, both of them poets had worked
Speaker 2: in harmony to exalt Venice's beauty. Now our heroine's lines
Speaker 2: are criticizing her partner's disregard for the minds of women
Speaker 2: while he's calling her a whore. He is Mafio Venier
Speaker 2: and she is Veronica Franco, and as it happens, both
Speaker 2: of their accusations about the other are true. The movie
Speaker 2: Dangerous Beauty takes a lot of artistic liberty as a
Speaker 2: biopic of the Venetian courtesan and writer Veronica Franco, though
Speaker 2: it does pull from the true history found at its
Speaker 2: source material, the biography The Honest Courtesan by Margaret Rosenthal.
Speaker 2: The basic story of the movie is factual. Veronica Franco,
Speaker 2: the daughter of a cortesan, rose from obscurity to the
Speaker 2: heights of Venetian society, entertaining and serving many high ranking men,
Speaker 2: including a young Henry the Third of France. The film
Speaker 2: depicts imagined details of their let's say, exploratory encounter in
Speaker 2: a scene you will have to watch for yourself. More extraordinarily, though,
Speaker 2: in real life, Veronica used her accumulated influence to publish
Speaker 2: her own writing and advocate for the rights of her
Speaker 2: fellow Venetian women. Where truth and fiction diverge is in
Speaker 2: the details. For example, the film's central love story between
Speaker 2: Veronica and Mafio's cousin, Marco, was based on a real relationship,
Speaker 2: just not one that would have been quite as swoonworthy
Speaker 2: without embellishment. The movie also takes a few liberties with
Speaker 2: regards to that battle between Veronica and Mafio. In real life,
Speaker 2: it was only scathing poems going back and forth, not swords,
Speaker 2: while blood may have been drawn on screen. The film
Speaker 2: keeps things lighter with regards to the intellectual violence of
Speaker 2: the real Mafio's virulent and darkly misogynistic verses about Franco
Speaker 2: in real life, where did his extreme hatred of Veronica
Speaker 2: stem from? There's some crossover between art and history. The
Speaker 2: movie portrays him as jealous that Dominico, his wealthy uncle,
Speaker 2: was more supportive of Veronica's literary ambitions rather than his own,
Speaker 2: and it portrays him as bitter that Veronica rejected his
Speaker 2: advances years earlier. Seems to be quite true, but there's
Speaker 2: no evidence to support the latter. The sword fighting scene
Speaker 2: in the movie ends with Veronica triumphant, but Mafio, now
Speaker 2: on the other side of the court's laughter, delivers a
Speaker 2: sucker punch to her jaw. It's an apt metaphor for
Speaker 2: life as a courtesan. For all of her success and
Speaker 2: status in Venetian high society, Veronica was never safe from
Speaker 2: the violent whims of men. It was those violent whims
Speaker 2: that would eventually place Veronica Franco in front of the
Speaker 2: Catholic Inquisition, accused of witchcraft. I'm Danas Schwartz and this
Speaker 2: is noble blood. Veronica Franco was born in fifteen forty
Speaker 2: six to Paula Fracassa and Francesco Franco, and she was
Speaker 2: the only daughter of of their four children. While not noble,
Speaker 2: the Franco family were part of a cast known as
Speaker 2: the citizens by birth, which is a group that made
Speaker 2: up much of Venice's salaried bureaucracy at the time. Though
Speaker 2: this citizen try were denied noble privileges, including high governmental
Speaker 2: positions or a vote in the Great Council. They could
Speaker 2: also be members of the co fraternities or Great Schools
Speaker 2: of Venice, which were powerful lay religious societies. It's unknown
Speaker 2: whether or not Veronica received an education as a girl,
Speaker 2: but it's likely that she was able to sit in
Speaker 2: on lessons with her three brothers' private tutor. Even that
Speaker 2: small liberty, though was more than most women received. In fact,
Speaker 2: any access to education was outside of the norm. For reference,
Speaker 2: the Italian Renaissance scholar Paul F. Grendler sites that fewer
Speaker 2: than four percent of Venetian women had any public schooling
Speaker 2: in the fifteen eighties, and only ten to twelve percent
Speaker 2: were literate. Men, by contrast, had a thirty percent literacy
Speaker 2: rate during the same period. The women who did receive
Speaker 2: education were from the nobility and upper classes, but even
Speaker 2: then their schooling was typically limited to rudimentary reading and writing,
Speaker 2: just enough to learn religious principles and prepare to run
Speaker 2: a major household. Veronica's rise to prominence as a writer
Speaker 2: and courtesan was as a result, fueled by her determination
Speaker 2: to educate herself later in life. It makes a little
Speaker 2: sense to pause here and define what and who exactly
Speaker 2: a courtesan is in the context of today's episode. Just
Speaker 2: as the English word courtizan derives from the masculine courtier,
Speaker 2: meaning a man who serves at court, the Italian cortegiana
Speaker 2: derives from the masculine cortegiano. The distinction between the cortegiana
Speaker 2: and the meretrice or traditional prostitute can be a bit
Speaker 2: blurry at times, but there were some key distinctions. For example,
Speaker 2: the courtesant clientele would be of the elite classes, noblemen, merchants,
Speaker 2: even men of the cloth. She would attract this clientele
Speaker 2: through her beauty and luxurious dress, as well as her
Speaker 2: cultural knowledge. She could play music, recite poetry, or recall
Speaker 2: the Greek and Roman classics. The best could do all
Speaker 2: of the above. Sex was, of course at the core
Speaker 2: of the relationship between a courtizan and her patron, but
Speaker 2: it was her unique skill as a conversation partner that
Speaker 2: would lead a man of means to seek her services
Speaker 2: as opposed to the services of a maritrice. The courtisan
Speaker 2: is in many ways similar to the Japanese geisha, who's
Speaker 2: a good reference point thanks to her enduring cultural legacy.
