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Updated 05-11-08
Veronica Franco
(c.1546-1591)
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"I RESOLVED TO MAKE A VIRTUE OF MY NEED."
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In 1565, when she was about 20 years old, Veronica Franco was listed in Il Catalogo di tutte le principale et piu honorate cortigiane di Venezia, 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. 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.
As one of the piu 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 she 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.
In 1575 Franco's own volume was published, Terze rime, containing 18 capitoli (verse epistles) by her and 7 by men writing in her praise. That same year saw the start of plague in Venice, which lasted two years, causing Franco to leave the city for a while and to lose many of her possessions. In 1577 she unsuccessfully proposed to the city council that it establish a home for poor women, of which she would become administrator. By then she was raising not only her own children but also nephews who had been orphaned by the plague.
In 1580, Franco published her Lettere familiari a diversi, "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. We have little information for the period after 1580. Records suggest that she was less prosperous in her later years but not living in poverty; however, no more writing of hers appeared.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print.Information on secondary sources.
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1. Translations:
(a) Links to excerpts from each of the 25 capitoli of Terze rime: the eighteen by Franco and the seven written by men and addressed to her. The translations are by Anne Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal.
(b) A prose translation, by Rosenthal, of 12 lines from Capitolo 16; with it, a probable portrait of Franco, although given here in black and white. At another site, the portrait in color. This portrait may be the one Franco refers to in a letter to Jacopo Tintoretto.
(c) In a 2002 essay on Franco by Paula Findlin, lines from Capitoli 12 and 22 (and a brief passage from Letter 22), translated by Rosenthal.
(d) A sonnet that has been attributed both to Franco and to Veronica Gambara, "Leave me, foolish ideas and useless hopes"; the Italian original is also given. The translator is Ellen Moody, who describes the poem as "probably by Franco."
2. In Italian:
(a) At this alphabetical list from the University of Chicago's "Italian Women Writers" site, go to Franco and click on "Texts Available" for a link to the originals of a 1913 edition of Franco's poems: the 25 capitoli of Terza rime (18 by Franco) and the 16 sonnets (the two written to Henri III of France, and others printed in anthologies to which Franco contributed or which she edited).
(b) The individual pages of the original of the 1580 Lettere familiari a diversi. And at the same site, the pages of the 1575 Terze rime di Veronica Franca (see Tavola on the drop-down menu at the top for an alphabetical index of the 25 capitoli).
3. Essays:
(a) Rosenthal's 2003 biographical essay on Franco is a useful introduction. You can also link to a list of editions of Franco's works.
(b) "Veronica Franco vs. Maffio Venier: Sex, Death, and Poetry in Cinquecento Venice" (2006), by Dolora Chapelle Wojciehowski, discusses the Venetian fear of disease, quotes from three poems attacking Franco that were written by the nephew of her mentor Domenico Venier, and describes Franco's responses in her Capitoli 16 and 23; lines from Franco are given in Jones' and Rosenthal's translation, those from Maffio Venier in Wojciehowski's own translation.
(c) "Examining the Concept of Authorship in Veronica Franco's Texts" (2005), by Monica Hernandez, discusses the ways in which Franco established her authority as a public figure and as a writing woman; quoted passages are given in Jones' and Rosenthal's translation.
(d) "Imitatio and the Woman Poet: Renaissance Re-writings of Ovid" (1998), by Veena Carlson, includes Franco in a discussion of the use of mythological characters; parts of two capitoli (#s15 & 3) are given in the original Italian.
(e) "Mythological, Representations of the Renaissance Cortegiana" (1989), by Fiora A. Bassanese, includes a section on Franco which quotes (in Italian) from Terze rime and Lettere.
(f) In this alphabetical list, click on "C" and go to City Culture and the Madrigal at Venice (1995), by Martha Feldman. The first half of Chapter 1, "Flexibility in the Body Social," gives useful historical background and uses Franco as an illustration of the use of writing for social advancement. Some lines from Capitolo #16 are given in the original and in Feldman's translation.
4. Reviews (for excerpts from the translation, see under "In print"; for information on the other books' treatment of Franco, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) In a review of several works from the series, "The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe," Constance Jordan on Jones' and Rosenthal's 1998 translation of Franco, Poems and Selected Letters.
(b) Jennifer Fisk Rondeau on Rosenthal's 1992 study, The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-century Venice; and elsewhere, another review, this by Cathleen Myers.
(c) Patricia Phillippy on the 2005 essay collection, Strong Voices, Weak History: Early Women Writers and Canons in England, France, & Italy.
