Ghirardo article for Stephanie - University of California, Santa

The Topography of Prostitution in Renaissance Ferrara
Author(s): Diane Yvonne Ghirardo
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 60, No. 4 (Dec., 2001), pp. 402431
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians
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The
Topography of
Renaissance
Prostitution
in
Ferrara
DIANE YVONNE
GHIRARDO
University of Southern California
n any given morning in 1471, the prostituteGiovanna of Venice, then resident of a Ferrarese
brothel on Via Malborghetto, might have contemplated with resignation the options open to her for a
day on the town (Figure 1).1Unless it was Saturdayand she
planned to go to the public market near the cathedral,
legally she could not leave her chiuso(single room or small
residence)at all.2She was also prohibitedfrom frequenting
any of the city's inns or hostelries on pain of immediate
expulsion.3Nor could she or the women living in the other
twenty-two chiusielect to rent a room elsewhere, even at
anotherinn, becauseFerrara'slawsflatlyforbadeprivatecitizens to rent rooms or apartmentsto prostitutes.4Even if
Giovannachose to ignore the laws and stroll through the
city'sstreets,statutesobliged her to don a yellow mantle so
as to renderher immediatelyrecognizableas a woman livhence less likelyto be confused
ing dishonorably(disonesta),
with an honorablewoman (donnaonesta).5In the event that
Giovannafloutedthese regulationsandwasunluckyenough
to be apprehended,Ferrara'sstatutes,ducalproclamations,
andthe statutesof the office of Bollette confrontedher with
punishmentsas diverseas a fine, a publicwhipping,torture,
being paradedpartiallynude throughthe streetsandhaving
people hit her while hurling insults and rotten food (la
scopa),or being banishedfrom the city.
Even in the unlikelycircumstancethatshe scrupulously
obeyedthe rules,she might nonethelessbe expelledwithout
warning:whenever a spasm of moralizingseized city lead-
ers, or when a newly appointedofficialzealouslyperformed
his duty,or when authoritiessought to engage divineintervention to preventthe spreadof the plague or to prevailin
war, sinners of all sorts were summarily banished. Such
scapegoatingacceleratedat the end of the fifteenthcentury,
when Duke Ercole I came under the influence of the fiery
reformer Fra Girolamo Savonarola.6Even a poor harvest
could prompt expulsions:prostituteswho fled food shortages in Bologna in 1476 were expelled from Ferrarafour
months laterwhen that city, too, sufferedgrainshortages.7
Giovanna'slegal tenureas a prostitutein Ferrarawas always
under threat,then, her situationalwaysprecariousandvulnerable. The issue was not her immoral activities,which,
afterall, the city supervisedandtaxed;rather,it was the conjunctionof spaceand sex that preoccupiedcivic authorities.
Giovanna'ssituationdifferedin key respectsfrom that
of her pimp, GiovanniCazano.Prostitutionin itselfwas not
illegal; a prostituteonly violated the law if she evadedspatial controls or engaged in unruly behavior.On the other
was illegal for Ferraresecitizens,
hand, pimping (lenocinio)
not
for
although
foreigners,andhere, too, spatialissuesfigured prominently.Space, time, and money were the standardsby which city officialsgaugedwhich Ferraresecitizens
were pimps:if a man slept in the room of a prostitutemore
than twice in one week, if he lived or talkedwith her for at
least an hour more than three times a week, or if he lived off
her earnings, then he could be declared a pimp.8Eligible
for two months in prison,a fine, and torture,a lenonemight
Figure 1 Antonio Frizzi,Ferrarain 1385, after Bartolinoda Novara
also be freelybeaten by Ferraresecitizensif his occupation
was detected.If he continuedto pimp aftera conviction,he
riskedhaving his nose, foot, or hand cut off. In any event,
other than the ritual declarationsin the statutesand occasionalducalproclamations,a foreignpimp such as Giovanni
sufferedno such assaultson his purseor dignity.As a man,
even one livingdishonorablyby fifteenth-centurystandards,
Giovannicould move throughoutthe city at will, unfettered
by the dense network of spatial limitations and dress
requirementsthat encumberedGiovanna.
The contrast between the possibilities available to
women and to men were familiarto other prostitutes in
Ferraraand, indeed, to all women in Renaissancecities,
who, dependingon classandsocialcondition,laboredunder
varioustypes of spatialcontrols.9Althoughthemselvesgovernedby strictsocial and politicalhierarchies,men enacted
and policed spatialpolicies, while women were expectedto
submit to the dictatesof men in everythingfrom property
rights to access to the city'sstreets. Giovanni could represent himselfin the rentalof a chiuso,for example,while Gio-
vannacould not, even though she would be operatingit as
a brothel.Formalpoliciesgovernedthe enclosureof women
and girls in convents, while informal policies and social
mores forbade respectable women, particularly young
unmarriedwomen, fromwanderingaboutthe city unchaperoned.10Familyhonor dependedupon the virginityof its
female membersuntil they married;if they did not marry,
the same codes of familyhonor requiredthat they retire to
a convent,thatis, out of sight to a placewhere their chastity,
at least theoretically,was not at risk.11
In the gendered geographies of Renaissance Italian
cities, the female figure perhapsmost discussed,most visible in the public domain, and most vexing for authorities
was the public prostitute (meretrice).'2
Although preachers
andwritersexhortedwomen to conformto a wide rangeof
behavioralpractices,civic statutesand laws specifiedspatial
controls only for prostitutes.13Custom or statutoryprovision regulateda wide range of activitiesand professionsin
Ferrara,from the sale of firewoodor fish to the fabrication
of gold or shoes, and in many cases the activitiestended to
RENAISSANCE
FERRARA
403
Figure 2 Ruggiero Moroni,
ichnographiaof the Piazzadi
Ferrara,1618. In his Annals,
Rodistates that business was
conducted in the piazza in
front of the cathedral,while
the marketwas held in the
piazzabetween the
cathedral'ssouthern flankand
the Churchof San Romano.
(Northis at bottom.)
cluster near one another.In the late fifteenth century,for
example,fishermenandfarmersmarketedtheirwaresin the
piazza of Castelnuovo near the Porta Sant'Agnese,while
animalswere sold in the piazzaof Castelvecchio,and clothing in the shops that lined the southernflankof the cathedral(Figure2).14Prostitution,however,was not simplyone
among many professions. Unlike goldsmiths, armament
manufacturers,fishermen,notaries,and doctors,prostitutes
could not organizeinto guilds,and only they laboredunder
statutory requirements to live in a particular building.
Specifically,of all professions,only prostitutesconfronted
legal constraintson their movement through and presence
in city streets.
By definition, a prostitute was neither a virgin nor a
woman under the direct supervisionand control of a man.
Citizens and officialswere less troubledby the moral issue
of her concupiscence than by her visibility in the public
realm, her presence and activitieswithin the city's public
spaces. In Ferraraalone, nearly two dozen proclamations
from the Ufficio delle Bollette (tariffsand licences office)
in the fifteenth centurydefined the city spatiallyand tem404
JSAH
/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
porallyfor meretrici,even if the ritualrecurrenceof the pronouncementssuggestsa wide gapbetweenthe ideal and the
real. Given the evident preoccupationwith prostitutes in
the public realm,it is surprisingthat-other than a few references to prostitutesand public brothels in the majorfifteenth- and sixteenth-century diaries by Ferrarese
citizens-so little informationexistsaboutpreciselocations
of brothels or their daily operation.The publisheddiaries
of Ugo Caleffini, BernardinoZambotti, Giovanni Maria
Zerbinati,and other authorsidentify only one brothel by
name and location: El Gambaro (or Gambero), near the
Church of San Cristoforo.15Nor, with the exception of
AngelicaGamba'srecentthesis,has scholarlyattentionbeen
directedto the city'sprostitutesand brothels more generThe situationdifferslittle in scholarshipon otherItalally.16
ian Renaissancecities.
Axes of accidentand bias coincide in the recordingof
Ferrara'shistory, guaranteeingthat scant scholarly attention has been dedicatedto the city'snonpatricianwomen,
especiallyprostitutes,and the spacesassociatedwith them.
Historiansconsistentlyattendedto the lives, dynasticpoli-
cies, andglitteringcourtsof the city'srulingfamily,the Este,
rather than to its decidedly less glamorous and marginalized female population. To be sure, records that might
reveal more about the lives of residents other than members of the upperclassesare extremelylimited.17In Renaissance architecturalhistory, these factors intersect with an
emphaticbias for buildings designed in the neoantique or
classicalstyle, usuallyby architectspatronizedby powerful
Renaissance courts and whose names have been handed
down reverently to successive generations of architects.
Contemporary conventions precluded the possibility of
women engaging in such activities, and since prominent
architectsrarelydesigned structuresspecificallyassociated
with women, historians could easily ignore them. A long
bibliographydocumentsthe work of Ferrara'smost famous
late-fifteenth-centuryarchitect,Biagio Rossetti, for example, but virtuallynothing has been written about the construction and architectural history of the city's many
monasteriesfor women.18Exclusivefocus on palaces,military fortifications,public buildings, and cathedralsmeans
that buildings or facilities associatedwith women, such as
brothels, laundries, convents, housing for widows, and
kitchens,garnerlittle more than passingmention precisely
because they provided settings for activitiesnot valued in
male-dominated Renaissance cities.19At best, historians
divulgenovelty items such as the undergroundpassagethat
Alfonso I d'Este constructedbetween Castello Estense and
the house of his inamorata,LauraDianti.20
In this paper,I proposeto initiatean alternativeunderstandingof the Renaissancecity as comprisedof gendered
spaces and spatialpractices,with one of the chief imperatives being the spatialcontrol of women. Iconographicand
buildingprograms,from the privatehouse to the organization of the city and its public spaces, may indeed have
embodied lofty ideas about antiquearchitectureand planning, or abouthow humanistprincesshould build, but they
also expressedand reinforcedattitudesabout the control of
women. In structuringurban programs,secular and civic
leaders enacted social and spatial practices regarding
women'saccess to avowedlymale domains.By location, by
construction,and by official and unofficialregulations,the
buildingsthey erectedandthe citiesthey designed,enlarged,
or revamped embodied distinctly patriarchalviews about
how women were to be restrictedspatially,socially,and economically. The numerous convents of a Renaissancecity
such as Ferrara,the brothels,laundries,and even the organization of the public and privatespacesof the house offer
importantevidence about the ways women were intended
to be confined. Architecturaland urban historiansconsistently ignore the genderingof RenaissanceItaliancities and
spaces, instead treating urban buildings and spaces as
embodyingvaluesthat were gender-neutralanduniversal.21
A well-documentedset of beliefs about female inferiority,weakness,andirrationalityunderlaythese spatialpractices. An extensive and rich body of scholarship on this
subject allows me to leave that discussion to specialistsin
the field.22My interestis in the spatialpracticesthemselves,
how they were enacted in cities such as Ferrara,how they
influenced the city's architectureand urbanism, and how
those practiceshave affected our understandingof Italian
Renaissancebuilding.The largerstudy of which this essay
is but a chapterexaminesthe ways in which many types of
buildingsand spacesin RenaissanceFerrarawere gendered,
while here I will examinethe practicesas they affectedprostitutes, Ferrara'sbrothels, and the spaces of prostitution
duringthe fifteenth and sixteenthcenturies.23
Prostitutes in the Public Sphere:
Spatial Controls
Mazzi'spathbreakingstudy of quattrocentoprostitutionin
Florence demonstrates that, overwhelmingly, the city's
prostitutesimmigratedfrom elsewherein Italyor Europe.24
What little surfacesin fragmentarycourt documents suggests that the same is true of Ferrara.Like Giovannafrom
Venice, prostitutes moved to Ferrarafrom elsewhere in
Italy-Ursolina of Udine, Lucia of Bologna, Ambrosina
from Como, and Ursola, daughter of the German dye
maker Zeno.25In 1434, Giovanni Greco paid fees for six
prostitutesat Ferrara'slogopublico(public brothel), including Angela andMargaritaof Germany,Margaritaof Slovenia, and Margarita of Ljubljana.26From at least the
fourteenth through the seventeenth century, prostitutes
commonly moved from their hometowns to practicetheir
trade: a prominent sixteenth-century courtesan in Rome
was Camillathe Senese, and in 1624 a list of prostitutesliving on the Stradadella Campanain Rome includedAntonia Fiorentina, FrancescaFerarese, Narda Napoletana.27
The first evidence of a spatialconsequenceof prostitution,
then, was often departurefrom home, presumablyto places
that offered anonymity and where families would not be
shamedby the woman'sprofession.
The paucity of records makes it impossible to determine which young women were drivenby any or all of several possibilities: poverty, widowhood, rape, or, as
contemporaryrecords quaintly phrasedit, "deflowering."
A young womanwho succumbed-with or without forceto a man who promisedmarriageoften found herself abandoned. She thus forfeitedher honor,the one assetthat could
enable her to contract a respectable marriage. Francesca
RENAISSANCE
FERRARA
405
-
-
-
-
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Figure 3 Transcriptionof FraPaolino
Minorita'splan of the territoryand city of
Ferrara,1322-1325
w~ZA w
\
WX a
wN
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WW
WW
j
S Anonio
Piccinini, imprisoned for prostitution in 1606, recounted
how three years earlier her honor had been taken by an
unknownartisan,followingwhich she entereddomesticservice and, it appears,part-timeprostitution.28Sometimes a
woman followed a man from one city to another,as appears
to have been the case with Giovanna of Venice and GiovanniCazanomentionedabove;he in effect becameat once
her common-lawspouseandher pimp.Whateverthe cause,
relocationto foreign cities appearsto have been a common
practice.
The second consequence concerned the possibilities
open to the prostitutewherevershe lived, which included
spatiallimitationson her movementsand her place of business, and, as we have seen, whether she could legally walk
on city streetsat all. The thirteenth-centurystatutesof Ferraraforbadeall publicprostitutes(ganeaor galnea)from living or loiteringin the city,specificallybetweenthe Po River
and the centralVia Sabbioni,from Porta Agnese to Porta
Leone, near the Church of San Francesco,and in Via San
Paolo (Figure 3). The statutesalso insistedthat in the interests of public decency, they were forbidden to frequent
Borgo San Leonardo and Borgo San Guglielmo, two settlements clusteredjust outside the northernwalls.29To be
sure, anotherstatuteforbadewanderingaboutFerraraafter
the eveningbells sounded,but this provisionclearlyapplied
to all, not just to one group.30
In a patterncommon to most Europeancities, by the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, these prohibitions disappearedfrom the city's statutes, and prostitution shifted
close to or inside Ferrara'scity wallswith the establishment
of public brothels (postriboli)
and the enactmentof a system
406
JSAH
/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
of taxationon the spiritsconsumedin the tavernsconnected
with prostitution.31By bringing the brothels into the city,
authoritiesexpectedto be able to exert greatercontrol over
where and how prostituteslived, and to profit from associated taxes. Not surprisingly,the rules regarding confinement to brothelsin Ferraraappearto have been alternately
enforced and ignored. Letters in the Este archives document that Ercole I knew of prostitutionflourishingin city
tavernsother than the publicbrothels,for example,but that
he was quite willing to tolerate this becauseof the tax revenues generated.32On the other hand,when a tavernowner
allowed a prostitute to live and work at his ostariaon Via
delle Volte in 1469, officialsof the Bollette convicted him
for pimping and her for allowing herself to be touched in
public. But as the officialscomplainedto Duke Borso in a
public letter, their efforts came to naught becausethe city's
tax collectors had stayed the punishment on the grounds
that it would adverselyaffect tax income to ducalcoffers.33
Periodically,officialgridealso exhortedconcubinesto
enter the publicbrothel,highlightingan option for unmarried women to engage in illicit sexualrelations(Figure4).34
Concubineswere supportedby a single man for anywhere
from a few months to years, relationshipsthat the women
often hoped would ultimatelybe regularizedby marriage.