Speaker 2: Their intellectual talents are also what earned these women the
Speaker 2: title of quote honest courtisan. Honest in this instance can
Speaker 2: be defined as respected or recognized. After all, courtisans were
Speaker 2: expected to sell a fantasy, not deliver harsh truths, as
Speaker 2: the name courtisan implies. She also attended social functions of
Speaker 2: the court and was often allowed in spaces that even
Speaker 2: noble women were prohibited from. While a Venetian noblewoman would
Speaker 2: have greater power and status than a courtesan, her life
Speaker 2: would be confined to the private, domestic sphere. Despite their differences,
Speaker 2: the courtesan and the noble women were sometimes visually indistinguishable
Speaker 2: thanks to their comparable means and taste. In his famed
Speaker 2: fifteen ninety book of Costumes, the publisher Cesare Verrelio notes
Speaker 2: that quote, Indeed, at times, some of these courtesans dressed
Speaker 2: like widows and look very much like Venetian noblewomen to
Speaker 2: those who are not familiar with their condition end quote.
Speaker 2: This was very concerning to Venetian authorities, who made frequent
Speaker 2: attempts to distinguish sex workers from other women by mandating
Speaker 2: that they wear a yellow scarf in public or forbidding
Speaker 2: them from wearing certain fabrics and materials, laws which were
Speaker 2: repeatedly soundly ignored, especially by the courtesan. The Republic repeatedly
Speaker 2: attempted to construct legal qualifications as to what separated a
Speaker 2: courtesan from a noble woman, as well as a courtesan
Speaker 2: from a meritrice, but throughout the first half of the
Speaker 2: sixteenth century, their efforts were in vain. While many rejected
Speaker 2: the courtesan place in society, and many more would in
Speaker 2: the latter half of the century. Courtesans at this time
Speaker 2: were integral to the city's identity. Venice, known for its
Speaker 2: beauty and luxury goods, prized the courtesan as a jewel
Speaker 2: of society. Visitors sought to gaze upon Venice's courtesans as
Speaker 2: one would any tourist attraction, as the eccentric English travel
Speaker 2: writer Thomas Corriet described in sixteen o eight quote as
Speaker 2: for the number of these Venetian courtesans, it is very
Speaker 2: good rate, at the least twenty thousand, whereof many are
Speaker 2: esteemed so loose they are said to open their quivers
Speaker 2: to every arrow end quote. The number is certainly an exaggeration,
Speaker 2: but such a figure fits with Venice's historical reputation as
Speaker 2: a city of pleasure. So now let's return to Veronica's life.
Speaker 2: The Francos were not of the lowest economic class, as
Speaker 2: has been theorized by some historians in the past. But
Speaker 2: it does not appear Francesco had any government position, and
Speaker 2: so the family certainly would need to work to support themselves.
Speaker 2: For women who needed to do that, options were quite limited.
Speaker 2: In Veronica's mother Paula's case, she supported herself as a courtesan.
Speaker 2: It was Paula who introduced her daughter to the profession,
Speaker 2: and we know Veronica established herself as a courtesan by
Speaker 2: around age eighteen. The Catalog of All the Principal and
Speaker 2: most Honored Courtesans of Venice, printed likely around fifteen sixty five,
Speaker 2: is a famed published list of two hundred and twelve
Speaker 2: actively working courtesans, including Veronica Franco. Each woman is identified
Speaker 2: by name, location, fee, and who there pizza or go
Speaker 2: between is. For Veronica, the listed go between is her
Speaker 2: mother Paula. Talk about Mamager, you can imagine the you're
Speaker 2: doing amazing sweetie of the sixteenth century. While Veronica enjoyed
Speaker 2: great success in her career, evidence from her published collection
Speaker 2: Familiar Letters reveals that she may have wanted to choose
Speaker 2: a different path for herself. In one letter, she implores
Speaker 2: a friend and fellow courtesan not to introduce her daughter
Speaker 2: to their profession, offering instead to pay the daughter's way
Speaker 2: to a home dedicated to young impoverished women. Veronica wrote, quote,
Speaker 2: to make one's self prey to so many men, at
Speaker 2: the risk of being stripped, robbed, even killed, along with
Speaker 2: so many other dangers of injury and dreadful, contagious diseases.
