A courtesan and a poet, the daughter of Francesco Franco and Paola Fracassa. She had three brothers, and her intellectual upbringing began by sharing her brothers' education by private tutors. She married to Paolo Panizza, a doctor, but she separated from him soon after, requesting unsuccessfully for her dowry to be returned. Unable to reclaim her fortune, Franco became a courtesan to provide for her family. With the help of her mother, who had also been a courtesan, Veronica soon became one of the most respected courtesans in Venice and at the age of twenty she was present in the Catalogo, the list of the most prestigious Cortigiane Honeste in Venice, rising to the attention of the leading aristocrats of her day. Jacopo Tintoretto painted a few memorable portraits of her, and she even had a liaison with Henry III, King of France. She became involved with Domenico Venier's renowned literary salon. There she exchanged poems with male poets and received sonnet commissions for anthologies. A well-educated woman, Veronica wrote two volumes of poetry, “Terze rime” and “Lettere Familiari a Diversi”. In her poems she described her quite splendid life as Cortigiana Honesta, and her work is openly erotic, often sexually explicit, thus undermining the traditional portrayal of a woman as a silent, submissive, and unattainable entity. Not withstanding her reputation, Franco was brought to the Inquisition courts on charges of having practiced magical incantations. Witchcraft was in fact a quite common complaint against courtesans in those days. Even though she was acquitted thanks to her connection, her reputation was irreparably damaged by the trial. In addition, Veronica Franco was forced to leave Venice during the epidemic of plague that ravaged the city and lost much of her wealth when her house was looted. She then proposed to the city council to establish a home for poor women and their children, of which she would become the administrator. In fact, she was raising not only her own children but also her nephews, who had been orphaned by the plague. Her later life is largely obscure, though surviving records indicate she was living in a poor section of the city where many destitute prostitutes ended their lives.
Copyright © Alastair Fontana 2013
Titian Vecellio, Venus of Urbino, 1538