Modenesemeretrice
MorandaMagnaniniof Fananohada stable relationshipwith Bernardinoda Carpi,she informedthe
officialsof the Inquisition,andhe hadpromisedto takeher as
his wife.35Authoritiesfoundconcubinesandhousewifeprostitutestroublingbecause,althoughliving dishonorably,they
did not inhabit the city's brothels and were thus indistinguishable in public from honorable women. Despite the
Figure 4 Statuto dell'Ufficiodelle Bollette, article 131: "Contrablasfemantes, Sodomitas, Baratarios,Ludos, Concubinarios,Meretrices .. ,"
April1496
effortsof Ferrareseofficialsto classifyandisolatepromiscuous
women in brothels,concubinageblurredthe lines between
marriedwomen and prostituteswho lived in brothels,and,
indeed,somewomenat differenttimesin theirlivesmayhave
doneallthree(Figure5). Sexuallyactivewomenlivingoutside
the confines of a monogamous marriage or of brothels
emphasizeda lack of order that was anathemato the good
burghersof Ferrara,leadingthem to lodge complaintswith
the duchess.36Concubinagerenderedthe taskof identifying
prostituteswith specialgarmentsand locationsall the more
vexing;for a culturethat sought to eliminateany ambiguity
aboutwhethera womanwashonorableor not, suchelasticity
wasunacceptable.When GiovanniCastelliservedas chief of
the Ufficio delle Bollette,he attemptedto defineprostitutes
in a proclamationissuedin 1476,firstin termsof locationand
then in termsof behaviorandreputation:
... to any whore or publicprostitute,either livingin the brothelof
S. Biagioor ElGambarointhe cityof Ferrara... who allowsfirstthis
one then that one to know her carnally,or who is knownby public
reputationas a shamefulwoman of dishonorablelife ...37
No less troubledwere ecclesiasticalauthorities.Reports
from parishpriests from 1599 forwarddetailedthe names
and specificsins of women:those living "continuallyas concubinesand diverse[typesof] fornication"or in adultery,or
thosewho wereseparatedfromtheirhusbands;theyalsoenumeratedthe numberof officialprostitutesin theirparishes.38
Grideconcerning the spatial limitations of meretrici
cited among their objectivesthe protection of respectable
women's honor and sense of public decency.39The risks
associatedwith the promiscuousmixing of respectableand
dishonorablewomen were high: a woman assaultedby a
Figure 5 Betrothalof a youth and a prostitute,
1474, Decretum GratianiRoverella
man in a street known to be frequentedby prostituteshad
no legal recoursefor avengingher honor, for in theory she
should not have been there in the first place.40Then there
were marriedwomen for whom prostitutionwas an occasional although at times riskyactivity,undertakenin order
to supplementfamilyincome. In 1482,Margherita,a "prostitute housewife" (meretricecasalenga),alias La Fachina, was
killed by the son of her lover, FrancescoD'Ortona, whose
familyhad brokenup becauseof his involvementwith her.41
Had she lived, she ran the risk of being denounced as a
prostitute by her neighbors or her husbandand forced to
enter a brothel. In a shaming ritual that lives on in contemporaryItaly as the insult gesture of le corne(the cuckold'shorns),a husbandwho allowedhimselfto be cuckolded
sufferedthe embarrassment
of being forcedto tour the city's
RENAISSANCE
FERRARA
407
tavernsand inns to the sound of tambourineswith a pairof
horns on his head, to be belittled by his compatriots.42
Antonio dei Paxi forestalledsuch a fate in 1451 by reporting that his wife, Luciana Bianca, had left him and committed adulterycumpluribus.
Just to makehis own role clear,
he added that all of this happenedagainsthis will.43Elsewhere in RenaissanceItaly there is evidence of husbands
collaboratingto havetheirwives occasionallyenterinto sexual liaisons with one or more men. The absence of such
cases in Ferrarasimplytestifies to the almost complete loss
of the city'scriminalrecords.44
The persistenceof proclamationsdemandingthat any
womanhavingsexualcontactwith more than one man enter
the brothelsuggeststhat women shiftedinto and out of differenttypes of sexualrelationsduringtheir lives, depending
upon financialneed and family circumstances.Alessandra
Panarini,a residentof BorgoMisericordia(outsidethe wallsto
the southeast of the city), was a married prostitute who
declaredin 1606 that she wantedto forgo permanentlysuch
relationsand to live "asa Christian."45
The likelihoodof a
woman creatingscandalin her neighborhoodbecauseof an
illicit relationshipwas even greaterwhen the line separating
honorablewomenfromdishonorableoneswaselusive-hence
the repeatedeffortsto fix it preciselyonce and for all by confiningdishonorablewomen in brothels.Althoughno records
from the fifteenthand sixteenthcenturiesremainthatwould
helpus determinehowwell thisrulewasenforced,trialrecords
from late-sixteenth-century
Modena and early-seventeenthcenturyFerraraindicatesignificantnoncompliance.46
Prostitutes in the Public Sphere:
Behavior Codes and Enforcement
assertedthatprostituteswerestealingfromfarmproclamation
ers andforeigners,so the banson suchactionswere extended
to actsagainstanypersonof anysociallevel.The fine leveled
wasdoublethe normalone for pettytheft.Repeateddenunciations of prostitutes'actions to civic officials,"aboutwhich
accusationsandcomplaintsarrivealmostdailyin the Officeof
the Bollette,"promptedthese pronouncements.49
Whether this behaviorwas commonplaceor relatedto
specificeventsis not clear.Given the proximityof dates,for
example,the rowdinessthat triggeredan official response
might be linked with the public festivalson the feast of St.
George on 24 April1476,particularly
giventhe participation
of prostitutesin the running of the Palio for women, as
depictedin the fresco for the month of Aprilin the Palazzo
Schifanoia(Figure6).50Generaleconomicconditionsmight
also be a factor;when the secondproclamationwas issuedin
November1476,Ferrarawasblanketedwithsnowandgripped
by its omnipresentwinterfog, andthe highpricesfor grainled
to economichardshipsfor many,includingprostitutes.5s
Whether these or other proclamationswere efficacious
is doubtful;so often were they repeated-two variationsof
the same sets of regulationsreissuedin just a few months in
1462 and again in 1476-that they must not have accomA certaininconsistencyattendsto
plishedtheir objectives.52
city officialsas well. In his diary,Zambottirecordsmeasures
he took against prostitutes on 21 July 1489, while he was
servingas head of the Ufficio delle Bollette:
21 July.A proclamationwas issued that no prostitutecouldremain
inthis ourcity,andthatno Ferraresecitizencouldbe a procurer,and
that anyone who has given them housingis subjectto a penaltyof
50 lire,and that anyone who knows where they are livingmust
notifythe officialsof the Bollettewithinthree days.53
Civicauthoritiesregulatedmorethanjustthevisibilityof prostitutesin citystreets;theyalsomaintainedsurveillance
overthe
Just one month later,Zambottiproudlyannouncedthe
women'scomportment-primarilyin public.An injunctionin punishmentshe inflictedon two prostitutes,at once demonthe 1287statutesagainstgalneaandribaldigamblingor engag- stratinghis firmnessin handlingthe offense, and revealing
ing in rowdybehaviorin the cathedralor its porticogivessome lax enforcementof the earlierinjunction(Figure 7):
ideaof the raucouscharacterof publiclifein latemedievalFerrara.47
GiovanniCastello,notaryfor the UfficiodelleBollette, 21 August. I, as chief of the [office of] the Bollette, had two
in May 1476issueda bulletinenjoiningprostitutesfromcom- turns of the cord inflicted on two prostitutes from the public
mittingvarioussortsof offensesagainstcitizens.He specified brothel on a scaffolding in the public square in front of the
thattheseactsincludedstealingmoneyor otherthingsin large podesta's windows, because they wounded a farmerand took
or smallquantities,or committingany type of insult or dis- a pairof shoes and a cap from him by force, and I made all the
honor againstanother,or stealingsomeone'shat, or dragging other prostitutes come to see the spectacle. 54
anunwillingmaninto theirroom"assome of theseprostitutes
have been accustomedto doing in the past."Punishment In the insultcodes of RenaissanceItaly,knockingoff a man's
wouldbe swiftandmerciless:a publicandbrutalwhippingin hat profoundlyinsultedhis manhood,andthe theft of his hat
one of Ferrara's
piazzefollowedby eight daysin jailuntil the or otherclothesconstitutedan evengreateroffenseagainsthis
women maderestitution.48
A mere six monthslater,a second maledignity.55
The firstproclamationmayhavebeen directed
408
JSAH
/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
only at prostitutes who were not living in the public brothel,
once again highlighting the anxiety generated by women not
living in well-defined environments policed by men.
In his account of the life of Ludovico Ariosto, Michele
Catalano recounted that in 1496 the wife of a police officer
was punished with the scopafor having affairs: she traversed
the main city streets on foot, following which she was pelted
with rotten fruit and sticks.56Such punishments reinforced
the "public" character of the prostitute or the woman guilty
of illicit sex in the public domain, wherefama pubblica(reputation) remained the most certain measure of a woman's
honor. The act itself did not prompt punishment; at issue
was clandestine, untaxed prostitution, particularly that
reported by neighbors concerning married women who
lived otherwise respectable lives.
Beyond inconsistent enforcement, the scanty records
also reveal the determined resistance of prostitutes to spatial
and behavioral confinement. However onerous the punishments, women flouted the laws and asserted their autonomy.
Emblematic is the disobedience of prostitutes Marieta and
Figure 6 Francesco del Cossa, April,PalazzoSchifanoia, 1469-1470.
Detail showing prostitute runningin Palio
Figure 7 Execution,piazzaof the Palaceof Justice, Ferrara,1506, Libro
dei Giustiziati1442-1577. The scaffoldingsat between Palazzodel Corte
and the cathedral,with the Palaceof Justice inthe background.
RENAISSANCE
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409
Maddalenato the ordersof an officialof the Bollette, LaurentinoVilla, and the insultsthey heapedon him in 1480.57
Antonio dei Paxi'sdisclaimerabout the promiscuityof his
wife, Luciana,underscoresthatwomen were not simplypassive victimsof male control.Althoughthe women were regulated and subjectto official and personalcontrol by men,
even the limitedextantrecordsrevealthat Ferraresewomen
includingprostitutesaggressivelyassertedtheirrights.In the
fifteenth century,the few remnantsof the LibrideiMalefici
(Recordsof criminalcomplaints)include chargesby Antonia, wife of GiovanniBolzonella,that one Modesto of Francolino insultedher by callingherputanavacca(literally,"cow
whore,"but effectively"bitch"),andone Magdalenaaccused
GiovanniStanchariniof callingher a schiavadi merda(slave
full of shit).58Men alsochargedwomenwith similaroffenses,
as GiacomoCapelliniclaimedof the insultsthatMagdalena,
wife of Zanolli di Coderataof the contradaof SantaMariain
Vado had hurled at him.59Instead of remainingsilently in
the shadowsas the logic of confinementwouldsuggest,these
and otherwomen assertedthemselvesandtheirrightsin the
streetsand to authorities. Likewise,prostitutesclaimedthe
right to accept or reject potential clients. Alessandra
Panarini,a marriedprostituteseparatedfrom her husband,
filed charges against Christofarode Rossi, a laborerwith
whom she had previouslyhad sexualrelations, because he
would not leave her alone. "I no longer want a relationship
with him," she asserted,"norwith any other [man],since I
want to live as a Christian."60
She was particularlyoffended
that he forced his way into her rented house, even though
she hadpreviouslyfiled chargesagainsthim for ignoringher
insistencethat he stayout of her house and awayfrom her.61
Perhapsthe single greatestassertionof autonomywas
the refusalof manywomen to enter the brothel and be classified as publicprostitutes.City officialschose the locations
of brothels, while promiscuouswomen who lived on their
own clearlyexercisedchoices on where they would live-a
directchallengeto male authority.As in the case of Alessandra Panarini,they often rented these quarters,and neighbors and landlordswere awareof and apparentlytolerated
their activities.Even the city'smonkspatronizedbrothels.62
In other instances,neighborsreportedwomen for scandalizing the neighborhood, but simply engaging in prostitution seems not to havebeen sufficientto warrantcomplaints
to authorities;usually,additionalreasonsobtained.Isabella
Pagliarini (or Villani, or Ghiberti), for example, stood
accused by her neighbors of scandalous conduct because
one of her clients was reputed to be an outlaw, Fabrizzio
Calegaro.63At times, real estate sales contracts also contained provisions forbidding the purchaser to rent any
futurehousing erected on the land to prostitutesor pimps.
410
JSAH
/ 60:4,
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2001
One such fifteenth-centurycontract concerned a property
in Sesto San Romano,between the street and the city walls,
quite close to the El Gambarobrothel,so the concernabout
futurerentalsto prostituteswas not unrealistic.64
Prostitutesoften came to know well the jail cells in the
PalazzodellaRagione.They appearedbeforethe courtsfor a
diversearrayof offenses,includingdebtsto ownersof innsand
brothels,fisticuffswith other prostitutes,sometimeson the
publicstreets,stealingfromclients,andviolenceagainstclients
who tried to escapewithout paying.65Though fragmentary,
the remainingjudicialrecordsalsoindicateenforcementof and
resistanceto the spatialand clothingrequirements.Caterina
the Venetianwas found guilty of failing to wear the yellow
cloth in publicas requiredof prostitutesin 1458,andanother
Caterina,"Schiava"(the Slav), was punished for the same
offense in 1461.66In 1471, documentsthat recordnames of
prisonersin Ferrara's
jailincludedthe followingthreewomen,
all identifiedas meretrici:
Agataof Florence,Giovannaof Piaand
but
cenza,
Romanella, with no indicationof the offenses
they committed.67
Patchyas the recordsare,a certainrecidivism is apparent:Romanellaended up in prison again in
1472.68Pecuniarypenaltieswerethe normforprostituteswho
failedto registerat the Ufficio delle Bolletteupon movingto
Ferraraor to purchasea passwheneverthey wantedto leave
the city temporarilyor permanently.Prostitutespaid double
the normaltarifffor suchpermissions,a burdenthatthey and
their pimpsregularlysought to evade.69Elisabetta"Schiava"
wasfinedfor leavingthe citywithoutpermissionin 1459,and
Bartolomeawas alsofined75 lire for the sameoffense.70
The elaboratesystemof spatialcontrolsand injunctions
againstbadbehaviorby prostitutesoftencamedownto money:
accessto money gave the meretricethe opportunityto pay a
fine to evadecorporalpunishment.But prostitutionwas not
in Ferrara,
alwaysa lucrativefull-timeoccupation,particularly
wherethe taxburdenwasonerousfor most of the population.