Speaker 2: To eat with another's mouth, sleep with another's eyes, move
Speaker 2: according to another's will, obviously rushing toward the shipwreck of
Speaker 2: your mind and your body. What greater misery, what wealth,
Speaker 2: what luxuries, what delights? Can outweigh all this? Published in
Speaker 2: fifteen eighty. In that letter, Veronica reflects on her life
Speaker 2: not simply with cynicism, but with wisdom and a greater
Speaker 2: awareness of Venice's exist social conditions. Glamorous as it might
Speaker 2: be to imagine the luxurious life of a courtesan, it
Speaker 2: simply wasn't the case, even for someone like Veronica, who
Speaker 2: was successful. In Veronica's earliest years, before her career began,
Speaker 2: she briefly did live a more traditional lifestyle. Sometime in
Speaker 2: the early fifteen sixties, a teenage Veronica entered an arranged
Speaker 2: marriage with a doctor, Paolo Paniza, who possessed what is
Speaker 2: possibly the most stereotypically Italian name I've come across in
Speaker 2: the history of this podcast. It was evidently not a
Speaker 2: great match, as the couple separated not long after they
Speaker 2: were married. Such knowledge comes from Veronica's unusual request for
Speaker 2: the return of her dowry in her fifteen sixty four will,
Speaker 2: an important document for our understanding of Veronica's life. Reading
Speaker 2: a will may seem like an odd place to begin
Speaker 2: telling someone's life story, but Veronica's two written wills from
Speaker 2: fifteen sixty four and from fifteen seventy ironically provide us
Speaker 2: with some of the earliest details of her life. More saliently,
Speaker 2: they tell us a lot about who she was and
Speaker 2: who she would become, despite the fact that they were
Speaker 2: written at the incredibly young ages of eighteen and twenty four, respectively.
Speaker 2: For one thing, we know that she was writing her
Speaker 2: first will in fifteen sixty four when she was eighteen
Speaker 2: years old, because she was pregnant. This was common practice
Speaker 2: at the time as necessary insurance in case a mother
Speaker 2: died in childbirth. Notably, Veronica declares that Paulo is not
Speaker 2: the father of her unborn child. She believed, with the
Speaker 2: qualification that only God knows for certain. The baby's father
Speaker 2: was Yakimo Dibabali, a noble merchant from modern day Croatia.
Speaker 2: It's unknown whether or not he was a lover, a client,
Speaker 2: or both, but it is highly probable that Veronica had
Speaker 2: already begun her career as a courtesan by the time
Speaker 2: of the will, writing as her support from several patrician
Speaker 2: and noble families of Venice is noted. Veronica writes that
Speaker 2: in honor of the love shared between them, Dibabali should
Speaker 2: take responsibility for the child in the case of her death.
Speaker 2: She also bequeathed him a diamond quote as a symbol
Speaker 2: of her love. Veronica orders her executors to leave her
Speaker 2: accumulated capital in the care of Dibabali, but only under
Speaker 2: the condition that he matches the amount with five percent
Speaker 2: interest for the benefit of their son or daughter until
Speaker 2: he or she reaches legal age. If they have a daughter.
Speaker 2: Franco insists that at such a point, the remaining capital
Speaker 2: plus interest be given directly to her in the form
Speaker 2: of a dowry. Making sure that women have money and
Speaker 2: importantly access to that money is a recurring point of
Speaker 2: order in Veronica's will. For example, she leaves ten ducats
Speaker 2: to Agnesina, the daughter of her brother's wetners, to be
Speaker 2: repeated any time Agnesina marries. Additionally, when Veronica requests the
Speaker 2: return of her dowry from Paolo, she asks that it
Speaker 2: be given to her mother to do with as she pleases,
Speaker 2: quote like her who gave it to me. This implies
Speaker 2: that the money for Veronica's dowry was provided not by
Speaker 2: her father, but by her her mother, and her mother's
Speaker 2: work as a courtesan. By the time Veronica wrote her
Speaker 2: second will six years later, in fifteen seventy, her life
Speaker 2: had changed considerably. For one, her mother was dead. It's
Speaker 2: unlikely Veronica found a new pieza and instead began managing
Speaker 2: her own transactions. It's clear that she had become a
Speaker 2: sought after courtesan by this point, evidenced by a considerable
Speaker 2: rise in means and the appearance of higher ranking associates
Speaker 2: in her will. Veronica's literary career would not begin for
Speaker 2: a few more years, but we see she had already
Speaker 2: endeared herself to Venice's elite. In this new will, she
Speaker 2: dictates that the majority of her capital is to be
Speaker 2: left to the care and education of her two epically
Speaker 2: named sons, Akille, the child with whom she was pregnant
Speaker 2: at the time of writing her first will, and Ennio.