(d) Maria Galli Stampino on Irma B. Jaffe's 2002 study, Shining Eyes, Cruel Fortune: The Lives and Loves of Italian Renaissance Women Poets.
(e) Fiora A. Bassanese on the 2000 essay collection, A History of Women's Writing in Italy.
5. A portrait of Franco, part of a frontispiece intended, but not used, for the 1575 Terze rime. The motto on the flaming torch at the top reads "Agitato crescit" ("When it is moved, it rises higher").
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[This translation by Anne Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal contains all of Franco's poems and 15 of her 50 letters. The Italian originals are given for the poems but not for the letters. The introduction discusses Franco's life and some of the work; the notes are helpful and the bibliography detailed. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Franco, Veronica. Poems and selected letters; edited and translated
by Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal (The other voice
in early modern Europe). Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1998. (xxvi, 300 p.: ill.)
LC#: PQ4623.F6 A613 1998; ISBN: 0226259862, 0226259870
Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-293) and index.
Terze rime
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"...and to feel, through loving, this beloved mismatch in
love."
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[From Capitolo 8, to a man who loves her while she loves another, with equally little reward:]
Perhaps Love even laughs at these shared tears
and, to make the world weep even more,
divides and sunders yet another's desire;
and, while he makes merry over this,
the wide sea of all our tears
darkens and deepens further still:
for if man could love to his heart's content,
without confronting contrary desires,
the pleasure of love would have no equal.
And if destiny had laid down the law
that in supreme delight, earthly good
may not attain the bliss of heaven,
my woe is all the greater as my habit is
to fall in love, and to feel, through loving,
this beloved mismatch in love.
However much I reflect on myself,
I see that fortune leads me wherever
life follows an always troubled path;... [ll.76-93;
p.103]
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"...bring with daring hand a piercing blade."
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[From Capitolo 13; a playful challenge to a lover:]
No more words! To deeds, to the battlefield, to arms!
For, resolved to die, I want to free myself
from such merciless mistreatment.
Should I call this a challenge? I do not know,
since I am responding to a provocation;
but why should we duel over words?
If you like, I will say that you challenged me;
if not, I challenge you; I'll take any route,
and any opportunity suits me equally well.
Yours be the choice of place or of arms,
and I will make whatever choice remains;
rather, let both be your decision....
Come here, and, full of most wicked desire,
braced stiff for your sinister task,
bring with daring hand a piercing blade.
Whatever weapon you hand over to me,
I will gladly take, especially if it is sharp
and sturdy and also quick to wound.
Let all armor be stripped from your naked breast,
so that, unshielded and exposed to blows,
it may reveal the valor it harbors within.
Let no one else intervene in this match,
let it be limited to the two of use alone,
behind closed doors, with all seconds sent away....
To take revenge for your unfair attack,
I'd fall upon you, and in daring combat,
as you too caught fire defending yourself,
I would die with you, felled by the same blow.
O empty hopes, over which cruel fate
forces me to weep forever!
But hold firm, my strong, undaunted heart,
and with that felon's final destruction,
avenge your thousand deaths with his one.
Then end your agony with the same blade. [ll.1-12,
46-57, 82-91; pp.133-37]
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"Choose the language that you prefer, for I am equally happy
with them all."
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[From Capitolo 16; a more serious challenge, against a man who has written against Franco, calling her a whore. She describes herself as being wounded, and then:]
Yet my tears are stanched at last and dried,
and the bitter wound has finally healed
that pierced me through from one side to the other.
As if jolted awake from sweet sleep all at once,
I drew courage from the risk I'd avoided,
though a woman, born to milder tasks;
and, blade in hand, I learned warrior's skills,
so that, by handling weapons, I learned
that women by nature are no less agile than men....
So take up at last the weapon you've chosen,
for I cannot bear any further delay,
compelled as I am by the scorn in my soul.
The sword that strikes and stabs in your hand---
the common language spoken in Venice---
if that's what you want to use, then so do I;
and if you want to enter into Tuscan,
I leave you the choice of high or comic strain
for one's as easy and clear for me as the other.
I've seen, in mock-heroic verse,
a very fine work of yours that resembles
the style that mixes Italian and Latin.
Whichever of these you wish to use,
as you do elsewhere, to speed on your arrows
in a contest of insults exchanged between us,
choose the language that you prefer,
for I am equally happy with them all,
since I have learned them for exactly this purpose.
To compete with you as boldly as I may,
I have studied all these styles in depth;
whether well or ill, I myself am content;
and others as well will understand this.
And so will you, for you may fall, beaten,
wishing you had not insulted me.
[ll. 28-39, 109-32; pp. 161-67]
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"Yet I'm not able to hope that the opposite had not occurred."
