"When we too are armed and trained, we can convince men that we have hands, feet, and a heart like yours; and although we may be delicate and soft, some men who are delicate are also strong; and others, coarse and harsh, are cowards. Women have not yet realized this, for if they should decide to do so, they would be able to fight you until death; and to prove that I speak the truth, amongst so many women, I will be the first to act, setting an example for them to follow."
--Veronica Franco

Source: www.wikipedia.org

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. Veronica Franco was perhaps the most celebrated example of the former category, although Franco was hardly the only onesta in sixteenth century Venice who could boast of a fine education and considerable literary and artistic accomplishments.

The daughter of a cortigiana onesta, Franco learned the art from her mother at a young age and was schooled in using her natural assets and abilities to obtain a financially beneficial marriage. From extant records we know that by the time she was 18 she had married a wealthy physician and had given birth to her first child. Though the marriage ended badly, she would eventually have six children, three of whom died in infancy.

In order to support herself, Franco turned to serving as cortigiana to wealthy men - one of the few routes available for a Venetian woman to earn a comfortable living available at the time. As one of the piu honorate cortigiane Franco lived well for much of her working life, but without the automatic protection accorded to "respectable" women. She quickly rose through the ranks to consort with some of the leading notables of her day. She even had a brief liaison with King Henri III of France. In 1565, when she was about 20 years old, Franco was listed as one of the foremost courtesans of Venice in Il Catalogo di tutte le principale et piu honorate cortigiane di Venezia, the "catalog, which gave the names, addresses, and fees of Venice's most prominent prostitutes.

She studied and sought patrons among the learned (by the 1570s, she was part of one of the more prestigious literary circles of the city, participating in discussions and contributing to and editing anthologies of poetry). An educated woman, Veronica Franco wrote two volumes of poetry: Terze rime in 1575 (containing 18 capitoli (verse epistles) by her and 7 by men writing in her praise) and Lettere familiari a diversi in 1580 ("letters written in my youth," which included 50 letters, as well as two sonnets addressed to King Henri III of France, who had visited her six years before). She published books of letters and collected the works of other leading writers into anthologies. Successful in her two lines of work, Franco also founded a charity for courtesans and their children.

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. 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). The charges were dropped. There is evidence that her connections in Venetian nobility helped in her acquittal. In that same year, she also unsuccessfully proposed to the city council that it establish a hom for poor women, of which she would be administrator. By then she was raising not only her own children but also nephews who had been orphaned by the plague.

Her later life is largely obscure, though surviving records suggest that although she won her freedom, she was less prosperous, but not living in poverty; however, no more writing of hers appeared.

Eventually, her last major benefactor died, and left her with no financial support. Although it is largely uncertain, she is believed to have died in relative poverty.

Her life was also recorded in the book The Honest Courtesan, written by author Margaret F. Rosenthal.

References:

• Rosenthal, Margaret F., "The Honest Courtesan", University of Chicago Press (1993) (ISBN 978-0226728124)
• http://www.jazzbabies.com/home/franco.htm