Speaker 2: According to Veronica, Ennio is the son of Andrea Tron,
Speaker 2: a Venetian nobleman. Andre himself a son of a prominent senator,
Speaker 2: was already married to a noblewoman at the time of
Speaker 2: their son's birth, and it's unknown whether or not he
Speaker 2: ever claimed their son as his own. This will is
Speaker 2: more detailed than the first. We see how Veronica has
Speaker 2: carefully divided her capital between her two children, the children
Speaker 2: of those she's close to, and her brother's family. She
Speaker 2: once again designates money for the dowries of young women
Speaker 2: in need, but this time she circumvents the balloting system. Instead,
Speaker 2: she directs the quote surplus of her capital to provide
Speaker 2: for the marriages of quote two worthy maidens. She adds
Speaker 2: an additional clause that if her executors confined to prostitutes
Speaker 2: who want to quote leave their wicked life by marrying
Speaker 2: or entering a convent end quote, then they should be
Speaker 2: embraced rather than the two maidens wicked here is not
Speaker 2: necessarily a moral judgment in this instance, rather a reflection
Speaker 2: of the hardships endured by the sex workers during this
Speaker 2: time in Venice. Veronica was evidently successful enough that she
Speaker 2: had her own home and the luxury of employing a
Speaker 2: small staff. Because her will also designates money to be
Speaker 2: left to her cook, her maid, and a former maid.
Speaker 2: It was in her own home that the courtesan welcomed
Speaker 2: the young king Henry the third of Vlois, son of
Speaker 2: Catherine de Medici, who visited Venice in July of fifteen
Speaker 2: seventy four during his journey from Poland to France to
Speaker 2: claim the throne there following the death of his older brother.
Speaker 2: Henry's stay in Venice marked the most extravagant reception of
Speaker 2: a foreign dignitary that the city had ever witnessed. The
Speaker 2: then twenty three year old Henri and his cousin spent
Speaker 2: the evenings attending balls and theatrical performances, before spending the
Speaker 2: nights seeking out Venice's other most famous attractions. It's unknown
Speaker 2: how Henry came to meet Veronica specifically, but it's likely
Speaker 2: he was introduced through one of the nobles assigned to
Speaker 2: attend to him, Andrea tron, the father of her second child.
Speaker 2: Henry is mainly known for two things, his assassination, which
Speaker 2: ultimately marks the end of the House of Blois, and
Speaker 2: his sexuality. It is believed that he enjoyed cross dressing
Speaker 2: at masquerades, and that he had sexual relationships with his
Speaker 2: male favorites. However, because rumors surrounding his bisexuality and quote
Speaker 2: effeminacy were used by Catholic detractors to prove that he
Speaker 2: was unfit for the throne, historians have never entirely been
Speaker 2: able to distinguish fact from fiction with certainty what's real
Speaker 2: and what's propaganda. By the time of his and Veronica's encounter,
Speaker 2: even before taking the French throne, Henry had already gained
Speaker 2: something of a reputation, though their encounter was almost certainly
Speaker 2: sexual in nature. Veronica later published a sonnet platonically singing
Speaker 2: the young King's praises quote, So to my modest dwelling,
Speaker 2: without the shine and dazzle of royal pomp, came Henri
Speaker 2: called to so vast a kingdom that one world alone
Speaker 2: cannot contain it. Although he came disguised, he nonetheless so
Speaker 2: imprinted upon my heart his heavenly merit, that my natural
Speaker 2: strength abandoned me. It was a combination of luck, her status,
Speaker 2: and skill that led Veronica to live the life of
Speaker 2: a courtesan who would host foreign kings, rather than a
Speaker 2: life as a simple meritrece She seems to understand that,
Speaker 2: and it may have informed why she would choose to
Speaker 2: pursue another kind of work at this time that seemed
Speaker 2: untouchable for most women of her time and place. Sometime
Speaker 2: in the early fifteen seventies, Veronica became a member of
Speaker 2: the intellectual circle cultivated by one of the most powerful
Speaker 2: noble clans of Venice, the Vinyer family. At the top
Speaker 2: of the familial higherarchy sat Domenico, the patron and protector.
Speaker 2: After relinquishing his duty as Senator in fifteen forty six
Speaker 2: because of his painful chronic gout, Domenico devoted his time
Speaker 2: to establishing an informal literary academy that met regularly at
Speaker 2: his residence. What set Domenico apart from other patrons and
Speaker 2: hosts was his sponsorship of numerous female artists and intellectuals.
