Veronica Franco (whose life is featured in the motion picture "Dangerous Beauty") was a sixteenth-century Venetian beauty, poet, and protofeminist. This collection captures the frank eroticism and impressive eloquence that set her apart from the chaste, silent woman prescribed by Renaissance gender ideology.
As an "honored courtesan," Franco made her living by arranging to have sexual relations, for a high fee, with the elite of Venice and the many travelers-merchants, ambassadors, even kings-who passed through the city. Courtesans needed to be beautiful, sophisticated in their dress and...