MORE ON COURTESANS...
...and prostitutes
February 4. 1548
Cosimo I petitions Andrea Doria to free Bernardino Maltacchini d'Arezzo. Ten years earlier he and seven of his fellow soldiers, all serving on Doria's galleys, went ashore in Messina, entered the home of a courtesan, and raped her. All eight were imprisoned for the crime but the others served only two months; Bernardino, having no one to recommend or help him, is still in jail.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=7953&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=0
September 11. 1553
A certain Giovanni [probably Giovan Battista Peloro] asks to be provided with tablecloth and napkins for his room in Port'Ercole. He also asks for some prostitutes to be sent inorder to have a chance to "refresh the codpiece".
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21511&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=0
July 4. 1560
A special trade-license tax passed by the "Officiali dell'Onestà" will be used for the construction of their new office [in the Uffizi]. This new tax will be paid by the two categories of prostitutes - one group recognizable from the particular signs they wear on the street, the other who have their own apartment or room (referred to here as the prostitutes wearing "drappi" [cloths])
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=19988&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=10
July 12. 1567
Cosimo Bartoli relates news from Venice to Francesco, mentioning two nobles who had a violent fight over a courtesan on the Rialto.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21652&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=0
July 31. 1568
Pope Pius V has given orders for small defensive towers to be built along the coast between Ostia and Civitavecchia. He also wants all the courtesans of Rome with more than 300 scudi to their name to get married.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21739&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=0
August 10. 1567
Valerio Veneto informs Cosimo I that he will be going to Rome to preach during Lent. He reminds Cosimo I of his promise to rid Florence of prostitutes.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=9344&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=0
Febryary 16. 1568
Francesco I de' Medici gives orders not to release a Jew previously imprisoned for having been with a Christian prostitute. Related documents reveal that the Jew has presented a privilege granted to the Jewish community by Cosimo I de' Medici stating that all Jews accused of the sin of having commingled with Christian men or women cannot be accused by any judge, magistrate or commissioner, but only by the duke himself.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=15139&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=0
April 22. 1569
A prostitute has been expelled from Rome for her wicked ways as well as for allowing gambling in her house.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21833&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=0
May 14. 1569
In the papal consistory a proposal has been floated to create for prostitutes a "serraglio" akin to a ghetto that they would be compelled to live in and which would be locked from 2 am until morning.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21842&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=0
June 11. 1569
Married courtesans who plan to leave Rome because conditions are worsening [with stricter papal laws] will hear preaching about their condition.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21861&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=0
November 19. 1569
In Rome, a new enclosed, ghettolike enclosure for prostitutes is being constructed in the "Ortaccio" [the area around Piazza Montedoro]; two large gates that will be locked at 2 am are planned.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21926&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=0
December 31. 1569
A once-famous courtesan called Cencina boasted that she knew of an abbot [identified as the Abate de' Nobili] who was trying to become the Cameriere of Pope Pius V with the ultimate end of poisoning him. Cencina was then brought from Ronciglione to a Roman prison and tortured, but no proof of her accusations was found. A week later the abbot was being held under house arrest and it seemed likely that Cencina would be hanged.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21943&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=0
December 10. 1569
Fearing the arrival of more prostitutes in Rome, the pope has ordered that all women entering the city prove that they are of good families and wish to live honestly.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21930&returnstr=orderby=SendName@is_search=1@result_id=0
February 15. 1570
a papal edict has stipulated that Romans should not rent their houses to women "di mala vita" [prostitutes], and that the new ghettolike enclosure built by Pope Pius V and here called the Ortaccio will be locked for all of Lent.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=21955&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=10
June 9. 1574
The Marchese has publicly decreed that men bearing illegal arms in the houses of prostitutes may be charged as if arrested in a public place. Several Spanish officials, along with bodyguards, have visited prostitutes, causing much scandal in Milan.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=9881&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=10
September 3. 1591
Cardinal Odoardo Farnese is mounting a campaign to block Count Francesco Scotto's promotion to Cardinal, using an incident from Scotto's time at the University of Pavia. Scotto allegedly abducted an actress, Angelica, for sexual purposes without the consent of her husband Drusiano Martinelli. Ferdinando I seeks Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga's help in proving that Angelica was a public prostitute abetted by her husband.
http://documents.medici.org/document_details.cfm?entryid=16681&returnstr=orderby=yearmodern,docmonthnum,docday@is_search=1@result_id=20