Speaker 2: It does not appear that his support of these women,
Speaker 2: including Veronica, was dependent on sexual relationships. As noted earlier,
Speaker 2: only around ten percent of Venetian women were literate during
Speaker 2: this time period, and an even smaller percentage were publishing
Speaker 2: written work. In the absence of a powerful and extremely
Speaker 2: progressive father, women who sought to not only cultivate into
Speaker 2: coellectual lives, but also publish would need to rely on
Speaker 2: the generosity of patrons like Domenico. Originally, Veronica's literary career
Speaker 2: was dedicated to compiling the poems of other members of
Speaker 2: the circle for volumes, a unique role for a woman.
Speaker 2: Letters reveal she acted as the organizer of numerous collections
Speaker 2: throughout the fifteen seventies. The Patriarch's influence on Veronica and
Speaker 2: this circle at large is evident in her first published
Speaker 2: collection of poetry, fifteen seventy five's Poems in Terzarma. Domenico
Speaker 2: was interested in pre Petrarchan poetic forms, which encouraged a
Speaker 2: revival of Dante's third rhyme structure first seen in The
Speaker 2: Divine Comedy. This collection consisted of eighteen poems, with some
Speaker 2: in the format of proposta and riposta between Veronica and
Speaker 2: anonymous male poets, a back and forth. By publishing a
Speaker 2: collection including poetic exchanges instead of merely her own compositions,
Speaker 2: Veronica was seeking to elevate her status by putting her
Speaker 2: work on the same level as her male contemporaries. Typically
Speaker 2: preferred for academic, satirical and comic compositions. Veronica utilizes that
Speaker 2: back and forth format to wittily and critically engage with
Speaker 2: both her lovers and her detractor's perceptions of her. Take
Speaker 2: the first two poems in the collection, Capitulo one, credited
Speaker 2: to an unknown author, is written in the tradition of
Speaker 2: the petrarchian lover desperate for his feelings to be requited.
Speaker 2: Unlike the other works in poems credited to unknown authors,
Speaker 2: we actually do have the identity of this forlorn man.
Speaker 2: He was Marco Venier, Dominico's nephew and Veronica's lover. The
Speaker 2: first copies of Poems identified him as the author of
Speaker 2: this poem, but then subsequent printings anonymize him alongside the
Speaker 2: other writers for reasons unexplained. His poem rhapsodizes Veronica's cruel
Speaker 2: or perhaps even dangerous beauty, but also flatters her writing talent,
Speaker 2: which Marco calls a gift from Apollo himself. Quote, and
Speaker 2: so among beauties, you are famous for your learning, and
Speaker 2: among learned women you are known for your beauty, and
Speaker 2: in both you excel one group and the other. He however,
Speaker 2: follows this praise with a question, but if knowledge in
Speaker 2: you is so nobly fruitful, why is it that beauty.
Speaker 2: Also a treasure comes to ruin through your hard heart.
Speaker 2: Marco's seduction hinges on the argument that Veronica has been
Speaker 2: blessed by both Venus and Apollo, but by denying him
Speaker 2: her love, she squanders Venus's gift. He declares, you must
Speaker 2: put to good use all the gifts that she made you,
Speaker 2: as you do with the gifts granted you by Apollo.
Speaker 2: You'll make your name immortal through Venus's gifts no less
Speaker 2: than you will do with your ink. Veronica's reply uses
Speaker 2: her apollo given a wit to turn Marco's arguments against him. Quote,
Speaker 2: if you think I'm so dear to Phoebus for composing
Speaker 2: poems in the works of love, you'll find me dear
Speaker 2: still to Venus. With this assurance that she is a
Speaker 2: perfectly skilled and confident lover, Veronica makes it clear that
Speaker 2: she does not hold back her affection out of cruelty
Speaker 2: or flippancy, but rather because she is too wise to
Speaker 2: be persuaded by words alone. She asks her lover to
Speaker 2: show the extent of his feelings through deeds instead, quote
Speaker 2: prove your love to me by other means than compliments,
Speaker 2: For I take care not to be fooled by them.
Speaker 2: Please me more with deeds and praise me less. She
Speaker 2: specifies exactly what that means. Quote, I do not ask
Speaker 2: you now to express your love with gold or silver.
Speaker 2: For to have an understanding with a noble man in
Speaker 2: order to extract from him a treasure is most unsuited
Speaker 2: to the decorum of any but an utterly venal soul.
Speaker 2: Such behavior does not befit my profession. But leaving words aside,
Speaker 2: I clearly state that deeds must prove your love. You
Speaker 2: know quite well what I like best. Persevere in this
Speaker 2: as I already told you before, and you shall be
Speaker 2: my unique and only lover. Here she subverts popular expectations
Speaker 2: of the courtesan by affirming that it's not gold or
Speaker 2: silver that draws her to a lover, but what she
Speaker 2: likes quote best, which, despite what you may be thinking,
Speaker 2: that it's something salacious, she defines later in the poem
Speaker 2: as creative literary collaboration, and who can blame her. Still,
Speaker 2: she assures Marco that their collaboration as lovers will be
Speaker 2: just as rewarding as their collaboration as writers. Quote Whenever
Speaker 2: I am in bed with one who, as I sense,
Speaker 2: loves and enjoys me. I become so delectable and tender
Speaker 2: that my pleasure surpasses all other delights, and what appeared
Speaker 2: to be a very tight knot of love grows even tighter.