Gamba documented a significant number of prostitutes
indebted to the operatorsof the brothels, which virtually
turnedthe womeninto indenturedservants,but withno fixed
date on which their obligationended.7'WealthyFerrarese,
obviouslyawareof this practice,sometimesleft bequeststo
allow a prostituteto pay off her debt and leave the brothel;
evenMarcheseNicol6om andDuke Borsograntedprostitutes
moneyto clearup theirdebtsto brothelowners.72
Ferrara'spublic documents assert that meretriciwere
expectedto maintaina distancefrom donneoneste.Evidence
fromthe archivesof the Inquisitionin Modenain the sixteenth
centuryandFerrarain the earlyseventeenthcenturyindicates
thatthe linesweremorefluidthanotherjudicialrecordswould
suggest.Modenawaspartof the Este territory,and,indeed,in
the fifteenthcentury,the sameofficersat timessupervisedthe
Ufficio del Malefizio and the taxes on prostitutionin both
cities.73In the late sixteenthcentury,a significantnumberof
investigationsby the InquisitioninvolvedModenese prostitutes who were accusednot of prostitution,eitherpublicor
clandestine,but ratherof using spellsand incantations,especiallyto helpwomenregainor acquirea man'saffections.Their
expertisein suchmattersapparentlyrestedon the notionthat,
as prostitutes,they had a specialunderstandingof mattersof
love andsex.Ippolitade Bennisof Ferrararecountedin 1596
how she saw MorandaMagnaniniof Fanano,a prostitute,
determinethroughincantationswhetherloversreallyloved
and caredfor her or her clients.74In her case as in those of
otherprostitutesexaminedby the Inquisition,marriedfemale
neighborsappearto havefrequentedthe housesof prostitutes
withrelativeeaseandto havesoughttheirhelpthroughprayers
andincantations,with no particularconcernfor the factthey
wereprostitutesor concubines.Marriedmen andpriestsfound
this mixingof donneonestewith dishonorableones troubling;
complaintsaboutwomen of ill reputelivingthroughoutFerrararatherthan only in the brothelswere directedto Duke
Ercole by some of his officialsin the 1490s.75Comparable
complaintsfrom ordinarycitizensin Rome revealthat they
wereoutragedat how thesewomen
publiclydisplayed their dishonorable behavior during the day,
touching men's privates and doing other dishonorable acts in
frontof marriedand single women, givingrise to great scandal.76
Although they asserted that these activities shamed their
wives and daughters,the riskof havingtheir daughtersconfused with the prostituteswas equallycompelling,because
the men who signed similar petitions asserted that
respectablewomen needed to stay indoors or move away
"so as not to be mixedup in that infamy."77
The ritualsMoranda and other prostitutes practiced
attachedspecialimportanceto the thresholdsof houses or
rooms. Women repeatedlytestifiedin Inquisitionhearings
about depositingitems on the doorwayor conductingspecial activitiesin the liminalzone between the street and the
house.The portalor thresholdhas historicallyactedin Italy
as a sacred barrier between private and public space. In
Romanantiquity,figuressuch as the phallusposted at doorways guardedagainstevil spiritsentering the home.78One
of the distinguishing features of prostitutes and other
women of ill repute in Renaissance Italy was that they
apparentlybreachedthis zone with impunity,leaning out
of windowsandloiteringat open doorways.In this way they
evadedthe ban on movementin publicstreets,while drumming up businesswithout actuallybreakingthe law.Indeed,
illustrationsof prostitutesfrequentlydepictthem as linger-
Figure 8 A prostitute leaning out of her window and two
gentlemen below, Mores Italiae(1575)
ing in doorways or leaning from windows, behavior
frownedupon for respectablewomen by writersof the time
precisely because it reflected the behavior of a meretrice
soliciting business(Figure 8).
The threshold therefore markeda spatialbarrierand
also imposed a limit on certaintypes of behavior:comportment that might be acceptable,or at least tolerable,inside
could well be a crime outside. A telling exampleis the case
of the Roman prostituteMadalenaProsperi,who tried to
defend herself againsta chargeof wearingmen'sclothes in
publicby claimingthatwhile wearingher lover'sclothes she
only leaned out the doorwaybut never actuallycrossedthe
thresholdinto the street.79The dangerof a womandressing
as a man was particularlyacute because in doing so she
could embrace male spatial prerogativesand move freely
throughthe streetsto tavernsandinns-precisely whatmen
did not want women to be able to do.80
Enduring evidence of the symbolic potency of the
doorway is that one of the typical insult gestures in sixteenth-century Rome among prostitutes involved setting
fire to another prostitute's door, as Camilla Senese was
accusedof doing in 1557 to the door of LucreziaGreca.81
Defiling the closed door in this way was tantamount to
RENAISSANCE
FERRARA
411
Figure 9 View of the city of
Ferrara,based on Mario
Equicola's1516 transcriptionof
Bartolinoda Novara'smap of
1374. (Northis at bottom.)
defiling the woman herself. When a group of young universitystudentswent on a rampagein Bolognain 1630,they
attackedthe houses of women, usually prostitutes,whose
doors represented a major target of their assaults.When
they reached the home of the Ferrareseprostitute Lucia,
they kickedin her door, rippedit off its hinges, and threw
it into the well in the courtyard.82
As spatialmarkers,doors
and thresholdsbecame the locus of public insults, and also
markedthe point at which a prostitutepassedinto the city's
public space and fell under the supervisionof civic authorities, just as entering the city gates did for foreigners.
Brothels: Character and Location
Although Ferrara'spublic brothels date at least to the late
fourteenthcentury,little has been learnedabouttheir exact
locations or physicalcharacteristics.83
As with other structures associated with women, not much effort has been
expendedon understandingownershipand operation.An
investigationof diariesand public recordsin Modena and
Ferraranow allowsus to flesh out some of this information,
and a brief overview of Ferrara'surban development
through the late sixteenth centurywill help clarifythe siting of the city'sbrothels.
Foundedin the mid seventh century,Ferrarawas situated along the northernbanksof the Po, adjacentto an old
Roman road (Figure
9).84
Between the seventh and eleventh
centuriesthe city'sdevelopmentextendedprimarilyto the
west along the northernbank of the river,an area termed
412
JSAH
/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
Borgo Superiore(Borgodi sopra,or upperborgo);to the east
of the originalcastrumsettlementwas the Borgo Inferiore
(Borgodi sotto,or lower borgo). Four main axes definedthe
city throughthe twelfth century:two east-weststreets (Via
Ripagrandeor Grande,now Via CarloMayr,and Via delle
Volte), and two north-southcanals(one along what is now
Via Boccacanaledi San Stefanoand anothernow calledVia
Gioco del Pallone);the main publicsquaresat betweenVia
GrandeandVia Gioco del Pallone, acrossfrom the Church
of SanClemente(Figures10a, 10b).85Until the earlytwelfth
century, urban development was confined to the zone
between the Via Grandeand a smallwaterwaythat is now
Via Mazzinibut historicallywas calledVia Sabbioni(forthe
sand that was used as infill). Beginningin the earlytwelfth
centurywith the constructionof the new Cathedralof San
Giorgioto the northof Via Sabbioni,the largepublicsquare
on its southernflankbecameFerrara'snew center (see Figure 2). FraPaolinoMinorito'searly-fourteenth-century
map
(see Figure 3) revealsa partiallywalled city whose growth
continued west beyond the San Stefano canal;its institutional core adjacentto the cathedralincluded the Palazzo
della Ragione (1326) and the Palazzo di Corte, or Palazzo
Ducale (1283), followedby the CastelloEstense after 1385.
Wealthyfamilieserectedtheirpalaceson nearbystreets,and
publiclife graduallyshiftednorth.
By the fifteenth century,the district bounded by the
cathedral, the river, and the two north-south canals was
denselypopulated,andits streetscontainedthe largestconcentrations of shops (Figure 11). Two major additions in
!
I1
/
ACastum
A. Castrum
A. Castrum
B. CastelTedaldo
C. BorgoSuperiore
D. BorgodiSotto
E. Addizione
di Borso
F. Addizione
di Ercole
G. LeConverite
H.Cathedral
S. Giorgio
I. Castello
II
II
Figure 10a Ferrara,urbandevelopment throughthe sixteenth
century,showing main canals, waterways, and the Po Riverto the
south
Figure 10b Ferrara,majorstructures mentioned in text
the fifteenthcenturymore than doubledthe city'slandarea.
In 1451, Borso d'Este drainedthe area around the island
southeastof the Borgo Inferioreand broughtthe Convent
of San Antonio in Polesine into the city. In 1492 his successor and half-brother, Ercole I d'Este, initiated the
AddizioneErculea(known at the time as the Terranova,
or
new land),which incorporatedthe ducal gardenand hunting reserve of the Barcho, the Belfiore palace, Borgo San
Guglielmo, the monastic complex of the Certosa, several
churchesandconvents,and 144 hectaresof agriculturalland
within the walls.
In the fifteenth century, the public brothels were
located in Sesto San Romano behind the cathedral,in the
contradaof SantaCroce on one of two parallelstreets,probably today'sVia Vegri or Via Croce Bianca, and near the
contradaof San Biagio-near the city'snorthern, western,
and southernboundaries.Via Croce Bianca(formerlyVia
Malborghetto)lies between Via Capo delle Volte and Via
Garibaldi(formerlyVia Rotta);insufficientinformationhas
emergedto allow a more precisedesignationof the brothel
in the contradaof SantaCroce. The Church of San Biagio
was situated on today'sCorso Isonzo, just south of Viale
Cavour,in what was then the city'swesternmostextension.
Given the earlierstatutoryprohibitionsagainstprostitutes
living within the walls, it is no surprisethat the two brothels for which we have detailedinformationin the fifteenth
centurywere locatedadjacentto the fifteenth-centurywalls.
According to a rental contract of 1469, the San Biagio
brothelwas partof the Montealbano(Montalbano,Montabano) tavern located west of the castle, near the old city
walls, approximatelyon Via Boccacanale di San Stefano
between Viale Cavourand Via Ripagrande.86 Pinpointing
the exact location from the coordinatesspelled out by the
notaryis difficult.The 1469 contractdescribestwenty-three
chiusiand a tavernbetween the contradeRotta and Mutina
near the gardens of the Hospital of Santa Giustina. Bordered on three sides by Via Malborghetto, the new ducal
stables, and two chiusibelonging to Antonio de Fabio, the
RENAISSANCE FERRARA
413
Figure 11 GiovanBattistaAleotti, map of Ferrara,1605. The shops line Via San Romano and Via San Paolo from the southern gate to the square
adjacent to the cathedral,as well as the southern flankof the cathedral.See Figure2 for a more detailed representationof the shops in the area
of the cathedral,Palace of Justice, and castle.
rearof the complexfaced the old earthenwalls west of the
San Stefano canal. Further descriptionin the rental contractindicatesthatthe tavernfacedVia Mutina(orMucina),
and another side bordered the vacant land leading to the
old Jewish cemeterynear SantaGiustina.The chiusiwhere
the prostituteswould live were tile-roofedbrickrow houses,
most only one storyhigh;the tavernitself sat amidthe chiusi
andincludedan inn, a courtyard,a well, and a stufa,or public bath (stew).The nameMontealbanoalso designatedthe
plot of land on which the brothel and tavernsat;owned by
the Poveridi Christo,a religiousorganization,the property
had been investedin GiovanniGreco and his wife Isabetta
in 1426.87The site includeda varietyof other chiusirented
to diversetenants,some of which the Este tore down in the
late 1480s and replacedwith storage facilitiesfor grainfor
their horses.
Brotheloperatorseither paidfor licenses or rentedthe
Inconsistentterspacesdirectlyfrom the ducalchamber.88
414
JSAH
/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
minology in Ferraresedocuments makes ownership difficult to determinebecausethe availablerecordsdid not distinguish among differenttypes of ownershipor operation.
A proclamationof 1476 referredto the complexes at San
Biagio, El Gambaro,and SantaCroce collectivelyaspostriboli,but they were also referredto as bordellior as a locopubblico(publicbrothel).89
The brothel and inn on Via del Gambaroappearsto
have been owned by the Este, with the operation transferredfrom time to time to new overseersupon paymentof
rents and taxes.90Indeed, it is the only brothel specifically
identifiedby name in diariesand other documentsas a loco
pubblico,
althoughdocumentslocate the othersas being near
San Biagio (Montealbano),SantaCroce, and San Paolo.91
Perhapsdatingbackto the late fourteenthcentury,El Gambarogaveits name to the streetwhere it sat, roughlyon the
northernedge of today'sVia Bersaglieridel Po.92In the fifteenth century,the tavernappearsto have been locatedjust
outside of the city walls between a fourteenth-centurygate
visible only in Fra Paolino Minorita'splan of 1322-1325,
the Porta di Santa Croce, and the ditch that became Via
GioveccaafterErcole'senlargementof the city.93The other
major construction on this street was the hospice Ca' di
Dio, where orphans had been housed since the mid thirteenth century-according to local lore, a convenient spot
for the unwantedchildrenof the area'sprostitutes.94
That El Gambaroand the brothelin SantaCroce were
too smallto containthe prostitutepopulationemergesfrom
a series of letters written in 1490 and 1491 by Giacomo
Prisciani,chiefof the UfficiodelleBollette,andLeonelloSogari, chief of the Ufficio del dazio del vino (office of wine
The two officialslamentedthat"thoseprostitutesare
taxes).95
scatteredabout the city in diverseplaces,"and that Ferrara
was "the [city]most copiouslyandwell suppliedwith public
prostituteswho live dishonorably,"but they appearedmost
alarmedby the fact that prostitutesand pimps not living in
the public brothel no longer paid the appropriatefees and
taxesand,indeed,thatthe taxon wine sold in inns andbrothels, which formerlybroughtin between 800 and 1,200 lire,
wasnow yieldingless than 100 lire annually.96
Their concerns
also
indicate
a
level
of
might
higher
concubinageandhomebased prostitutionby housewives.Ultimately both officials
proposedthatthe dukeconstructa muchlargerbrothelin the
contraof SantaCroce,with twenty-fiveroomsfor the prostitutes and an honorableand commodiousinn (ostaria)in the
middle.97Priscianipointedout thatFerraraonce had a comparablysized brothel,much as other cities did, a size that he
believedwasoptimum.98
Perhapshe referredto the Montealthis
bano; reference,alongwith the lettersto Eleanorad'Este
from BaldessareCananiin 1487 and 1488, tend to indicate
that this brothelwasno longeractive.
While such an argument might have appealed to
Ercole, it would have been less attractive to Eleonora
d'Aragona,his wife. In an earlierdispute between the proprietorof the Hostariade la Nave in 1478 and the priestsat
the Church of San Francesco, the duchess allowed the
priests to appropriatea house that Giangiorgio da Milano
had rented across from the Oratoryof San Sebastianoon
the grounds that he might allow prostitutes to occupy it,
just as he allowedthem to work out of his ostaria.99
Though
notoriouslyuninvolvedin the day-to-daygovernanceof the
city,Ercole spranginto actionin responseto his wife'sdecision. He reproachedher and orderedthe house returnedto
Giangiorgio, observing that the priests had never complained about the prostitutes before, and noted that they
had turned down an offer to rent the house themselves
before it was offered to Giangiorgio. Most importantly,
when Giangiorgio appealed to the duke to overturn the
duchess'sruling, he also offered to double the annualtaxes
he paid.100
The brothel proposedby Priscianiappearsnot to have
been built, nor would the idea to build a significantlylarger
publicbrothelin the 1490s have earnedErcole'ssupport,as
he fell increasinglyunder the reforminginfluence of Girolamo Savonarola.When the constructionof Ercole'saddition to Ferraragot underway,in fact, one of the structures
slated for demolition was El Gambaro:
September3, Monday[1498].ElGambaro,whichwas a public
brothelfor prostitutesand a tavern,was removedtoday,and
the houses beganto be torndown andthe women who were
there were thrownout, [in order]to make the straightroad
across the ditchto the new additionat the piazzatowardthe
Certosa[monastery]...101
For at least two and a half years, El Gambaroseems not to
havebeen replaced,but finallyin 1501 an anonymousdiarist
reported:
Fromthe beginningof Aprilit became the principlethat public whores must stay [in the area] behind the Hospitalof
Sant'Agnesein Ferrara,and those who own the houses can
rent them to whores, but they cannot live elsewhere, on
...102
penaltyof beingwhippedthrough[thestreets of] Ferrara
No further indication appearedin the diaries or in other
public records as to exactly where the new brothel was
located other than "behindthe Hospital of Sant'Agnese."
