Veronica Franco (1546–1591) was an Italian poet and courtesan in 16th century Venice. Veronica Franco was born in Venice into a family who were native-born citizens with hereditary rights.

"When we too are armed and trained, we can convince men that we have hands, feet, and a heart like yours; and although we may be delicate and soft, some men who are delicate are also strong; and others, coarse and harsh, are cowards. Women have not yet realized this, for if they should decide to do so, they would be able to fight you until death; and to prove that I speak the truth, amongst so many women, I will be the first to act, setting an example for them to follow."
—Veronica Franco



The daughter of another cortigiana onesta, Franco learned the art at a young age from her mother and was trained to use her natural assets and abilities to achieve a financially beneficial marriage. While still in her teens, Franco married a wealthy physician, but the union ended badly. In order to support herself, Franco turned to serving as a cortigiana to wealthy men. She quickly rose through the ranks to consort with some of the leading notables of her day and even had a brief liaison with Henry III, King of France. Franco was listed as one of the foremost courtesans of Venice in Il Catalogo di tutte le principal et piu honorate cortigiane di Venezia.

A well-educated woman, Veronica Franco wrote two volumes of poetry: Terze rime in 1575 and Lettere familiari a diversi in 1580. She published books of letters and collected the works of other leading writers into anthologies. Successful in her two lines of work, Franco also founded a charity for courtesans and their children.

Franco's fifty Familiar Letters were published in 1580 in Venice. The first is written to Henry III, King of France and the twenty first to Jacopo Tintoretto, the Venetian painter, thanking him for the portrait he did of her. The letters display the courtesan's many skills and they have great biographical value. They show her in a range of daily activities -- playing music, sitting for a portrait, making a dinner for friends, asking for a loan of a wheelchair, engaged in literary projects. They also comment on the events and situations represented in her capitoli. In many letters, she portrays herself as a moralist, giving advice to patrician male friends and to a mother thinking of making her daughter into a courtesan. Her familiar letters, intended for publication, allow Franco to shift her private life into the public sphere; they permitted her to comment in print on the behavior of men and to insist on the courtesan's virtue, reason, wisdom and fairness. Even though her letters firmly established her reputation as a courtesan to the elite, Franco was brought to the Inquisition courts in 1580 by her son's tutor, Ridolfo Vannitelli, on charges of having practiced magical incantations in her home. Her own defense, the help of Domenico Venier, and the predisposition of the Inquisitor freed her from the charges. But this began a downward spiral as her reputation was irreparably damaged. She was also severely impoverished by the plague years of 1575-77 in which she lost many of her valuable possessions through theft, and her faithful patron and friend of many years, Domenico Venier, died in 1582. Her tax declaration of 1582 stated that she was living in a section of the city where many destitute prostitutes ended their lives. Her death at forty-five ended a life that had included a decade of sumptuous wealth but also many difficulties, dangers, and losses.

In 1565, when she was about 20 years old, Veronica Franco was listed in Il Catalogo di tutte le principale e più 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.

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