The Venetian courtesan has long captured the imagination as a female symbol of sexual license, elegance, beauty, and unruliness. What then to make of the cortigiana onesta--the honest courtesan who r
When Cesare Vecellio's guide to the dress and customs of the world appeared in Venice in 1590, it was a publishing sensation. For the first time a book had brought together vivid descriptions and accu
Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) was one of the most important figures in Italian Renaissance literature, and certainly the most controversial. Condemned by some as a pornographer, his infamy was due largel
Veronica Franco (whose life is featured in the motion picture Dangerous Beauty) was a sixteenth-century Venetian beauty, poet, and protofeminist. This collection captures the frank eroticism and impr