Speaker 2: I perform so well in bed that this form of
Speaker 2: art proves vastly superior to the art of Apollo. There
Speaker 2: is obviously some sexual meaning there, which was not uncommon
Speaker 2: in the works of courtiers, but stands out to historians
Speaker 2: as a rare instance of a sixteenth century woman describing
Speaker 2: her own sexuality in such unabashed terms. Veronica additionally subverts
Speaker 2: the dominant erotic language of Marco's poem. I would like
Speaker 2: to take the burnished gold of those tresses in my
Speaker 2: hand and pull that fine treasure ever so gently, to
Speaker 2: avenge my hurt by portraying sex as more pleasurable when
Speaker 2: it is an equal experience. Quote, let me see the
Speaker 2: works I've asked for from you, for then you'll enjoy
Speaker 2: my sweetness to the full, and I will also take
Speaker 2: pleasure in yours, in the way that mutual love allows,
Speaker 2: which provides delight free from all pain. This exchange of
Speaker 2: poems is not only a debate between lovers, but a
Speaker 2: debate as to what it means to be a lover.
Speaker 2: In publishing this work, Veronica defines herself and by extension,
Speaker 2: the courtesan, as a collaborator first and foremost. This is
Speaker 2: also a direct counter of Marco's declaration that she is
Speaker 2: the operah or artifact of his affection and inspiration. Veronica
Speaker 2: is not a passive subject in the art of love
Speaker 2: and poetry, but rather an active participant in its creation.
Speaker 2: The same tactics used in a debate about love would
Speaker 2: be needed in a debate about her honor. When the
Speaker 2: first poem mocking Veronica began to circulate, she believed that
Speaker 2: the author might have actually been Marco again. But then
Speaker 2: the poems continued, and the language got darker, and the
Speaker 2: attacks became on her very character, and she realized she
Speaker 2: was wrong. She soon learned that the true author of
Speaker 2: these poems was in fact Mafio Vanier, Marco's cousin and
Speaker 2: Dominica's nephew, the Mafio from the cinematic fencing match. Mafio
Speaker 2: was a courtier and prominent poet, and though he had
Speaker 2: all the privilege afforded to a son of the Venieri clan,
Speaker 2: he was something of a black Sheep for his lack
Speaker 2: of involvement in politics and his tendency to avoid the
Speaker 2: responsibilities bestowed upon him. He did, however, perform one year
Speaker 2: of service in the Medici Court. When he returned to
Speaker 2: Venice in fifteen seventy five, the city that greeted him
Speaker 2: was not the one he had left, struck by the
Speaker 2: plague earlier that year. Venice was in social and financial disorder.
Speaker 2: Returning to the Caviennair circle and finding a socially mobile
Speaker 2: courtesan gaining respect in the literary scene, it seems Mafio
Speaker 2: found an easy target, representing all of the city's ills
Speaker 2: in his mind. His three poems first, believe Me Franca
Speaker 2: that by San Mafio, Second, wouldn't you like that? What
Speaker 2: sort of game is this? And Veronica Veritably Unique? Or
Speaker 2: begin as more straightforward satire and devolve into a true
Speaker 2: display of resentful, misogynistic vitriol. That last poem is the
Speaker 2: most deplorable, opening with an imagined depiction of Veronica's quote
Speaker 2: monstrous body covered in syphilitic sores. I quote Veronica veritably Unique,
Speaker 2: core franca id est, foxy, flighty, flimsy, flabby, smelly, scrawny,
Speaker 2: scrimpy and the biggest scoundrel besides who lives between Costello
Speaker 2: Ghetto and the customs. A woman reduced to a monster
Speaker 2: made of human flesh, plaster, chalk, cardboard, leather and wooden board,
Speaker 2: A grizzly spook, a scabby ogre, a crocodile, a hippogriff,
Speaker 2: an ostrich, a knock kneed mare. To sing of all
Speaker 2: that is wrong with you, your flaws, your faults, would
Speaker 2: take one hundred concepts, thousands of pens and ink well
Speaker 2: and countless poets. Veronica's response opens with a denouncement of
Speaker 2: Marco's character, pointing out his lack of chivalry his blows
Speaker 2: against an quote unarmed woman. However, she claims that her
Speaker 2: vulnerability has diminished and his attacks have only made her
Speaker 2: stronger quote and bitter. Medicines likewise bring health, and we
Speaker 2: make use of steel and fire to clean and cauterize
Speaker 2: infected wounds. By bringing attention to her health, she also
Speaker 2: counters Mafio's accusation of disease without needing to directly address it.