This structure is but two short blocks north of Via delle
Volte, historicallya street with severalostarie,taverns,and
brothels (continuously as such well into the post-World
War II period). In the fourteenth century, a brothel was
located on the contradaof San Paolo, a main cross street of
Via delle Volte, thereforeit seems logical to assumethat the
brothel was located close to or on Via delle Volte, or perhaps on Via Romiti, where a brothel had been located on
the corner of Via Romiti and Via delle Scienze (formerly
Via di Sant'Agnese)at least since the end of the sixteenth
century.However, the chronicle of Giulio and Giacomo di
Antiginni, an otherwise short and relativelymodest document, at once gave more detailedinformationand opened
In a chronicle mainly dedicatedto
up furtherquestions.103
notices of births, deaths, and marriages,along with occasional lapidary information about wars and aristocratic
events,Giulio'sproudannouncementin 1501 is remarkable.
The entry recounts that the postribolo
had been established
that year in the contradaof Sant'Agnese by closing off a
small street between Giulio'shouse and that of a neighbor,
RENAISSANCE
FERRARA
415
Androne); Vicolo della Lupa breaks off from Via delle
Scienze and descendsdirectlyto the easternsegment of Via
C *1
4 -'2-A conrtrtst tr i J."Ale '- I
~*i"o 9n:1
r<1
.Z'- o.jt -t
.
.
r,iFJpv,21s7
Ragno, while Via del Carbone cuts in front of the Church
cn"
,L
L/
_^.?w'
^, d
of Sant'Agneseand then veers sharplyto the left, ending up
on the other side of Via Ragno. Both streets were once
Ca
?r
o ?LAo
cyd
Rer^AJrLL.
Xlfdarod
h^
called Via della Lupa reportedly because of a lupanara
(brothel) located there.106Perhaps more significantly,the
v ;y<0fi c14a
3u Bib;u
y
Rwt1^
first Via della Lupa that breaksoff of Via delle Scienze (di
Sant'Agnese)even earlierwas calledVia del Gambaro,pretro a,,c
L c efi d ,3 ,r _.,t.foo
e L ,n
eto *
**?ftl
c^ IWu
feiw^
4yO, er
the name of the street and brothel to the northeastof
4
c
cisely
cr,L
t-Cc02o
5
C
e ,
fi5uvAdee
*rh
g
rs>.izIv Lz9b.
the cathedralwhere the earlier,fifteenth-centurybrothel
4{?was located.107Perhaps the same prostitutes or the same
*
/f
Wd 4
I n. S 9 it6QC
^tt
^U
*'^
. f'
PEA 1
uno <lf
qX, 4;W URO
proprietortransferredto the new brothel;in any case, the
3Si
persistenceof the name fromthe earliersite is a strongindication that the brothel erected in 1501 was located within
Figure 12 Giulioand Giacomo di Antiginni,entry for 1501, in Annalidi
these
Ferraradal 1384 al 1514
streets, possibly at one of these sites.
Two rental contracts of June 1501 reveal that more
than one brothelnow enlivenedthe areaaroundSant'Agnese, and that propertyowners were taking advantageof the
Antonio Grifuni (Figure 12). By order of Giudicedei dodici permission,noted by the anonymousdiarist,to rent apartSavi Tito Strozzi and of the chief of the Ufficio delle Bol- ments to prostitutes. One contract records a two-story
and house on the contradaof Sant'Agneseadjacentto the Hoslette, two wallswere erectedto block off the contradella,
the two men eachreceivedhalf of the street,Antonioreceiv- pital of Sant'Agnese.To the rear,the house was bordered
a second house located on a corner on the
ing the part toward Palazzo del Paradiso, and Giulio the by a postribolo;
other half.'04
contradaof Sant'Agnesedescribesits neighbor as a stuffum,
Although the author was at pains to explain exactly or publicbath.108
Togetherthe two contractssuggestthat as
where the new brothel was located, his indications are manyas three brothelsmay have been locatedhere (includnonetheless confusing. Via di Sant'Agnesecorrespondsto
ing the one erected by di Antiginni and Grifuni), one of
today'sVia delle Scienze (Figures 13a, 13b).The word con- which sat either on Via dell'Inferno,adjacentto Palazzodel
trataused in the text, however,can signify one street or it Paradiso, or in the middle of the block between the two
can include smaller,adjacentstreets, as appearsto be the streets (see Figure 13b).
case here, where the writer refers specificallyto the street
Becauseso many records for the first five years of the
blocked off as the contradella
between the two houses. The
sixteenth century are missing from state, city, and Este
Hospital, later Conservatory,of Sant'Agnesesits directly archivesin Ferraraas well as in Modena, it has been imposacrossfrom the church,just one-halfblocksouth of Palazzo sible to make a more definitive determination.'09The
del Paradiso. The brothel (behind the Hospital of unusualdecision to block off the street to enclose the most
Sant'Agnese)to which the anonymouschroniclerrefers in public of women no doubt reflected the personalinterests
the passage above surely was in this immediate area. But of di Antiginni and Grifuni to enlarge their propertiesand
precisely which building is it? Without archaeological gain income from the brothel, but it also offersthe irony of
explorationsor additionaldocumentaryevidence, a defini- turning a public thoroughfare into a brothel for women
tive determinationis impossible,but there are at least two, whose every movement on those very thoroughfareswas,
and probablymore, plausibleprospects.One straddlesVia at least theoretically,controlled.
Ragno, formerly Via delle Androne; on Andrea Bolzoni's
map of 1782, this structureappearsto be just like vaulted
Opposite:
coveredpassagewayson the parallelVia delle Volte, but in
Figure 13a Andrea Bolzoni, perspectival map of Ferrara,1782, detail
actuality the preexisting street has been blocked off.10?A
showing the area south of the cathedral, includingthe area of
second is a narrowadditionbetween two structuresalso on
Sant'Agnese
Via Ragno, at the terminusof vicolo (also Via) della Lupa.
Additional evidence supports these possibilities. Two Figure 13b Andrea Bolzoni, perspectival map of Ferrara,1782, detail
streets lead from Sant'Agnese to Via Ragno (or delle
showing the area aroundSant'Agnese
ef
dfro
c'7p
le
s
Seti
<owvrr
?
t^0C
F.
>6a
416
JSAH
/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
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Via S. Croce
................._......................
_
fiR
[El
E. Via del Carbone / Via della Lupa
F. S. Giacomo
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Via della Lupa
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D. Possible Di Antiginni/
H. Stufa
GrifuniBrothel
1. S. Clemente
E. Via della Lupa/
J. Palazzo del Paradiso
Via del Gambaro
F. ChurchofS. Agnese
I
----?--????????-??
RENAISSANCE
FERRARA
417
Placing the brothel here did not go unremarkedor
unnoticed by neighbors. Ercole's half-brother, Rinaldo
Maria d'Este, then living in Palazzo del Paradiso,greeted
the arrivalof the public brothel with dismay.In a letter to
Ercole in July 1499, Rinaldocomplainedbitterlyabout the
recent decision to "putthe bordellohere next to our house,
a thing which in truth I can hardlybelieve because I have
talkedwith YourExcellencyabout it a few times." Significantly, Rinaldo noted that "in truth that place will not be
It may be no coinbig enough for ten or twelvewomen."110
cidence that Rinaldodied in April 1501, justwhen the decision was announced to place the brothel behind
Sant'Agnese.
The decisionto move the brothelto this locationwhen
the Herculean Addition was under way fixed the axis of
prostitutionin one of the oldest parts of the city, a district
destined to endure as the city's center of prostitution for
nearly 500 years, until late in the twentieth century.In the
sixteenth century,the brothels appearto have clusteredin
proximityto the one at Sant'Agnese,along Via delle Volte,
Via del Bordeletto,andVia dell'Inferno,adjacentto Palazzo
del Paradiso.The proximityof the university,which by the
late sixteenth centurywas housed in Palazzo del Paradiso,
made for a ready client base, and the severalhostelries on
Via delle Volte no doubt served as magnets as well.
The only probablebrothel identified in the Compendio Montecatiniof 1597was locatedon Via dell'Infero and
was identifiedas a stufa,a publicbathhouseor brothel,operated by CaterinaStovara,whose name indicatedher occupation.11'Althoughthe Compendiodid not identifyspecific
locations,since the stufais the last entryfor Via dell'Inferno,
which ran along the western flankof Palazzo del Paradiso,
it was probably the corner building. Equicola already
referredto the "loconella contradell'Inferno"in 1537, and
indeed, the stuffummentioned in the 1501 rental contract
may well still have been operating on this site. Guarini
offered further evidence in his comment that the Church
of San Clemente,which sat on Via del Bordelletto(nowVia
Romiti) behind Palazzodel Paradiso,originallyfacedwest.
However,because"thispartof the city had become an indecent place"-and, indeed, the church doors would have
directly faced Stovara'sestablishment-in 1574 the west
entrance was ordered closed off and a new one opened
where the main altarhad been in orderto shift the church's
orientationeast, awayfrom such unpleasantness.112
The siting of Ferrara'sbrothelscorrespondedwith the
suggestions offered in Renaissancearchitecturaltreatises,
in turn based on common practices in Italian cities.
Francescodi Giorgio Martinirecommendedin his Trattato
di ArchitecturaCivile,Codice Torinese,that
418
JSAH
/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
the brothel,the tavernsshould [be placed]in a remote site
secludedfromthe inhabitants,beingdistantneitherfromthe
mainsquarenorfromthe contiguousmerchants,and similar
places[shouldbe]assembledandplacedwhere it seems most
convenient.113
In the Codice Senese,Martini'stenth rule for city planning
held that tavernsandbrothelsshouldbe "ina secludedplace
not farfrom [theofficial'shouse]to avoidthe manyproblems
that are wont to arise in such places."114
Filarete also sugthat
the
brothel
be
located
behind
the merchants'
gested
piazza,andCataneoindicatedthatthe brothelshouldbe with
the customsoffice and tavernsnearthe mainpiazza,but in a
concealedlocation.15All of the brothelsin the Borgo Superiore were near marketsand shops, but were not on main
streets.These prescriptionsreinforcedthe triplefunctionsof
accessibility,invisibility,andcontrol;discretionin placement
ensuredthat the brothelsdid not stand out from their surroundings,where concernsfor public order competedwith
the recognition that these establishmentswere useful and
customarycomponentsof RenaissanceItaliancities.
The associationof specific streets with prostitutionin
Ferrarahas persistedthroughoutthe succeeding500 years,
even when the activityitself remainedbut a faintmemoryof
the past: Via del Gambaro is widely understood to have
been the location of a brothel, and Via delle Volte, just
south of Sant'Agneseand San Clemente, continued until
recently-very recently-to house brothels.116
Majorpublic spacesand buildingshavepersistedover centuriesin Italian cities, as havestreetsand districtsassociatedwith certain
artisanactivities.But as the case of Ferrarademonstrates,
so do streets and districtsassociatedwith prostitution.
The uncertaintyabout the precise location of Antiginni's brothel underscores the larger problem of understanding precisely the architecturalcharacterof Ferrara's
brothels. They appear to have been ordinary in every
respect;in neither plan nor elevation did they differ from
other houses. What do we know about the domestic architecture of Ferrara?A provisionin the 1287 statutesforbidding the use of thatch led to a gradualtransformationof
Ferrara'shousing stock from ruralcasalito the still dominant urbanrow houses.'17In this dense and ancientsection
of Borgo Superiore, by the fourteenth century wooden
houseswith thatchroofs surroundedby wooden fenceswere
being replacedby tile-roofed houses in laterizia,brickexteriorwallsusuallywith wood interiorpartitions.Excavations
of a block of Via Ragnoin the early 1980sillustratethe typical long, narrow footprint of fourteenth- and fifteenthcentury houses in this area."8On the ground floor, short
transversewalls appearto have supportedstairs to one or
AI
Figure 14 Gaetano Frizzi,house of GiulioMazzolaniin Via
delle Volte, Ferrara,3 March1812. The legend for the
numbers is: 1) Portico.2) Stairs. 3) Storeroom for wood.
4.
I
4) Passageway. 5) Kitchen.6) Understairswith toilet.
7) Overhang.8) Courtyard.
i~,
A
:.
-.
Figure 15 Gaetano Frizzi,house inViadel Carbone,Ferrara,
1814. House and courtyardextended fromViadel Carbone
to Viadella Lupa.A comparisonof this planwith Bolzoni's
map of thirty-twoyears earlier(Figure13b) reveals the
remarkableaccuracyof the latter.This propertywas adjacent
to the parishchurchof San Giacomo(Con Figure13a),and
Bolzonidepictsthe walledcourtyardon
ViadellaLupa.
.
more upper floors. Although this and other houses in the
area underwent major renovations and transformations over
the past two centuries, plans and drawings executed by surveyors from the seventeenth through the early nineteenth
century reveal consistent patterns in the housing. A good
example of a house probably quite similar to El Gambaro is
a short distance away on Via delle Volte; surveyed in 1812,
it is a two-story, four-room structure with a portico along
one side and a courtyard in the rear (Figure 14).119 The
Antiginni-Grifuni brothel of 1501 most probably was no
larger than this, although it may have risen to three or even
four stories. A larger example is from Via del Carbone (formerly Via della Lupa, now Vicolo del Carbone), with six
rooms on the ground floor, well and courtyard to the rear,
and the chimney marking the street elevation, a common
remnant of late medieval Ferrara (Figure 15).2?0 The profile
of the houses on the opposite side of Vicolo del Carbone
from the 1990s reveals the dense urban tissue, the typical
two- and three-story structures, and, with the plan, other
possibilities for the location of the Antiginni-Grifuni
brothel
brothel (Figure
16).
(Figure 16).
Other than such plans from a later period, two additional sources offer information on Ferrarese housing.
Wood inlay panels found in the chorus of the cathedral and
in the Churches of San Giorgio outside the walls and
I
I
I
RENAISSANCE
FERRARA
419
I
BBO.
j
oooaoo
onoo
I DOlf10O
a.
o
n-
QiDnJ
wCl2
mWmlql
j
m000fF
ni
o0 0 a
o
B|"3
a11
0m
nelam
Vicolo del Carbone
0
o0ol
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0
Figure 16 Ferrara,houses on Viadel Carbone, plans and elevations, 1999, after Nicola
Marzot,Morfologiaurbanae tipologiaedilizia(Bologna, 1955). Viadel Carboneat one
time was called Viadella Lupa,along with the parallelstreet.
Figure 17 Pier'Antoniodegli Abbati(?), wood inlay,urbanperspective, chorus of San
Andrea, Ferrara,c. 1500
Sant'Andreadepict urban panoramasof the fifteenth and tle informationabout the life within, also emphasizesthe
early sixteenth centuries (Figure 17). Although in many privatecharacterof the row houses. Without archaeologirespectsthe vistasappearquite similarto those executedby cal investigations,it is not possible to ascertainthe functhe same artists in Vicenza and Padua, the presence of tions of individualrooms duringthe fifteenthand sixteenth
specificallyFerraresescenes on some of the seats suggests centuries,but it is likely that kitchens and bedroomswere
thatthey were more idealizedthangeneric.One scene illus- situated toward the rear courtyard,with shops and storetratesthe armof S. Maurilio,amongthe city'smost revered rooms at the front.How these roomswere dividedfor prosrelics, and anotherpreciselydepictsthe monumentalstair- titutes remains unclear. Some features of Ferrarese
case in the courtyardof the Palazzo Ducale.21'Framedby prostituteLucia'shouse that had been ransackedby the unian arch, the views include streets lined by three-story versity students in Bologna confirm that it was much like
houses with porticoes, battlementson some rooflines, and other residences,with a well, a terra-cottavase for soaking
cantilevered balconies of several types on others; shops, laundry,and plates, glasses,and other kitchenware,but little detail emerges about the house itself.'22On the other
churches,and wells also appear.