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[From Capitolo 19; Franco puzzles over her feelings for an old love:]
You went away to foreign peoples,
and I stayed behind, the prey of that fire
which, without you, made my days black and sad;
but as the hours progressed, little by little,
I resolved to make a virtue of my need,
and to make room in myself for other concerns.
This was the true solution to my pain:
in this way my mind discovered at last
a cure for its deep and serious wounds;
your departure for foreign lands
mended the blow, although the scar
could not be completely erased.
Perhaps I would have been happy and glad
if I could have enjoyed you to my heart's content,
and perhaps I'd have been unhappy instead.
The great excess of happiness
might have transformed the highest joy
into cruel, burdensome pain;
and if you'd gone, leaving me behind
at a time so full of such delight,
my distress would have had no end.
So heaven refused to make my hours
joyful and serene, to avoid reducing me
soon after to the worst, most bitter pain.
And I, freed by heaven to such a degree,
must remain content; and yet I'm not able
to hope that the opposite had not occurred. [ll.58-84;
pp.185-87]
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"Silence is bad, but action is worse."
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[From Capitolo 23; again on a man who has defamed her; here she asks another man for advice. Franco's dilemma reflects her marginal status; a "respectable" Venetian woman would have had a whole network of family to defend her good name:]
If a certain Sir Cricket, concealed in his hole,
as his habit is, was moved to speak ill of me
in my absence, what can I do about it?
And if, attracted by the sound,
many wasps and horseflies came rushing up
and buzzed in chorus with his rough voice,
my honor suffers no harm from this,
and as far as I'm concerned, I laugh instead;
but then I am wounded by others' stupidity....
And yet for all this I did not rise in anger
but rather rejoiced when, by keeping silent,
my truth prevailed over what he had said.
Then indeed in my silence I saw him
grow more and more insolent, and I'd almost say
that it was I who made him that way.
But in that case, what was it my duty to do
if not to ignore the talk sent around
behind my back by a wicked, vile man?...
I have thought about this at length
and have said that if I were to defy him,
he might retreat, taking back his insults;
he might turn his steps in another direction
and flee from meeting me in combat,
for fear that I'd club him to death.
But if he has bones that withstand every test
and any number of heavy club strokes,
so his opponent finally tires of hitting him
without having got what he deserves,
at last he might so tire me out
that I'd have armed myself for my despair.
And then what would be said about me?
That I cannot handle a cowardly man,
whom a mere child could beat with a switch,
a man who pretends to be strong and unbeatable
in battle with a woman who endures and is silent,
without even threatening him with a look....
But what shall I do? Silence is bad,
but action is worse. Oh, useless words of mine!
Give me, my lord, your advice.
[ll.55-63, 136-53, 176-78; pp. 233-41]
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Lettere familiari a diversi
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"It's with great delight that I talk with those who know."
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[From Letter 17, to a young man who wishes to become her lover:]
You know full well that of all the men who count on being able to win my love, the ones dearest to me are those who work in the practice of the liberal arts and disciplines, of which (though a woman of little knowledge, especially compared with my inclination and my interest) I am so fond. And it's with great delight that I talk with those who know, so as to have further chances to learn, for if my fate allowed, I would gladly spend my entire life and pass all my time in the academies of talented men. [p.34]
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"To... move according to another's will..."
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[From Letter 22, to a mother who appears to be preparing her
daughter to follow Franco's profession:]
I also fulfill a humane obligation by showing you a steep precipice hidden in the distance and by shouting out before you reach it, so that you'll have time to steer clear of it....
You know how often I've begged and warned you to protect her virginity. And since this world is so full of dangers and so uncertain, and the houses of poor mothers are never safe from the amorous maneuvers of lustful young men, I showed you how to shelter her from danger and to help her by teaching her about life in such a way that you can marry her decently....
...[Y]ou underwent I don't know what change of heart. Where once you made her appear simply clothed and with her hair arranged in a style suitable for a chaste girl, with veils covering her breasts and other signs of modesty, suddenly you encouraged her to be vain, to bleach her hair and paint her face. And all at once you let her show up with curls dangling around her brow and down her neck, with bare breasts spilling out of her dress, with a high uncovered forehead, and every other embellishment people use to make their merchandise measure up to the competition.
...[I urge] you again to beware of what you're doing and not to slaughter in one stroke your soul and your reputation, along with your daughter's---who, considered from the purely carnal point of view, is really not very beautiful (to say the least, for my eyes don't deceive me) and has so little grace and wit in conversation that you'll break her neck expecting her to do well in the courtesan's profession, which is hard enough to succeed in even if a woman has beauty, style, good judgment, and proficiency in many skills. And just imagine a young woman who lacks many of these qualities or has them only to an average degree....
