[897] She is so called in the Chron. Venetum, in Muratori, xxiv. col. 121 sqq. (in the account of her heroic defence, ibid. col. 121 she is called a virago). Comp. Infessura in Eccard, Scriptt. ii. col. 1981, and Arch. Stor. append. ii. p. 250, and Gregorovius, vii. 437 note 1.
[898] Contemporary historians speak of her more than womanly intellect and eloquence. Comp. Ranke’s Filippo Strozzi, in Historisch-biographische Studien, p. 371 note 2.
[899] And rightly so, sometimes. How ladies should behave while such tales are telling, we learn from Cortigiano, l. iii. fol. 107. That the ladies who were present at his dialogues must have known how to conduct themselves in case of need, is shown by the strong passage, l. ii. fol. 100. What is said of the ‘Donna di Palazzo’—the counterpart of the Cortigiano—that she should neither avoid frivolous company nor use unbecoming language, is not decisive, since she was far more the servant of the princess than the Cortigiano of the prince. See Bandello, i. nov. 44. Bianca d’Este tells the terrible love-story of her ancestor, Niccolò of Ferrara, and Parisina. The tales put into the mouths of the women in the Decameron may also serve as instances of this indelicacy. For Bandello, see above, p. 145; and Landau, Beitr. z. Gesch. der Ital. Nov. Vienna, 1875, p. 102. note 32.
[900] Sansovino, Venezia, fol. 152 sqq. How highly the travelled Italians valued the freer intercourse with girls in England and the Netherlands is shown by Bandello, ii. nov. 44, and iv. nov. 27. For the Venetian women and the Italian women generally, see the work of Yriarte, pp. 50 sqq.
[901] Paul. Jov. De Rom. Piscibus, cap. 5; Bandello, parte iii. nov. 42. Aretino, in the Ragionamento del Zoppino, p. 327, says of a courtesan: ‘She knows by heart all Petrarch and Boccaccio, and many beautiful verses of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and a thousand other authors.’
[902] Bandello, ii. 51, iv. 16.
[903] Bandello, iv. 8.
[904] For a characteristic instance of this, see Giraldi, Hecatomithi, vi nov. 7.
[905] Infessura, in Eccard, Scriptores, ii. col. 1997. The public women only, not the kept women, are meant. The number, compared with the population of Rome, is certainly enormous, perhaps owing to some clerical error. According to Giraldi, vi. 7, Venice was exceptionally rich ‘di quella sorte di donne che cortigiane son dette;’ see also the epigram of Pasquinus (Gregor. viii. 279, note 2); but Rome did not stand behind Venice (Giraldi, Introduz. nov. 2). Comp. the notice of the ‘meretrices’ in Rome (1480) who met in a church and were robbed of their jewels and ornaments, Murat. xxii. 342 sqq., and the account in Burchardi, Diarium, ed. Leibnitz, pp. 75-77, &c. Landi (Commentario, fol. 76) mentions Rome, Naples, and Venice as the chief seats of the ‘cortigiane;’ ibid. 286, the fame of the women of Chiavenna is to be understood ironically. The Quaestiones Forcianae, fol. 9, of the same author give most interesting information on love and love’s delights, and the style and position of women in the different cities of Italy. On the other hand, Egnatius (De Exemp. III. Vir. Ven. fol. 212 b sqq.) praises the chastity of the Venetian women, and says that the prostitutes come every year from Germany. Corn. Agr. de van. Scientiae, cap. 63 (Opp. ed. Lugd. ii. 158) says: ‘Vidi ego nuper atque legi sub titulo “Cortosanæ” Italica lingua editum et Venetiis typis excusum de arte meretricia dialogum, utriusque Veneris omnium flagitiosissimum et dignissimum, qui ipse cum autore suo ardeat.’ Ambr. Traversari (Epist. viii. 2 sqq.) calls the beloved of Niccolò Niccoli ‘foemina fidelissima.’ In the Lettere dei Principi, i. 108 (report of Negro, Sept. 1, 1522) the ‘donne Greche’ are described as ‘fonte di ogni cortesia et amorevolezza.’ A great authority, esp. for Siena, is the Hermaphroditus of Panormitanus. The enumeration of the ‘lenae lupaeque’ in Florence (ii. 37) is hardly fictitious; the line there occurs:
‘Annaque Theutonico tibi si dabit obvia cantu.’