In the earlyeighteenthcentury,when planswere under hand, a complaint filed in Rome in the sixteenth century
way to enlarge the area around the fortress in the south- againsta man for runninga brothelprovidessome specifics.
west, Giovan BattistaBenetti completed several drawings Keeping one attic room for himself, the proprietorrented
andplansof the housesdemolishedandthose thatremained the other six rooms to prostitutes,includingtwo shops that
The women obviouslyused the
(Figure 18). While executeda centuryafterthe devolution opened on to the street.123
of Ferrarato the papacy,the drawingsnonethelessillustrate shops for enticing clients, at the same time offending their
the organizationof blocks and houses and, becausethe city neighbors.
hadundergonenot a growthspurtbut a precipitousdecline,
At only four rooms, El Gambaro was much smaller
probably give a reasonably accurate image of the area than Montealbano,the brothel at San Biagio. If El GamaroundSan Biagio.
baro was the same building as the fourteenth-century
The spatialorganizationof the domestic architecture, brothel also situatedin Sesto San Romano, the rooms surwith courtyardsto the rearandfront elevationsyielding lit- rounded a squarecourtyard,probablywith a well.124The
420
JSAH
/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
-/
Figure 18 GiovanBattistaBenetti, view of
the houses on Via San Gabrielefacing the
fortress that were not demolished when the
/>Za5f
fortress was enlarged, 1708. Housing and
lots in the area are just east of where the
Montealbanobrotheland tavern were
located.
i*
*i
4i,
^-itfl
rental contract enumerates the meager contents of the
rooms:bedcovers,benches, smalltables,trunks,and in one
room, kitchen utensils for serving wine or light meals to
clients-in effect, a tavern-so the women evidentlyboth
lived andworkedin the brothel.The only inventoriesI have
located of propertybelonging to prostitutesdate from the
seventeenthcentury;all werewomen livingalone andhence
not in brothels.125
Nonetheless, the lists of items are suggestive of typicalFerraresehouses. Most women appearto
have rented anywherefrom two to five rooms, and some
enjoyeda portico, cantina,bathroom,and even a vegetable
garden. Beds with sheets and cushions, tables, benches,
chairs, and chests-items commonly found in sixteenthcentury inventories and dowries-furnished the rooms.
Althoughnone of the women owned books,virtuallyevery
one decoratedher rooms (includingporticoes but not the
kitchen) with anywherefrom four to two dozen pictures.
Primarilydevotionalimages,some were describedas having
black wood or gold-painted frames.The inventories also
includedsome landscapepaintingsandnumerousunframed
smallimages.Andvirtuallyeverywomanownedat least one
good-sized mirror.
Only by walling off a street and turningthe space thus
created into a house of prostitutionwould the brothel be
markedas differentin the urbanlandscape.Even the scarce
urban documentationof Ferraraindicates that closing off
small streets in this fashion was not at all unusual;Via del
Carboneoffersat least one other example.By contrastwith
convents, patricianpalaces, communal offices, churches,
even shops, brothelsleft no specialtraceson the built landscape, at least none visibly differentfrom other residences:
only street names and reputationsfar outlived the specific
functionsof individualhouses.Althoughthis allowedbrothels to remaininconspicuous,it also testifiesto the ambiguous relationship of prostitution to other forms of
relationships in Renaissance Ferrara. On the one hand,
women inhabited the rooms as private spaces, using the
rooms for casualsexualencountersalongwith other domestic activities;on the other, the relationshipsenacted there
were not officiallyblessed by either churchor state.
Finally,when a prostitutecould no longer work, if her
hopes of transformingconcubinageinto marriagefailed,or
if she had been converted away from her profession, by
1537 Ferraraoffered the possibility for her to retire to a
convent known as Le Convertite (the converted) (Figure
19). Ferrara'swas among the earliest of such facilities for
reforming prostitutes,which began to spring up in earlysixteenth-centuryItaly,beginningin Rome (1520) and followed by Venice and Milan duringthe 1520s and 1530s.126
The parishpriestat Sant'Agnese,Don GiovanmariaSchiatRENAISSANCE
FERRARA
421
j
,- Oi*.
*
:1:?~-"^$--
^,?
:a
Figure 19 Antonio Sandri,Churchof Santa MariaMaddalena,or Le
Convertite, "Dell'originedelle chiese e altriluoghi della Provinciadi
Ferrara"(unpublishedMs.), nineteenth century
ti, apparently converted a number of his parishioners from
their mala vita (life of vice) in 15 37. After convincing them
to leave the brothel, he first housed them in the Hospital
of the Battuti Bianchi, following which, aided by generous
contributions from Duke Ercole II and other citizens, they
moved into a former monastery, San Nicolo del Cortile, just
off the Piazza Ariostea in Terranova.'27 On 7 April 1537,
some of Ferrara'snoble women accompanied approximately
eighteen women, ten of whom came from the loconella contra dell'Inferno(brothel on Via dell'Inferno), in solemn procession with crucifixes in their hands, from the Battuti
Bianchi to San Nicolo, henceforth known as the Convertite, referred to by some chroniclers as Santa Maria Maddalena because the women were especially devoted to her.'28
By 1574, seventy-two women who had taken vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience lived at the Convertite; the
report of that year's apostolic visit described the convent as
"well formed and virtuously conducted."129A survey of Ferrara's convents fifteen years later in 1589 reveals that the
number of women had risen to eighty.130 Responding to the
basic logic of confinement, the women therefore exchanged
one closed environment in the brothel for another, although
the brothel's boundaries were less efficiently policed than
those of the convent.
To be accepted into the community of Le Convertite,
a prostitute had to demonstrate that she had been chaste for
a minimum of three months and have given clear signs to
her confessor and others that she wanted to cease her sinful life.'31 More pragmatically, prospective nuns must have
been public prostitutes residing in Ferrara for at least ten
years, not be pregnant, and be free of syphilis.'32 Once
accepted, the novice was met at the door by the mother
422
JSAH
/ 60:4,
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2001
superior and other nuns carrying lighted candles, who
helped dressher in a humble habit and welcomed her officiallyinto the community.During the sixteenthcenturythe
women also took in young girls as boarding students in
orderto supportthe convent;this possibilityendedin 1599,
however,when the nuns were forced to seek alms to supplement their meager endowment.
Withdrawal from the brothel and a period of years
laboringin a conventwithout takingfinalvows could effectively cleanse a prostituteof her formersins, and makeher
eligible for marriageif she left the convent. Although in
theory men and other women were not permittedto visit
the women in this (and other) convents, supervisionwas
inconsistent until 1590, when the new bishop, Giovanni
Fontana, instituted much stricter controls based on the
principlesenunciatedat the Council of Trent.'33Eachyear,
recordsindicatepermitsgrantedfor the entireyearto a barber, a surgeon, the convent'spropertymanager,the baker,
andtwo monsignorswho supervisedthe convent.'34In addition, temporarypermits from one day to one month were
issued to workmento repairbuildings,windows, and beds
or to bring in suppliessuch as oil, wood, and wine, and to
physicians or surgeons engaged to treat specific nuns.
Details about life in the convent emerge from these lists,
such as the visits of organist Ercole Pasquino over five
months to teach music to two little girls and a nun in
1592.135Controls continuedto tighten until 1597, when all
the women were requiredto take permanentvows and to
remain cloistered.l36
Only two images of the convent survive:the Bolzoni
map of 1782 offers a bird's-eye view (Figure 20), while
Antonio Sandri'searly-nineteenth-centurydrawingillustratesthe entranceto the churchon Via delle Porte Serrate
(now Via Montebello) abuttedby high walls.'37Occupying
the entire end of one city block, the convent took over and
expandedan existing parish church founded in 1204, San
Nicolo del Cortile (Figure 21). The church facade,with a
large oculus over the entrance portal, was framed by
pilasters raised on a high socle and topped by square,
unadorned impost blocks beneath pediment and turrets.
Marc'Antonio Guarini reported that, with contributions
from manyFerraresecitizens,the churchand conventwere
enlarged and embellished, but because no records document the changesmade to accommodatethe new residents,
it is difficultto determinethe configurationin the sixteenth
century.138 Bolzoni illustratesa monasterysurroundedby
high walls and buildingswith high windows, two to three
stories high, with the church positioned along the northeastern perimeter of the site. A partiallyporticoed courtyard, perhapswith a formal garden,sat to the west with a
=l.
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Figure 20 Andrea Bolzoni,perspectival map of Ferrara,1782, detail showing the area aroundthe church and convent of Le Convertite
high wall along Via del Fossato. A second, smallercourtyardwas tuckedwithin a compactgroupof buildingson the
easternhalf of the complex.Along the convent'ssouthern
flank,a high, irregularwall clearlywas configuredto block
views to and from the adjacentbuildings. The record of
entrancepermitsreportsthat among these buildingswas a
granary;in addition,the conventmust havehad at least one
well, a dormitory,a refectory,a kitchen,and storerooms.'39
Although assembledfrom a disparategroup of preexisting
buildings,the complexclearlyfulfilledthe requirementsfor
maintaining the cloister enjoined by the Bishop: "The
Monasteryshould be very well enclosed on all sides so that
The gratesover openno one canleavenor othersenter."'40
iron
bars coveredby a
of
a
network
of
consisted
tight
ings
behind
which
the women
cloth; the wheel (ruota,or roda)
sat while speakingwith visitors or exchangingobjectswas
lined within and without by iron bars, and each exterior
door had doublelockswhose keyswere held by the mother
superior.
By comparisonwith other convents in Ferrara,Santa
MariaMaddalenawas not large.CorpusDomini, for example, erected over the course of the fifteenth century,occupied an entire block and containedmany courtyards,while
other sixteenth-centuryconventslocated in the Terranova,
such as SantaCaterinada Siena, had four large courtyards
and a large vegetable garden. Even Santa Lucia and San
Rocco,with fewernuns,were largerthanLe Convertite,but
likethe others,SantaMariaMaddalenapossesseddignifiedif
not numerous works of art, including an altar panel by
IppolitoScarsellinodepictingthe BlessedVirgin,MaryMagdalene,St. Francisof Assisi,St. Peter,and some of the Convertitecommunity;an altarto MaryMagdaleneby Giacopo
Parolini;andan altarto the ImmaculateConceptionby Giovanni Braccioli,with a ceiling paintedby Carlo Borsatti.l41
In his supplementto Guarini'shistory,AndreaBorsettinoted
thatthe ceiling,commissionedby two nuns,datedfrom 1627,
and the altarto MaryMagdalenefrom 1645.142
The hard-won independence of a prostitute from
RENAISSANCE
FERRARA
423
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<
fotto il titolo di S. M A t I A
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M A D D A I. E N A>
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MONSIG. REVYRlNDISS.
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Per Vittorio Baldini,
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deSupernor.ifS99.
Figure 21 Frontispiece,Ruleof the Sisters Convertiteof Ferrara,1599
direct,day-to-daycontrol by men vanishedupon her death
in a very particularway.Even if she did not enter the Convertite, her goods did: in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, it was common practice to inventory the
belongings of deceased prostitutesand turn them over to
the local Convertite convent; usually this was done while
her body still lay in her rooms.143
Threatenedwith expulsion,enclosurein brothels,punishment in jails, being paraded through the streets and
insulted, or pressuredinto the confines of a convent, Ferrara'spublic and occasionalprostitutesfound the spacesof
the city riddled with spatial and discursive practices
designedto root out andisolateillicit sexualbehaviorandto
restrictthem to tightly circumscribedplaces and activities.
At the same time, the women confronted laws that were
contravenedby the behavior of civic officials and nobles
themselves.Luigi Cittadellarailedagainstthe greatinjustice
of the mannerin which nobles and the wealthymaintained
424
JSAH
/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
veritablestablesof concubinesandprostitutesfor their own
use while issuingferociousproclamationsagainstthose very
practices among the lower classes.144Marquis Nicolo III
d'Este had more lovers and concubinesthan even contemporariescould count;Ercole I and his brothersall had illegitimate children, and Alfonso I took Laura Dianti,
daughterof a Ferraresehat maker,as his concubinefollowing the death of his wife, LucreziaBorgia, in 1519. Laura
was a concubinejust like many others, but the statusof her
lover exemptedher from the punishmentsinflictedon those
of the lower classes, and, indeed, many referredto her as
Alfonso'swife.145The laws and formal spatialcontrols on
the booksin Ferrara,as in other placesthen andlater,aimed
not at upper-classwomen, or women who acquiredupperclassprerogativesbecauseof their relationshipswith noble
men, but at women from the lower classes.
Perhapsmore to the point, Ferrara'saristocracyprofited directlyfrom the labor of prostitutes.When Cardinal
Luigi d'Este died in 1587, he bequeathedhis tax revenue
fromprostitutionto his nephewCesared'Este,futureDuke
of Modena and Reggio Emilia.146Despite the injunctions,
the social and institutionalarrangementsof Ferrareseprostitution flourished even after the Este were banished to
Modena and the papacytook direct control of the city. In
fact, the only extant version of the medieval compact on
prostitutionin Ferrarais incorporatedas partof the taxand
licensing codes promulgatedby the Church in the seventeenth century.
The genderingof the city'sspacesemergeswith greater
clarity when we examine how the city was structuredto
accommodate prostitutes, and how that city came to be
understood.Everythingabout both the activityand its settings revealed constant and irresolvably contradictory
impulses. At once shameful and endemic, officially unacceptable but a useful complement to the imperative of
female chastity,prostitutionwas both an everydayactivity
that blendedalmostseamlesslywith the rest of civic life and
the most readilyavailablescapegoatfor a varietyof social,
economic, and cosmologicalills. The unexceptionalarchitecturalcharacterof public and privatebrothels illustrates
these conflicting imperatives:a privateactivityto be conducted under public scrutiny,and therefore not in other
privatesettings, in a designatedbuilding otherwise indistinguishable from its neighbors. So, too, does the spatial
location of brothels reveal opposing aims:near city walls,
not too far from the market and other important public
placesbut concealedfrom readyview.Althoughcontempoand
rarieswere fully awareof the presenceof donnedisoneste
postriboli,
they rarelywrote of them, and both havevirtually
disappeared from the Ferrara (and not only that city)
imaged by subsequenthistoriansand architecturalhistorians. And yet, as we sawwith San Clemente, public brothels
not only figuredin the lives of contemporaryresidents,their
presenceeven influencedthe architecturaland spatialorganization of ecclesiasticalbuildings.
Equallysignificantly,not only did the spacesof prostitution persistover time in Ferrara,but so too did administrative efforts to contain prostitution spatially.Over two
centurieslater,brothelswere forbiddenneararmybarracks,
universities,high schools, coffee houses, inns, and restaurants. Behavior associated with that of prostitutes in the
public realm, such as leaning out of windows, lingering in
doorways, and calling out to passersby,was forbidden in
1814, as much a signalof prostitutionin the nineteenthcenSuch behaviorwas
turyas it had been in the Renaissance.147
also quintessentiallyurban,dependingas it did on a certain
densityof housingandpopulationto be effective.Italy'ssystem of official brothels, the so-called case chiuse,which
ended only in the 1950s, testifiedto the persistenceof spatial controls againstprostitutesin the urbansphere. Given
the longevity of zones of prostitutionin Ferrara,it is then
even more remarkablehow effectivelythese women andthe
spacesthey inhabitedhave been effacedin the city'ssubsequent and profoundlygenderedhistories.
Notes
I am gratefulto Tito Manlio Cerioli andMaestroAdrianoFranceschinifor
theirhelp in decipheringsome troublesomefifteenth-centuryhandwriting,
and especially for willingly sharing their extensive knowledge of late
medievaland RenaissanceFerrarawith me. My greatestdebt is to the Graham Foundation, for providing funds in the early phases of this project.