Speaker 2: Veronica then challenges him to any kind of duel, whether
Speaker 2: it be on paper or with swords. She notes that
Speaker 2: while he may find it unfair to joust with a woman,
Speaker 2: she assures him that he is under an illusion enforced
Speaker 2: by societal standards.
Speaker 1: Quote.
Speaker 2: When we women, too have weapons and training, we will
Speaker 2: be able to prove to all men that we have
Speaker 2: hands and feet and hearts like yours. And though we
Speaker 2: may be tender and delicate, some men who are delicate
Speaker 2: are also strong, and some, though coarse and rough, are cowards.
Speaker 2: And to prove to you that I speak the truth
Speaker 2: among so many women, I will act first, setting an
Speaker 2: example for them all to follow. Veronica then makes the
Speaker 2: argument that perhaps most aligned with our modern times, calling him,
Speaker 2: in not so many words, an inceel quote, I undertake
Speaker 2: to defend all women against you who despise them, so
Speaker 2: that rightly I'm not alone to protest it. It is
Speaker 2: certain that you miss great pleasure by being unable to
Speaker 2: savor our sweetness, and I blame your bad habits for
Speaker 2: being the cause. Employing another tried and true tactic, she
Speaker 2: digs into Mafio's grasp on language. Quote, you called me
Speaker 2: tierre unica, veritably unique, and all the rest alluding to
Speaker 2: my name, Veronica. But while you meant it as abuse,
Speaker 2: According to my dictionary. I fail to see how one
Speaker 2: can properly call a thing unique. In other words, she
Speaker 2: asserts that unique is in fact a positive word, and
Speaker 2: she continues, quote and though you call me prostitute, either
Speaker 2: you imply that I'm not one of them, or that
Speaker 2: among them some merit praise whatever goodness prostitutes may have,
Speaker 2: whatever grace and nobility of soul, the sound of your
Speaker 2: word assigned to me, Veronica does not take the root
Speaker 2: of distinguishing herself from poor prostitutes. Rather, she's defending them
Speaker 2: all as a class. She closes her defense with another
Speaker 2: challenge to duel and a threat for good measure, quote,
Speaker 2: you will have nowhere to run from me. In fifteen eighty,
Speaker 2: Mafio Vanieri contracted syphilis and ultimately succumbed to the illness
Speaker 2: six years later, a fact that I will present with
Speaker 2: no comment. Unfortunately, there only in person. Sword fight happened
Speaker 2: in the movies. Five years after Veronica's debate with Mafio,
Speaker 2: Veronica was forced to once again publicly defend her good name,
Speaker 2: only this time the stakes were far higher. On October eighth,
Speaker 2: fifteen eighty, Veronica was summoned by the Inquisition courts on
Speaker 2: charges of performing heretical incantations to curb the unrest caused
Speaker 2: by the plague, the Fourth Ottoman Venetian War, and a
Speaker 2: series of natural disasters. Venetians of all classes were encouraged
Speaker 2: by authorities to support the republic in their fight against heresy,
Speaker 2: even if that meant turning in your neighbor or employer.
Speaker 2: Courtesans were among a number of marginalized groups, including Jewish
Speaker 2: and queer people, denounced for luxuria and frequently targeted. The
Speaker 2: language in the accusation against Veronica reflects this influence. Quote
Speaker 2: If this whitch, this public masked and cheating prostitute, is
Speaker 2: not punished, many others will begin to do the same
Speaker 2: things against the Holy Catholic Faith. While the charge was
Speaker 2: filed anonymously, we know now that her accuser was Ridolfo Vanitelli,
Speaker 2: her children's tutor. The historian Richard Kikaffer has concluded that
Speaker 2: many witchcraft trials were born of worldly, petty arguments. He notes,
Speaker 2: quote in many cases, the accuser feels guilty and reverses
Speaker 2: his guilt by projecting it on the accused. Veronica had
Speaker 2: been the victim of more than one robbery by fifteen eighty,
Speaker 2: so when another theft occurred that year, she threatened to
Speaker 2: withhold her household staff's salaries until the culprit was found,
Speaker 2: assuming that the robbery had come from somewhere within in
Speaker 2: her version of events, the staff then begged to perform
Speaker 2: a magic ritual specifically designed to target thieves. The attempt
Speaker 2: was evidently unsuccessful, and Veronica began to point fingers. This
Speaker 2: was around the same time Vanitelli filed his accusation, which
Speaker 2: doesn't quite feel coincidental. Specifically, he wrote that in order
Speaker 2: to recover her lost items, she had invoked the names
Speaker 2: of demons in a ritual involving a wedding ring, a
Speaker 2: blessed olive branch, blessed kins, handles, and holy water. To
Speaker 2: support his accusations, things take a turn for the mafio
Speaker 2: esque when he calls her quote a witch and a
Speaker 2: public whore, among other unflattering descriptors. He concludes his filing
Speaker 2: by calling for the harshest punishment possible to be enacted
Speaker 2: as quickly as possible so she can't quote no longer
Speaker 2: contaminate the city. This specific line invokes Mafio's accusation that
Speaker 2: Veronica was spreading syphilis, calling her a quote the woman
Speaker 2: who makes our present century blind and contaminates it. Thus,
Speaker 2: when Veronica was summoned to the inquisition courts on October eighth,
Speaker 2: fifteen eighty, it was not only to defend herself against
Speaker 2: accusations of heresy, but to defend her morality. In court,
Speaker 2: Veronica sought to use her command of language to persuade
Speaker 2: the inquisitor. For example, when asked why she allowed such
Speaker 2: a ritual to take place in her home, she responded
Speaker 2: that any sin she may be guilty of was only
Speaker 2: with quote effect and not effect, because ultimately she did
Speaker 2: not believe in it. The inquisitor was not easily swayed
Speaker 2: by such language nitpicking, which led Veronica to employ the
Speaker 2: tactics we find in her debate about love back with
Speaker 2: Marco and her poetic battle with Mafio, turning her opponent's
Speaker 2: argument against him. It was Vanitelli, she claimed, who begged
Speaker 2: her to perform the ritual in her home. She reported
Speaker 2: threatening him telling him that only quote the cord of
Speaker 2: the night patrol without so many candles will find the truth.
