Editing Veronica Franco (section)

== Life==
Veronica Franco was born to a family in the ''Cittadino'' class.<ref>Veronica Franco and the 'Cortigiane Oneste': Attaining Power through Prostitution in Sixteenth-Century Venice by Arielle Sison; Stanford.</ref> She developed her position in Renaissance Venetian society as a ''cortigiana onesta (Honest [[Courtesan]])'', who were intellectual sex workers who derived their position in society from refinement and cultural prowess. They served in contrast to other sex workers such as ''cortigiana di lume or meretrice'' ('harlots')'','' who were lower-class [[prostitutes]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jansen |first=Sharon L. |title=Veronica Franco, the "Cortigiana onesta" (the "honored courtesan") |url=https://www.monstrousregimentofwomen.com/2015/08/veronica-franco-cortigiana-onesta.html |access-date=2022-10-18}}</ref>

Franco received a respectable humanistic education at a young age from her brother's tutor, an unusual opportunity for Venetian women. She continued her education by mixing with learned men, writers, and painters.<ref name=":1" /> This granted her access to a Domenico Venier, a patron and advisor to women writers. She was able to use her education to contribute considerably to literary and artistic outlets.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203943540/encyclopedia-italian-literary-studies-gaetana-marrone-paolo-puppa |title=Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies |year=2006 |publisher=Routledge |editor-last=Marrone |editor-first=Gaetana |doi=10.4324/9780203943540 |isbn=9781135455309 |editor-last2=Puppa |editor-first2=Paolo}}</ref>

Franco learned additional skills from her mother, Paola Fracassa, who had an interest in finding suitable clients for her, as well as marrying her off.<ref name="Russell1994">{{cite book|author=Rinaldina Russell|title=Italian Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AxDbPQrjs64C&pg=PA138|year=1994|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-28347-5|pages=138}}</ref> While still in her teens, Franco was briefly married to a mature, wealthy physician named Paolo Panizza. She supported her children along with a household of tutors and servants for most of her life.<ref name=":1" />

Franco wrote two volumes of poetry: ''Terze rime'' in 1575 and ''Lettere familiari a diversi'' in 1580.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rosenthal |first1=Margaret F. |title=Veronica Franco's Terze Rime: the Venetian Courtesan's Defense |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |date=1989 |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=227–257 |doi=10.2307/2861626 |jstor=2861626 |s2cid=163306755 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2861626 |access-date=22 June 2022}}</ref>

In 1565, when she was about 20 years old, Veronica Franco was listed in the ''Catalogo de tutte le principal et più honorate cortigiane di Venetia'' (''Catalog of all the Principal and most Honored Courtesans of Venice''), which gave the names, addresses, and fees of Venice's most prominent prostitutes; her mother was listed as the person to whom the fee should be paid (her "go-between").<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/veronica-franco_(Dizionario-Biografico)|title=FRANCO, Veronica in "Dizionario Biografico"|website=www.treccani.it}}</ref> From extant records, we know that, by the time she was 18, Franco had been briefly married and had given birth to her first child; she would eventually have six children, three of whom died in infancy.<ref name=":1" />

She became involved in the 1570s with Domenico Venier's renowned literary salon in Venice, who served as a literary adviser not only to male writers but also to many women poets of the Veneto region.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Biography: Franco, Veronica |url=https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/IWW/BIOS/A0017.html |access-date=2022-08-11 |website=www.lib.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

As one of the ''più honorate cortigiane'' in a wealthy and cosmopolitan city, Franco lived well for much of her working life, but without the automatic protection accorded to "respectable" women, she had to make her own way. She studied and sought patrons among the learned.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ferraro |first1=Joanne M. |title=Venice: History of the Floating City |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-53618-9 |page=149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SlQhAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA149 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ray |first1=Meredith K. |title=Writing Gender in Women's Letter Collections of the Italian Renaissance |date=2009 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-9704-0 |page=134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BDBGpgML300C&pg=PA134 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1575, during the epidemic of [[bubonic plague|plague]] that ravaged the city, Franco was forced to leave Venice and lost much of her wealth when her house and possessions were looted.<ref name=":2" /> Upon her return in 1577, she defended herself against charges of [[witchcraft]] before the [[Inquisition]], a crime commonly lodged against courtesans in those days. The charges were dropped.<ref name=":2" /> There is evidence that her connections among the Venetian nobility helped in her acquittal.<ref name=":2" />

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. Eventually, her last major [[benefactor (law)|benefactor]] died and left her with no financial support. There is little information for her life after 1580. Records suggest that she was less prosperous in her later years and is believed to have died in relative poverty.<ref name=":2" />