Thanks also to LorettaVicini, LilianaVisser,and Luisa Spensierifor help
while I wasresearchingat the Archiviodi Stato,Ferrara;to LauraBigoni at
the Fototeca, Civic Museums of Ancient Art; to John Pollini of USC for
helping sort out some vexing medievalLatin;to KarenKensek and Anupama Mann of USC for invaluable assistance with images; to Paolo
Malacarneand his staff,Federicoand Marco, at Hotel San Paolo for endless and varied assistance over many years. The staff of the Biblioteca
ComunaleAriosteawas most helpfulin locating images, manuscripts,and
maps,as were the staffsof the Archiviodi Stato,Modena, and the Archivio
StoricoComunalein Ferrara.Don EnricoPeveradaof the ArchivioStorico
Diocesano, Ferrara,was also remarkablygenerous with materialsand his
knowledge of the archive. Luca Gavagnaof Le Immagini precisely and
promptlyphotographedmapsanddocuments.ElizabethMoll andPriscilla
Duville helped enormouslywith preparationof images, includingthe new
maps drawnby ElizabethMoll. Severalpeople deservethanksfor reading
and commentingon earlierversionsof this article,includingGwen Wright
of Columbia,Jon Snyderof Universityof California,SantaBarbara,Margaret Crawfordof Harvard,and the anonymous readers of this journal.
Among those who offered spirited and provocativecomments and warm
hospitalityare colleagues at the University of Technology,Sydney,especiallyAssociateDean StephenHarfield;Dr. lain Bordenand Dr.Jane Ren-
dell, University College, London; and Associate Dean Derek Japha and
ChairJoNoero, Universityof CapeTown. Dr. FerruccioTrabalzi,UCLA,
helpedthroughoutyearsof researchin a varietyof ways.Finally,the women
of the FeministStudiescommunityand the FeministReadingGroupwere
of far greatersupportand sustenancethan they know in offering a much
needed refuge at the Universityof SouthernCalifornia.
A brief word on the research methodology and the sources. The
nature of the topic meant that no large, readily availablecache of documents yielded a wealth of information.On the contrary,all of the material
included here was collected from a wide arrayof sources, for example,
notaries'notebooks,which have not been indexedand were often written
in a form of medievalLatinshorthand.Spellingwas inconsistent,to saythe
least, even within the same document.I have transcribeddocumentsprecisely as they were written, including spelling irregularities.In Ferrara,
repositoriesthat includedmaterialon women andbrothelsconsistedof the
Archiviodi Statoandthe ArchivioStoricoComunale,particularly
with their
notaries' records including wills, inventories, and contracts; surveyors'
records;publishedandunpublishedchronicles;statutesandotherlegal documents,includingscatteredprisonrecords;andrecordsof criminalcharges
andinvestigationsconductedin Ferraraduringthe firstyearsof papalcontrol. The ArchivioSegreto Vaticanocontainsletters and documentsconcerning the conventsin Ferraraand other cities, and the ArchivioStorico
Diocesano in Ferraraalso contains documentationon the convent of Le
Convertiteandon women in individualparishes,as well as recordsof criminal complaintsand investigationsin Ferraraafterthe arrivalof the papacy.
After the devolutionof Ferrarato direct papalcontrol, the Este moved to
Modena,transportingwith them a wide rangeof familyandpublicrecords.
At the Archiviodi Stato,Este correspondenceand financialrecordsyielded
some materials,while some of the public recordsthey carriedoff, such as
the Libridei Malefici,yielded others. As I explain,many of Ferrara'slegal
recordswere destroyedin a fire in 1945, and the Inquisitionrecordsdisappeared after the French invasion in the late eighteenth century.Because
Modenawas underthe dominionof the Este duringthe periodunderquestion, with some officialssupervisingthe sameactivitiesin both cities,I have
used evidencefromModenain a few cases,suchas the Inquisition,andelsewhere from Rome, in orderto flesh out materialmissing from Ferrara.
1. Archiviodi Stato,Ferrara(ASFe),ArchivioNotarileAntico (ANA),Note
(Not.) LodovicoPortelli,Matr.217, busta(b) 1, pp. lOv-1lr, 6 August1476,
"PromisiofactaperJoannade Veneziameretricemet eius lenonemJohanni
Cazano."
2. ASFe, ArchivioStorico Comunale,Serie Finanziarie(ASC/SF),busta9
(b), fascicolo (f) 17, Statutidell'UfficiodelleBollette(Bollette),article 68, 23
April 1450, "Contra meretrices et hospites." A rental contract of 1469
locates the Montealbanobrothel on Via Malborghetto;ASFe, ANA, Not.
GiovanniCastelli,Matr. 128, b. 3, 12v-14v,"AffictusSantinide Mediolano
et fratrisa Simone et fratre de Mediolano,"25 November 1469, now in
AngelicaGamba,"Laprostituzionea Ferraranel tardomedioevo,"bachelor'sthesis (Universityof Ferrara,1997),Appendix21 (see also no. 16).
3. ASFe, ASC/SF,Bollette,article68, followed by article80, 28 December
1461, "Proclamacontra publicasmeretriceseuntes hospitiis et tabernis,"
and article90, 23 August 1464, "Quodnon liceat alicuitabernarioprestare
domiciliumalicuimulieriinhonesteviventi."
4. ASFe, ASC/SF, Bollette,article 50, 5 October 1486, "Proclamacontra
lenones ferrarienseset meretriceset contra illos quoscumquesibi domos
locantes."
5. ASFe, ASC/SF,Bollette,article3, 1438, "De meretricumbanda."
6. LucianoChiappini,"GirolamoSavonarola
ed Ercoled'Este,"Atti e Memoie
RENAISSANCE
FERRARA
425
dellaDeputazione
di StoriaPatria,Ferrara,n.s., 7, no. 3 (1952):45-32.
Ferrarese
7. RobertoGreci, "Vitaquotidiananel bassoMedioevo,"in E Bocchi, ed.,
Storiaillustratadi Ferrara(SanMarino, 1987), 1: 152.
8. ASFe, ASC/SF, Bollette,article 83, 29 April 1462, "Proclamacontra
lenones ferrarienseset eos qui habitassentin civitateferrariaeper spatium
decem annorum."
9. At the most basic level, spatialcontrols included participationin communal deliberationsand political life in general, but also participationin
ecclesiasticand civic rituals.
10. Robert C. Davis, "The Geographyof Gender in the Renaissance,"in
Judith C. Brown and Robert C. Davis, eds., Genderand Societyin RenaissanceItaly(London and New York,1998), 19-38.
11. Although the bibliographyon this subjectis large, a good recent summaryis MichaelRocke, "Genderand SexualCulturein RenaissanceItaly,"
in Brownand Davis, GenderandSociety,150-170.
12. The most extensiverecent study of prostitutionin RenaissanceItaly is
MariaSerenaMazzi, Prostitutee lenoninellaFirenzedel Quattrocento
(Milan,
1991).An excellentand earlystudyof women andspaceis Dennis Romano,
"Genderand the urbangeographyof RenaissanceVenice,"Journalof Social
History23 (1989):339-353. For an accountof the propertyinventoryandlife
of a sixteenth-century
courtesanof considerablyhigherstatusthanthe women
discussedhere, see CathySantore,"JuliaLombardo,'SomtuosaMeretrize':
A Portraitby Property,"Renaissance
Quarterly41, no. 1 (1988):44-83. No
courtesansidentifiedas suchhaveemergedin sixteenth-centuryFerrara.
13. See, for example,Cherubinoda Spoleto, Regoledellavita matrimoniale,
ed. FrancescoZambini(Bologna:Commissioneper i testi di lingua, 1888);
e costumidi donna,ed. Giuseppe SanFrancescoda Barberino,Reggimento
sone (Turin,1957). Statutesalso outlined certainspatialcontrolson Jews.
14. FilippoRodi,Annalidi Ferraraa lanno 1598, BritishLibrary(BL),Additional ManuscriptsItal. 16,521. vol. I, book 1, 77v.
15. Diarioferrarese
dall'anno1409 sinoal 1502 di autoriincerti,RerumItalicarumScriptores,24, vii, I, ed. GiuseppePardi(Bologna, 1928);Diariodi
UgoCaleffini(1471-1494), ed. GiuseppePardi(Ferrara:R. Deputazionedi
StoriaPatriaper l'Emiliae la Romagna,1938), Ser.Monumenti,vols. I, II;
BernardinoZambotti, Diarioferraresedall'anno1476 sinoal 1504, Rerum
ItalicarumScriptores,24, vii, II, ed. GiuseppePardi(Bologna, 1934);Giovanni MariaZerbinati,Chroniche
di FerraraQualicomenzano
delanno1500
sino al 1527, ed. Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli (Ferrara:Deputazione
ProvincialeFerraresedi StoriaPatria,1988), Ser.Monumenti,vol. XIII.
16. I am indebtedto Dott.ssa AngelicaGambafor providinga copy of her
importantthesis, "La prostituzionea Ferraranel tardo medieovo"(University of Ferrara,1997), which treats fourteenth- and fifteenth-century
prostitution.Includedas appendicesto her thesis are transcriptionsof several notarialdocumentsand letters regardingprostitutesand prostitution.
Her analysisof the economic operationof Ferrara'sbrothels is especially
careful,but citationsare not alwaysaccurate.
17. Two majorfires, in 1385 and in 1945, destroyedenormous caches of
irreplaceabledocuments, many of which might have facilitated fuller
accountsof the socialandspatialconstructionof prostitution.As Napoleon's
armiesadvancedon Ferrarain 1797, Churchofficialsdestroyedrecordsthat
couldbe consideredincriminating,includingthose of the Inquisition;copies
of the Inquisitionrecordsat the Sant'Ufficioin Romewere shippedto Paris,
and even though manyrecordswere returnedto the Church,those of Ferrara'sInquisitionapparentlywere lost.
18. The most well-knownmodern study of Rossetti is BrunoZevi, Sapere
vederela citta:Ferraradi BiagioRossetti,"laprima citta modernaeuropea"
(Turin, 1960;reprinted., 1997).More recently,see LucianaFinelli, ed., II
DucaErcoleI e il suoarchitetto
Architetturae cittanellaPadania
BiagioRossetti.
tra Quattroe Cinquecento
(Rome, 1995).
426
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/ 60:4,
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2001
19. The chief undergraduatetextbookswhere this preferenceis evidentare
SpiroKostof,A HistoryofArchitecture:
SettingsandRituals(New York,1985);
MarvinTrachtenbergand IsabelleHyman,Architecture:
FromPrehistory
to
Post-Modernism
(EnglewoodCliffs,NJ., 1986);L. H. Heydenreichand W.
in Italy1400-1600 (Harmondsworth,1974);PeterMurray,
Lotz,Architecture
TheArchitecture
(New York,1966).Althoughothermeritsof
oftheRenaissance
these textsaresignificant,they ignorewomen andwomen'sspaces.My purpose is not to castigatethem, but to encouragedifferentapproaches.These
booksprovidethe introductionto Renaissancearchitectural
historyfor most
students;the more specializedliteratureoffers little more. Recently,new
Ph.D.s havedemonstratedgrowinginterestin matterssuchaswomen'sconvents;see, for example,LauraJ. McGough, "'Raisedfrom the Devil'sJaws':
A Convent for RepentantProstitutesin Venice 1530-1670," Ph.D. diss.
(NorthwesternUniversity,1997);BarbaraJ.Sabatine,"The Churchof Santa
Caterinadei Funariand the VerginiMiserabiliof Rome,"Ph.D. diss. (Universityof California,Los Angeles,1992);SaundraL. Weddle,"EnclosingLe
Murate:The Ideologyof Enclosureandthe Architectureof a FlorentineConvent, 1390-1597," Ph.D. diss. (Cornell University,1997). I have written a
briefdescriptionof some of the architecturalfeaturesof conventsin "Virtu19 (1999):41-47.
allyVisible,"Thresholds
Historianshave produceda significantbody of work on prostitution
in RenaissanceItaly.For recentstudies,see AntonioBarzaglia,Donneo cortea Venezia.Documentidi costumedalXVI al XVIIIsecolo
giane?Laprostituzione
Romano
Canosaand IsabellaColonello, Storiadellaprosti(Verona,1980);
tuzionein Italia dal Quattrocento
alfine del Settecento(Rome, 1989); Guido
Venice
Ruggiero, Boundaries
of Eros:Sex Crimeand Sexualityin Renaissance
(New York,1985).The only studiesto addresssites of prostitutionareJohn
K. Brackett, "The Florentine Onesta and the Control of Prostitution,
1403-1680,"SixteenthCentury
Journal24, no. 2 (1993):273-300, and Elizabeth S. Cohen, "Seenand known:prostitutesin the cityscapeof late-sixteenth-century Rome," RenaissanceStudies 12, no. 3 (1998): 392-409.
Brackett'sdiscussionof sumptuarylawsandthe designationof streetswhere
prostitutescould live in Florence,and Cohen'sdescriptionsof conventions
in Rome, reinforcethe idea that the particularitiesof spatialcontrolvaried
from city to city. Ferrara'sofficialbrothelsprecededthose of Florenceby a
century,and restrictionsabout where prostitutescould live also occurred
decadesearlierin Ferrara.Sumptuarylawsdirectedto prostitutesappeared
much laterin Rome, in the late sixteenthcentury,and ratherthan limiting
them to specificstreetsthroughoutthe city,in 1566 Pope PiusV walledoff
partof CampoMarzio as a specialghetto for prostitutes.
20. Luigi Napoleone Cittadella,Notizie relativea Ferraraper la maggiore
parteinedita,vol. I (Ferrara,1864), 329.
21. Zevi'sstudyof Rossetti'sFerrarais exemplary;the femaleconventsin the
Herculeanadditionandbrothelsarenot even mentioned.A singularexception to this rule is Thomas Tuohy,HerculeanFerrara(Cambridge,1996),
which includesdiscussionsof ducalconstructionsof varioustypes, including the city'sconvents.CharlesM. Rosenberg'sstudyof Ferrareseurbanism
and monuments also includes discussion of some of the city's convents;
Charles M. Rosenberg, The Este Monumentsand UrbanDevelopmentin
Renaissance
Ferrara(New York,1997), 145-148.
22. The bibliographyon these issuesis now quite large;I want to mention
only a few recent studies that also bear on women in Ferraraand neighboring cities: Deanna Shemek, LadiesErrant:WaywardWomenand Social
Orderin EarlyModernItaly(Durham,N.C., and London, 1998);Margaret
E Rosenthal,TheHonestCourtesan
(Chicagoand London, 1992);Veronica
Franco, Poemsand SelectedLetters,ed. and trans. A. R. Jones and M. E
Rosenthal(Chicagoand London, 1998).
23. A preliminaryarticlewritten in 1996 in which I discussthe gendered
spaces of Ferraraappearedin 2000: "Womenand Space:How Architec-
tural History ErasesWomen," in I. Borden andJ. Rendell, eds., Intersections:Architectural
Historyand CriticalTheory(London, 2000), 170-200.
24. Mazzi,Prostitutee lenoni,293; see also RichardC. Trexler,PublicLifein
Florence(Ithaca,N.Y., and London, 1980).
Renaissance
25. ASFe, ANA, Mart. 201, Not. Vitale Lucenti,Matr.201, b. 2, "Obligatio Ursoline et Lucie MeretricesFactaMagistroJannino Franzexeno,"13
January1473.
26. ASMo, CameraDucale (CD), Libri Diversi, Entratee Spese, 1434, c.
157,27 April:Malgaritae AgnoladaAlemagna,Malgaritade Lubiana,Malgaritade Schiavoni.
27. Archiviodi Stato, Roma (ASR),TribunaleCriminaledel Governatore
(TribCrim Gov), Atti di Cancelleria,Miscellenea,b. 105;Trib Crim Gov,
Processi, Sec. XVI, 1557, b. 33, processo 19. The women's names were
Camilla the Sienese, Antonia the Florentine, Francesca the Ferrarese,
Narda the Neapolitan.