I'll add that even if fate should be completely favorable and kind to her, this is a life that always turns out to be a misery. It's a most wretched thing, contrary to human reason, to subject one's body and labor to a slavery terrifying to even think of. To make oneself prey to so many men, at the risk of being stripped, robbed, even killed, so that one man, one day, may snatch away from you everything you've acquired from many over such a long time, along with so many other dangers of injury and dreadful contagious diseases; to eat with another's mouth, sleep with another's eyes, move according to another's will, obviously rushing toward the shipwreck of your mind and your body --- what greater misery? What wealth, what luxuries, what delights can outweigh all this? Believe me, among all the world's calamities, this is the worst.
And if to worldly concerns you add those of the soul, what greater doom and certainty of damnation could there be?...
Don't allow the flesh of your daughter not only to be cut into pieces and sold but you yourself to become her butcher. Consider the likely outcome; and if you want to observe other cases, look at what's happened and happens every day to the multitude of women in this occupation. If you can be convinced by reason, every argument about this world and all the more about heaven opposes you and urges you to avoid this fatal course. [pp. 38-40]
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[Margaret Rosenthal's detailed study of Franco's life and work, and of her society, quotes extensively from Franco and other writers (and gives the Italian originals). (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Rosenthal, Margaret F. The honest courtesan: Veronica Franco,
citizen and writer in sixteenth-century Venice (Women in culture
and society). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. (xiv,
391 p., [24] p. of plates : ill.)
LC#: DG678.24.F73 R67 1992; ISBN: 0226728110,
0226728129
Includes bibliographical references (p. 349-376) and index. Foreword
by Catherine R. Stimpson.
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[Irma B. Jaffe's collection of biographies includes one on Franco, which discusses and offers both the Italian and translations by Jaffe and Gernando Colombardo of letters and poetry. (Also given is a brief account of the portraits that have been said to represent Franco.) With the book is a CD that includes readings in Italian from five of Franco's poems. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Jaffe, Irma B. Shining eyes, cruel fortune: the lives and
loves of Italian Renaissance women poets / Irma B. Jaffe with
Gernando Colombardo. New York: Fordham University Press, 2002.
(xxx, 429 p., 8 p. of plates: ill. (some col.), maps; 26 cm.
+ 1 CD (4 3/4 in.)
LC#: PQ4063 .J34 2002; ISBN: 0823221806, 0823221814
Accompanying CD contains poems in Italian. Includes bibliographical
references (p. [411]-415) and indexes
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[Ann Rosalind Jones' study of women poets includes an analysis of several of Franco's poems. Jones gives the Italian original of the passages she discusses; the notes and bibliography are helpful:]
Jones, Ann Rosalind. The currency of Eros: women's love lyric
in Europe, 1540-1620 (Women of letters). Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, c1990. (xi, 242 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN1181 .J66 1990; ISBN: 0253331498
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[In a more recent essay, "Bad Press: Modern Editors versus Early Modern Women Poets (Tullia d'Aragona, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Franco)," Jones describes the various editions of the works of the three poets, showing how editors' textual revisions have changed the effects of the works from those intended by the authors. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Strong voices, weak history: early women writers & canons
in England, France, & Italy / Pamela Joseph Benson &
Victoria Kirkham, editors. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, c2005. (viii, 380 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN715 .S76 2005; ISBN: 0472098810, 0472068814
Results of a conference held at the University of Pennsylvania
in March 2000. Includes bibliographical references and index
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[This collection contains Diana Robin's essay, "Courtesans, Celebrity, and Print Culture in Renaissance Venice: Tullia d'Aragona, Gaspara Stampa and Veronica Franco," which discusses the writers' works in the light of the salons in which they participated and the growing Venetian publishing industry. The notes are especially valuable in reviewing earlier critical studies. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Italian women and the city: essays / edited by Janet Levarie
Smarr and Daria Valentini. Madison [N.J.]: Fairleigh Dickinson
University Press; London; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University
Presses, c2003. (244 p.)
LC#: PQ4055.W6 I85 2003; ISBN: 0838639658
Includes bibliographical references and index
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[Two essays in this history deal with Franco's writing: Maria Luisa Doglio's on her letters and Giovanni Rabitti's on her poetry. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
A history of women's writing in Italy
/ edited by Letizia Panizza and Sharon Wood. Cambridge [England];
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. (xvi, 361 p.)
LC#: PQ4055.W6 H57 2000; ISBN: 0521570883, 0521578132
Includes bibliographical references (p. 282-350) and index
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Updated 05-11-08