Speaker 2: In redirecting the accusation of heresy towards her accuser, Veronica
Speaker 2: was evidently able to convince the tribunal that while she
Speaker 2: was guilty of allowing the ritual to be held in
Speaker 2: her home, she was not guilty of performing it. There
Speaker 2: was no official sentence in the trial, though it was
Speaker 2: not uncommon for trials of this nature to be suspended
Speaker 2: after a few days in court. We will never know
Speaker 2: if it was the strength of her evidence, the power
Speaker 2: of her persuasive performance, or some intervention from Domenico that
Speaker 2: ultimately swayed the court in her favor. Fifteen eighty was
Speaker 2: also the same year Veronica published Familiar Letters, a collection
Speaker 2: of letters written throughout the decade prior, exploring her daily life,
Speaker 2: expanding on her poems, and giving advice to friends. These
Speaker 2: letters were likely a mix of true correspondence and literary exercise,
Speaker 2: but in blending her public and private voice, Veronica challenged
Speaker 2: misconceptions of the interior life of a courtesan. As she
Speaker 2: did in her poems, her letters portray her as an intellectual,
Speaker 2: a collaborator, even a moral guide. The content of these
Speaker 2: letters has informed much of our knowledge about Veronica's life
Speaker 2: and her values. Quite tragically, however, Letters would be her
Speaker 2: last published work. In fifteen eighty two, Domenico died, and
Speaker 2: upon his death, Veronica lost her greatest patron. That same year,
Speaker 2: having never recovered her stolen possessions, a tax report reveals
Speaker 2: Veronica was impoverished. From this report, we also know that
Speaker 2: she was no longer living in that home where she
Speaker 2: had once hosted Henry the Third, but in an area
Speaker 2: of the city inhabited by many poor meritreachi. Her last
Speaker 2: years are undocumented, but it is known that she died
Speaker 2: just short of a decade later in fifteen ninety one,
Speaker 2: at age forty five. While her rise and fall in
Speaker 2: Venetian society was relatively short lived, Veronica's decade in the
Speaker 2: spotlight not only produced a body of work that cemented
Speaker 2: her legacy, but one that sought to open doors for
Speaker 2: other women to do the same, As she declared she
Speaker 2: would be an example for them to follow. That's the
Speaker 2: story of Veronica Franco's life. But stick around after a
Speaker 2: brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about
Speaker 2: her life depicted on the screen. The film based on
Speaker 2: Veronica's life, Danger Beauty, originally shared a title with the
Speaker 2: biography by Margaret Rosenthal, The Honest Courtisan. However, After screening
Speaker 2: the film for American test audiences, the studio realized the
Speaker 2: title had to be changed. According to Marshall Herskovitz, they
Speaker 2: discovered that quote literally ninety five percent of movie going
Speaker 2: audiences did not know what the word courtisan meant, but
Speaker 2: more importantly, they thought it was courtizone. The movie had
Speaker 2: a modest but successful run at the box office and
Speaker 2: received a respectable three and a half stars from Roger Ebert.
Speaker 2: I'm not surprised that the screenwriter is a woman, he mused.
Speaker 2: Few movies have been so deliberately told from a woman's
Speaker 2: point of view. Most movies are made by males and
Speaker 2: show women enthralled by men. This movie knows better. Noble
Speaker 2: Blood is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim and
Speaker 2: Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me
Speaker 2: Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick,
Speaker 2: Courtney Sender, Amy Hit, and Julia Melaney. The show is
Speaker 2: edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima
Speaker 2: il Kaali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and
Speaker 2: Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.