28. Francescatold of being "dietroa Po, verso Po rotto, incontrai,in un
artesanoper quanto si poteva conoscere, quale non so chi si fosse, et mi
levo il mio honore ..." She also insisted that from that time forward,she
had done nothing else wronguntil the night underinvestigationby authorities;ArchivioStoricoDiocesano di Ferrara(ASD), LibrarumQuerelarum,
Primo, 1606, 139r-140v.
29. William Montorsi, StatutaFerrariaeanno MCCLXXXVII (Ferrara,
1955), Liber Quartus,articlesLXXI, LXXII, LXXIII,LXXIIII,275-276.
Article LXXI, "Statuimusquod nulla galneapublicamoretursupraripam
Ferrarieneque in civitatea Via Sablonumusquead Padum."ArticleLXXII,
". .. quod nulla galneapublicaet famosamoreturin burgo SanctiLeonardi
et Sancti Guilielmi, incipiendo a porta Sancte Agnetis eundo per viam
Novam, qua itur ad Lungolam per viam Magnam usque ad trivium
Caldiroli;et si aliquarepertafueritfustigeturper civitatem."ArticleLXXIII,
". .. quod nulla publicagalneamoraridebeatin aliquadomo sive domibus
positis supraviam terraliiSanctiPauli usque ad locum fratrumPredicatorum."ArticleLXXIIII,"Statuimusquod nullaganeamoretura portaBeate
Agnetis Virginis usque ad portamLeonis, et a loco Beati Francisciusque
cantonem domini episcopi, nec in via Sancti Pauli, nec in aliquacontrata
positainfrahos confines.Et potestasteneaturprecisefacereprocurarisemel
in mense per familiamsuam."The only other spatiallimitationconcerned
Jews, who were obligatedto remainindoors in the days precedingEaster,
evidentlyfor their own safety.
30. Ibid., articleLX, 272-273.
31. JacquesRoussiaud,Laprostituzione
nelMedioevo(Rome and Bari, 1995),
77-79.
32. ASMo, CD, Leggi e Decreti, C, V, p. 200, 26 October 1478, Ercole
d'Este to Eleonorad'Aragona;Appendix8 in Gamba.
33. The officials'letter to Duke Borsowas transcribedin the Bollette;ASFe,
ASC/SF,Bollette;rub. 105, c. 37, 11July 1469, "Copialitterarumad Illustrissimum dominum ducem nostrum a quibus suprascriptaeemanatae
fuerunt."
34. ASFe, ASC/SF, Bollette,article 131, 25 April 1496, "Addei Omnipotentis Laudem et Gloriam Contra Blasfemates, Sodomites, Baratarios
Ludos, Concubinarios,Meretrices,Lenones, Datiarios,et OfficialesPassium Ac BeccariosVendentesTemporeFestivitatum,"45v-6r.
35. ". . . pigliar[la]per moglie":ASMo, Fondo Inquisitione,b. 9, case 3,
"ContraMorandaMagnaninida Fanano,meretricem,"22 August 1596, 5v.
36. ASMo,CancelleriaDucale,CarteggioFattorale(CD/CF), b. 22/1, f. 25,
16 September1490, GiacomoPriscianito DuchessEleanorad'Aragona.
37. ASFe, ASC/SF,Bollette,article 114, 17 May 1476, "Commissioducalis
contra meretrices publicas facientes et committentes insultum contra
aliquem:"... a cadaunaputanaet meretricepublica,cussi habitantein lo
postribulode San Biasioet del Gambarode la cita de Ferrara... che car-
nalmentesi faciaconoscere,mo' da questo mo' da quello altro,o che habia
nome et famadi femine impudiceet inhonestavita ..." All translationsby
the author.
38. ASD, Fondo Documenti Episcopali, Eccl. Paroles Civi Ferrariensis
(Fondo EPCF), Tomo 1, n. 2, Parishof San Gregorio,CurateGiovanBattista:"... continuamentein concubinatoet in fornicacionidiverse."While
in 1599 the curate of Sant'Agnese,Don FrancescoBallotta,claimed that
no women were living in public sin in his parish,the curatefor the parish
of San Clemente reported four prostitutes not living in brothels;ASD,
Fondo EPCF,T. 1, f. 1, Sant'Agnese,and f. 3, San Clemente.
39. "Anchoraper levareogni occasionede infectione, et perchen6 li ochii
ne le orechie ne la famade le done che vivono bene siino offese ..."; ASFe,
ASC/SF,Bollette,article 131, 25 April 1496.
40. Gli statutidel Polesinedi Rovigoduranteil dominioestense,ed. Luciano
Maragna(Ferrara,1996), 82.
41. Diariodi UgoCaleffini,10 February1482, 272 (see n. 15). Afachinois a
porter,but what the aliasmeant for Margaritais not clear.
42. ASFe, ASC/SF,Bollette,article40.
43. ASMo, LibrideiMalefici,registro 1 (1451), 22 September,5.
44. The caseof CustodiaandCarloMarabesein seventeenth-centuryRome
is a typicalexampleof one version of a housewifealso engagingin prostitution. Custodia'sbrother-in-law,Domenico Sinceri,firstreportedthe situationto the authoritiesin Rome. He describedhow Carlo,uninterestedin
work, forced Custodia into prostitution, even bringing home the clients
himself;he also beather andwithheldfood anddrink.Domenico andother
witnesses testified that Custodia lamented her situation and repeatedly
assertedher desire to cease such activities;ASR, Trib Crim Gov, Processi,
1664, b. 559, 643r-655v.
45. ". .. volendo io vivereda Christiana..."; ASD, LibrarumQuerelarum,
Primo, 1606, 160r-168v, 10 January1606. McGough, "'Raisedfrom the
devil'sjaws"'(see n. 19),makesthe samepoint aboutprostitutesin sixteenthcenturyVenice.
46. Manyof the relevantrecordsfor fifteenth-throughseventeenth-century
Ferrara are at the Archivio Storico Diocesano, and in Modena at the
Archivio di Stato, Modena, in particularthe records of the Inquisition.
Modenaoffersa usefulcomparisonbecauseit wasunderdirectEste dominion throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the official in
chargeof prostitutesin Ferraraduringthe fifteenthcenturyperformedthe
same duties in Modena. The historical links suggest that policies and
enforcementwere likely to have been quite similar.
47. Montorsi, Statuta,articleLXVI, 274 (see n. 29): "... quod nullus ribaldusnec aliquaganeadebeatmorariad ludendumnec ad standumin episcopatuFerrarienec sub porticibusipsiusepiscopatus."
48. "... como hano alcunode epse meretriceusato de fareper lo passato";
ASFe, ASC/SF,Bollette,article 114, 17 May 1476;Appendix13 in Gamba.
Most punishmentstook place in public, but in Ferrara,most crimes could
be resolvedprimarilyby the paymentof a fine in order to avoid a public
whippingor other type of torture.
49. ". .. de che ogni qual di ni e facto quereleet lamentele al officio da le
bollette";ASFe, ASC/SF,Bollette,article 116, 29 November 1476;Appendix 14 in Gamba.
50. Zambotti,Diarioferrarese,
6-7 (see n. 15);Shemek,LadiesErrant,chap.
1, 17-44 (seen. 22).
51. Diariodi UgoCaleffini,175.
52. ASFe, ASC/SF, Bollette,article 83, 29 April 1462, and 22 September
1462.
53. Zambotti, Diario ferrarese,209: "Fu factala cridache niuna meretrice
possa starein questanostracitade, e che niuno Ferrarexepossa essereroffiano, e che tuti quelli ge daranocaxe, cadino a la pena de lire 50, e che
RENAISSANCE
FERRARA
427
ciaschadunoscih dove le siano, le dibianodare,fra il termene de tri zorni,
in nota a li officialida le bolete."
54. Ibid., 209: "Adoe meretricedel loco pubblicoio, come suo superiorea
le bolete, feci daredui squasside cordaa ciaschuna,a uno travomesso fora
in Piazaa le fenestredel podesta,perchele haveanoferite uno contadinoe
toltege per forzauno paro de scarpee una bretta,e a tal spectaculoge feci
venire presentetute le altremeretrice."
55. SharonStrocchia,"Genderand the Rites of Honour in ItalianRenaissance Cities," in Brown and Davis, eds., Genderand Society,39-60, esp.
57-58 (see n. 10).
su nuovidocumenti
Ariostoricostruita
56. Michele Catalano,Vitadi Ludovico
in
see
Shemek's
:
cited
translation,Ladies
Gamba,233;
(Geneva,1931), 106,
Errant,36-37.
57. The two women were fined ratherthan imprisonedfor their impunity;
ASMo, Malefici,24January1480, c. 8r.
58. Ibid., 11 September1451, c. 72r; 7 September1452, c. 93r.
59. Ibid., n.d., c. 197r.
60. "... qualeper il passatoha havutoche faremeco carnalmente... et non
voglio piu sua amicitia, ne d'alcun altro, volendo Io vivere da Christiana ... ";ASD, LibrarumQuerelarum,Primo, 10January1607, c. 160r.
61. ". . . et per forza mi viene in Casa, che pur mi e stato tutta quella
notte ... et vi e anco detto querelatoaltrevolte stato in Casa mia, contro
mia voglia, dicendo et tentandodi voler staremeco come gia per il passato
ha fatto ..."; ibid., c. 160r.
62. In his Annalidellacittadi Ferrara,FilippoRodi reportedwith more faith
than truth that GiovanniFontana,Bishop of Ferrarafrom 1590 to 1611,
cleanedup one of the majorabusesin Ferrara,that of monkswho scandalized by going around masked and patronizing brothels, ". . . con poca
decenza et minore honesta et in oltre con sca[n]dolo... et in mascherae
nei postriboli.. .";BibliotecaComunaleAriostea(BCA),Ms Cl I, 645, c.
744r.
63. Ibid., 4 November 1606, c. 45r.
64. ASFe, ANA, Benedetto de Bonis, Matr. 232, Pacco 1, c. 56, 27 May
1479, "EmptioterreniRainaldide Rainaldoa Sigismondode Consandolo,
cum promissione edificandi edificium,"cited in Adriano Franceschini,
Testimonianze
Artistia Ferrarain etaumanisticae rinascimentale.
archivistiche,
dal 1472 al 1492, Parte II, Tomo I (Ferrara,1993), 221: ". . . quod dictus
Rainaldusvel heredessui vel habentescausamab eo vel ab eis non ossintnec
liceat dictamrem ut supravenditamullo tempore in futurumlocare, cum
domus facta fuerit super dicto terreno qui ad presens quasi mediatus est
meretricibus,lenonibus..."
65. Ursolina and Lucia contracteda debt with the owner of El Gambaro
brothel;ASFe,ANA, Vitale Lucenti,Matr.201, b. 1, 24r, 19January1473,
"ObligatioUrsoline et Lucie meretricumfactaMagistroJoannino franxoso," cited in Gamba,259. Another Caterina,this time a "polacca,"beat
one of her colleaguesin the brothel with a club in 1458;ASMo, Malefici,
Memoriale 11, c. 131v, 8 June 1458; Anna, alias "Rebatino,"clubbed
Franchinoof Reggio for attemptingto get awaywithout paying;ASMo,
Malefici,2, 3 December 1459.
66. ASMo,Malefici,Memoriale11, December 1458;ASMo,Memoriale14,
15 September1461, cited in Gamba,271. Given the largenumbersof Slavs
in Venice,it is not unlikelythat Caterinathe VenetianandCaterinathe Slav
referredto the samewoman.
67. ASFe,ASC, SeriePatrimoniale,LibroCommissioni,
b. 7, f. 10, 8 November 1471, c. 101r.Cittadellarecordsthe samethreeprostitutes,but givesthe
incorrectdate of 1470;Cittadella,Notizie, 112 (see n. 20).
68. Cittadella,Notizie,c. 116.
69. Diarioferrarese
di autoriincerti,202-203 (see n. 15).
70. ASMo,Malefici,1459-1460, 35v,23 July 1459;BartolomeaFiorata,25r,
428
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/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
20 April 1459. Such fees could be waived by the court, as Duke Ercole I
agreed to do for Isacco da Fano,Jew, who was transferringhis residence
from Bologna to Ferrarain October 1500. Ercole exemptedhim from all
taxesand fees on all his goods, and also grantedhim full freedomof movement; ASFe, Archivio Vendeghini, Secoli XV-XIX, Scatola 3, f. 25, 17
October 1500.
71. Gamba,"Laprostituzione,"164-169.
72. ASMo, CD, LibriDiversi,Entratae Spesa,4; Malefici,Memorialen. 20
(1468-1471), 271, both cited in Gamba,253.
73. Giovanni Greco of Constantinopleis listed as being in chargeof collecting the taxeson the brothelsin Ferrarafrom 1434 through the 1440s;
ASMo, CD, LibriDiversi,Entrataet Spesa,1434,reg. 4, c. 2r;his sons continued to run Ferrara'sbrothel or sublet it to others until the 1480s (see
below,n. 86).
74. ASMo, Fondo Inquisizione,b. 9, Processo 3, "ContraMorandaMagnanini di Fanano,"2 August 1596, c. 2v.
75. ASMo, CancelleriaDucale, Carteggio Fattorale(CD/CF), b. 22/1, f.
25, 16 September1490, to Duchess Eleonora;f. 8, from GiacomoPrisciani
to Duchess Eleonora, 27 February1490; f. 26, from Leonello Sogari to
Duke Ercole, 29 April 1491; f. 25, Giacomo Priscianito Duke Ercole, 4
May 1491;transcribedas Appendices15-18 in Gamba.
76. "pubbli[cavano]di giorno per stradali fatti suoi dishonesti, toccando
l'huomini per le loro vergogne e facendo altri ati dishonestissimiavanti
donne maritatee zittelle con grandissimoscandalo.. .";ASR, Trib Crim
Gov, Atti di Cancelleria,Miscellanea,b. 105, foglio 34, 1624.
77. "per non star mescolati in detta infamia . . ."; ibid., foglio 36, 1624.
Although women of the artisanclass and above spent most of the day in
their houses, women could go in groups to church or to other women's
houses;it appearsthat the men here suggest that even these limited excursions were impossible.
78. Numerous books about housing in RomanItaly documentthe importance of the threshold;among recent texts, see John R. Clarke,TheHouses
of RomanItaly 100 B.C.-A. D. 250. Ritual,Spaceand Decoration(Berkeley,
1991),4-10; AndrewWallace-Hadrill,HouseandSocietyin PompeiiandHerculaneum(Princeton, 1994), esp. 3-61.
79. ASR, Trib Crim Gov, Processi,Sec. XVII, b. 534, case 5, 28 June 1660,
"ControMaddalenaProsperiet altri."
80. CesareVecellio, in his Habitiantichiet modernidi tuttoil mondo(Venice,
1598), noted that many prostitutesdressedin a masculinefashion;Valerie
Hotchkissexaminedsome of the implicationsof cross-dressingduringthe
Renaissancein ClothesMaketheMan (New York,1996).
81. ASR,TribCrimGov,Processi,Sec. XVI, b. 2, case 19,23 October 1557,
"ControCamillamSenens curalem."In additionto burningthe door, the
two women tradedinsults from the windows of their houses, calling one
anothersfondata
puttana,poltrona,andporchavacca.Camillaeitherinstigated
or performedthe same insult to anotherprostitutetwo years later. For a
transcriptionof that trial, see Thomas V. Cohen and ElizabethS. Cohen,
Wordsand Deedsin RenaissanceRome:Trialsbeforethe Papal Magistrates
(Toronto, 1993), esp. 92-100.
82. The case is cited in OttaviaNiccoli, Storiedi ognigiornoin una cittadel
seicento(Rome and Bari,2000), 107. In additionto the damageto the door,
they broke her tablewareand the large terra-cottavase where she soaked
laundry.Like the other women whose houses the boys attacked(university
students startedtheir studies between the ages of fifteen and seventeen),
Luciafled her house,but alsofiledchargesagainstthem for the damagesthe
next day,so they were clearlyfamiliarto her.
83. For example,in his transcriptionof the chroniclesof Ferrarain the fifteenth century by unknown author(s),Giuseppe Pardi,Autoriincerti(see
no. 15), identifiesthe location of the new brothelof 1501 as being nearthe
gate of Sant'Agneseal Terraglio,northwest of the old walls. But the text
reads, "che le putane publice dovessero stare de dreto da l'hospetale de
SanctaAgnexe .. ." (268, n. 3), and the Hospital of Sant'Agnese(or conservatory)is nearVia delle Volte in the Borgo Superiore,as in Figure 13b.
84. Most of the materialin this sectionderivesfromFrancescaBocchi,"Ferrara,una citthfra due vocazioni:urbanisticae storiada piazzafortemilitare
le cittaitalianenelmedioa centrocommerciale,"in E Bocchi,ed., Attraverso
evo(Casalecchiodi Reno, 1987), 145-180. The most recent descriptionof
Ferrara'sgrowth throughthe fifteenthcenturyin English can be found in
Rosenberg,EsteMonuments,9-24, 46-49, 83-87, 110-152 (see n. 21).
85. AdrianoFranceschini,"IIduomo e la piazzanella citta medievale,"in E
Bocchi, ed., Storiaillustrata,82-83 (see n. 7).
86. ASFe,ANA, GiovanniCastelli,Matr. 128, b. 3, 12v-14v,25 November
1469, "AffictusSantinide Mediolanoet Fratrisa Simoneet Fratrede Mediolano";Appendix21 in Gamba.Furtherdescriptionof the site of this tavern and brothel is in ASFe, ANA, Matr. 165, BaldessareCanani,b. 2, f. 4,
11 October 1488, Memorandumto Eleanora d'Este, indicating that the
propertyhad been in the handsof Zoane Grego de Constantinopoli(Giovanni Greco of Constantinople)and his wife Isabettasince 1426, and that
it was now in the hands of their son Matio da millano (Matteo of Milan).
Greco was the city officialwho supervisedbrothelsin FerraraandModena
in the earlyfifteenthcentury.
87. ASFe, ANA, Matr. 165 Canani,b. 2, f. 4, Memorandumto Eleanora
d'Este, 11 October 1488.
88. Severalmemorandafrom Cananito the duke or duchessoutline terms
of rentalcontractsand fees paidto the duke for brothelsand taverns;ibid.,
17 October 1488;Memorandumto Ercole d'Este, 20 June 1488.
89. ASFe, ASC/SF,Bollette,18 May 1476.
90. ASFe,ANA, Matr.217, LodovicoPortelli,b. 1, 6 August1476, 37r-38v,
"AffictusFederici de Flandriaet Petri de Salandriamagistro Zanini de
Picardia."
91. ASFe, ASC/SF,Bollette,article 114, 17 May 1476, "Commissioducalis
contrameretricenset committentesinsultumcontraaliquem."
92. Gambaindentifiesa fourteenth-centurybrothelin Sesto San Romano,
an old, populousdistrictjustbehindthe cathedral,also the site of El Gambaro,which suggeststhat they may be the same brothel;Gamba,217.
93. BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana,Vat. Lat. 1960, Fra Paolino Minorita,
"Planof the territoryand city of Ferrara,1322-25," 267r.
94. Although little informationexists for this institutionprior to the seventeenth century,LodovicaMarabese'sthesis, "Peruna storiadegli esposti
in eta modema:La Ca' di Dio di Ferrara,"bachelor'sthesis(Universitadegli
Studi di Ferrara,1997), coversthe relevantmaterial.
95. ASMo, CancelleriaDucale, Carteggio Fattorale(CD/CF), b. 22/1, f.
25, 16 September1490, to Duchess Eleonora;f. 8, from GiacomoPrisciani
to Duchess Eleonora, 27 February1491; f. 26, from Leonello Sogari to
Duke Ercole, 29 April 1491; f. 25, Giacomo Priscianito Duke Ercole, 4
May 1491, Appendices15-18 in Gamba.
96. "... epse meretrizeson sparseper la citain diversilogi,... la pii copiosa
et bene fornitade publichemeretriceche disonestamentevivono,"andthat
the wine tax formerly raised "octocento mille in milledoxento";ASMo,
CD/CF, b. 22/1, f. 25, 16 September1490;f. 8, 27 February1491.
97. ASMo, CD/CF, b. 22/1, f. 25, Priscianito Duke Ercole, 4 May 1491.
98. Ibid., f. 8, Priscianito Duchess Eleonora,27 February1491.
99. ASMo, CD, Leggi e Decreti, C, V, p. 200, 26 October 1478, Ercole to
Eleonora;Appendix8 in Gamba.
100. ASMo, CD, Leggi e Decreti, C, V, p. 211,12 November 1478, Ercole
to Eleonora;Appendix9 in Gamba.
101. "Septembre,a di 3 de luni [1498].El Gambaro,che heralogo publico
per le meretricee taverna,fu levato hozi e comenzato a desfarele caxe e
cazate le femene ge herano, per fare la via dritta a traversola fossa per
andarein Terranova a la piazade verso la Certoxa";Zambotti,Diarioferrarese,283 (see n. 15).
102. "Et sino a principiode Aprille [1501] fu dato principioche le putane
publice dovesserostare de dreto da l'hospetalede SanctaAgnexe in Ferrara,et che de di chi sono le case le possino afitarea le putane, ma che
altroveche 1ile non posano stare,soto pena de essere frusteper Ferrara";
ibid., 268.
103. BCA, Ms Cl 1, 757, Giulio and Giacomo di Antiginni,Annalidi Ferraradal 1384 al 1514, 43.
104. The text of the entry readsas follows:"El Postribolofo fato q[ues]to
a[n]noin la contratade S. Agnexein ferara.Per quelaChaxonefo aseratae
muratala contradelache e tra la chaxa de Ant.o grifuni e Zulia di Antigin[n]i. Cioe fo fato dui muri, uno de co dela dita contradelapresso el
[palazzodel] paradixoe laltromuro da laltroco al chantunde dre da laltro
co deladitachaxade Zuliaper [com]issionede MesserTito de Strozizudixe
de li xii savii: et deli sopori de le bolet fo concesso e dato al dicto Ant.o
grifu[ni]et Zulia di Antigin[n]ila dita contradelac[i]oe la meta di per omo
et cosi dito Zulia fe fare la meta delo primo muro a tutte soe spexe et lo
muro de dreto lo fe fe fare el co[m]mu[ne] de feraraet cosi dito Ant.o
grifu[ni]et dito Zuliapartinola ditacontradela.Al dito ant.o tocho la mura
del co pressoel paradixoet al dito Zulia tocho laltrameta de dal co de dre.
La confinezie dritouno chaminche portaforadel dito Zulia"(The brothel
was made this year in the contraof Sant'Agnesein Ferrara.To make that
big house the little streetbetweenthe house of Antonio GrifuniandGiulio
di Antiginniwas closed off and walled up. That is, two walls were made,
one on the side of the streettowardPalazzodel Paradisoandthe otherwall
on the other side of the cantonbehindthe other side of the aforesaidhouse
of Giulio, by commissionof Mr. Tito StrozziJudge of the TwelveSaviand
the superiorof the Bollette said Antonio Grifuni and Giulio di Antiginni
were conceded and given said little street, that is, each man receivedhalf,
and so said Giulio had half of the firstwall built at his expenseand the wall
behindwas done by the city of Ferraraand so saidAntonio and said Giulio
split saidlittle street. SaidAntonio got the wall on the side towardPalazzo
del ParadisoandsaidGiulio got the other halfon the side behind.The border is behind a chimneythat emergesfrom [the house of] said Giulio).
105. GerolamoMelchiorri,Nomenclatura
edetimologia
dellepiazzee stradedi
Ferrara(1918), ed. Eligio Mari (Ferrara,1988), 175.
106. Melchiorri,Nomenclatura,
48. Lupanarais the Latin term for brothel,
from lupa,or wolf.
107. BCA, Coll. Antonelli, n. 346, Giovan BattistaBenetti, Antichinomi
dellestradedi Ferraraconannotazionistoriche,14.
108. ASFe, ANA, Matr. 205, Filippo Pincerna,b. 1, f. 6, 16 June 1501, c.
37rv, "Locatiointer dominoruminfra:Gabrieli de Placenariet Magistro
Antonio delle Messe pretore";and c. 38r-39v,26June 1501, "Affictusinter
dominumDominicum dictaMorgis civem Ferrarieet commendabileviro
ser Petro de Pellipparis,notario."
109. The archiveof surveyors(Archiviodei Periti)at the Archiviodi Stato,
Ferrara,containsvery few sixteenth-centuryrecords, and none concerns
the two propertiesin question.Laterdocumentsat times includereferences
to earlierpropertytransactionsfor a particularsite, so the possibilitystill
existsthat furtherrecordswill turn up.
110. ASMo,ArchivioEstense,Casae Stato 130, 3July 1499, RinaldoMaria
d'Esteto Ercoled'Este:"... fareil bordeloqui contiquoa casanostra,cossa
che in verita mal me'l posso credere per havere qualchevolta parlatoala
Ex[cellenza]v[ost]ra... in veritatal locho non serraben suficienteper 10
o 12 femine .. .";cited in Tuohy,HerculeanFerrara,138-139 (see n. 21). In
the sameletter,Rinaldocomplainedthat Ercolewas more willing to satisfy
the wishesof the Cestarellithanthose of Rinaldoandhis wife.Althoughthe
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FERRARA
429
letter is confused, Rinaldo appearsto refer to the family of Filippo Cestarello,a rich merchantselectedby Ercole to be hisfattoregenerale(general
manager)andJudge of the Twelve Savi more than once. Accordingto the
anonymous author of the Diarioferrarese(see n. 15), Cestarello lived
"aprovoCastelnovo"(177),whichis directlysouthof Via Sant'Agnese.Caleffini specifiedthat his house was on the Via Grande(281). The two references indicate that the Cestarellipalazzo (later Turghi)was just south of
the locations I propose for the brothel. Cestarello probablywanted the
brothel fartherfrom ratherthan closer to his house.
111. ASFe,ASC, Ser.Pat., b. 30, f. 11, Fondo Montecatini,"Compendiodi
tutte le strade,case, palazzie conventi,"58r.
112.Marc'AntonioGuarini,Compendio
Historico
Accrescimento
e
dell'Origine,
PrerogativedelleChiese,e LuoghiPii dellaCitta,e Diocesidi Ferrara(Ferrara,
a Ferrara(1574), Parte II, Cap. XXV,
1621), 227; Atti dellavisitaapostolica
ff. 26v-28r. Filarete'sdescriptionof a Casa di Venere as a bathhousewith
upstairsoffice where "the craft that is practicedhere will be controlled"
illustrates the well-known link between bathhouses and prostitution;
trans.John R. Spencer(New Haven, 1965),
Filarete,TreatiseonArchitecture,
128.
113. "... el postribolo,le taverne[sianocollocati]in luogo remotoe cuperto
dagli abitanti,ne sieno distantia la principalpiazzane da quelle de'continovi mercanti,e simili luoghi collocati e posti dove piu convenienti parranno";Francescodi GiorgioMartini,Architettura
IngegneriaeArteMilitare
in
Trattati
diArchitettura
(Codice Torinese),reprinted Martini,
Ingegneriae
arteMilitare,ed. CorradoMaltese(Milan,1967),22. I am gratefulto James
Madge for signalingthis and other references.
114. ".. . postribolosieno in loco covertonon molto da quelladistanti,per
evitaremolti inconvenienti,li qualiin simililoci spessevolte sogliono occorrere";Martini, Trattati(Codice Senese), 364. The location of Ferrara's
brothels,well before these writingswere composed,suggeststhat the treatises followed common practicesratherthan the reverse.
115. Filarete, Treatiseon Architecture,
74; Pietro Cataneo,I QuattroPrimi
LibridiArchitettura(Princeton, 1964), 12 v.
116. In The Gardenof the Finzi-Contini,trans.William Weaver(Orlando,
Fla., 1977),Giorgio Bassaniwritesaboutpeeringinto the brothels,"[their]
doors left ajar,at the lighted interiors"(174), still flourishingin Via delle
Volte during the 1930s and 1940s, and numerousconversationswith Ferraresiindicatethat they continuedto do so until very recently.
117. Montorsi, Statuta,L. II, CCXXIII(see n. 29).
118.AnnaMariaVisserTravagli,"CorsoPortaReno,Via Ragno,"in Visser
storicae archeologica
urbana
Travagli,ed., Ferraranel Medioevo.Topografia
(Ferrara,1995), 86-92. See also Nicola Marzot, "Letturadell'Ediliziadi
base Ferrarese. II Caso Campione dell'Ex Ghetto Ebraico," in Mario
Zaffagnini,AlessandroGaiani,and Nicola Marzot, eds., Morfologiaurbana
e tipologiaedilizia(Bologna, 1995), 237-322.
119. ASF,Archiviodei Periti, b. 297, f. 2, GaetanoFrizzi, "Casadi Guilio
Mazzolaniin Via delle Volte,"3 March 1812.
120. ASF,Archiviodei Periti,b. 298, f. 33, GaetanoFrizzi,"Casain Via del
Carbone,"11 March 1814.
121. Both the relic of S. Maurilioand the monumentalstaircaseare in the
chorusof the cathedral,by BernardinoCanozi, datingfrom the beginning
of the sixteenth century.Only a few of the choir stalls from Sant'Andrea
survivedWorldWar II; they arenow on displayat the Museo Schifanoiain
Ferrara,and are attributedto Pier Antonio degli Abbati.For more detailed
information on these and other inlays, see Pier Luigi Bagatin, La tarsia
rinascimentale
a Ferrara:II corodi Sant'Andrea
(Ferrara,1991).
122. Cited in OttaviaNiccoli, Storiedi ognigiorno, 107 (see n. 82).
123. ASR, Trib Crim Gov, Atti di Cancelleria,Misc., b. 105, f. 41, n.d.:
"... una casadivisain sette stanzedistintel'unadall'altraritenendosolo per
430
JSAH
/ 60:4,
DECEMBER
2001
se l'ultimo in tetto subaffittandotutte l'altre, e particolarmentedue Botteghe nella stradapublica a donne meretrici, dalle quali il vicinato tutto
habitatoda personehonoratissimi... oltre al scandalo,ne riceve continue
molestieperchedi notte e di giorno nella publicastradafannoatti disonesti
124. The propertydescriptioncan be found in ASF,ANA, Portelli, b. 1, c.
37-38rv,6 August 1476, "AffictusFedericide Flandriaet Petri de Salandria
magistroZaninide Picardia."The fourteenth-centurybrothelis described
in ASFe,ANA, Matr.7, Not. Pietro Pincerna,b. I, f. 4, c. 8rv,8 April 1379,
"AffictusBaldinodi Simone da Bergamoe Bono dei Danieli."
125. ASFe,ANA, Matr.1027, LorenzoVacchi,f. 1, containsthe inventories
of the estatesof severalprostitutes.Some were extremelypoor and owned
only a few items of clothes and the most minimalfurnishings,while others
were muchmore prosperousandownedseveralpiecesof jewelry.Manyalso
held pawnslipsfor loansobtainedin the ghetto or at the Monte di Pieta.
126. SherrillCohen recountedthe storyof these andother asylumsin "Asylums for Women in Counter-ReformationItaly,"in S. Marshall,ed. Women
in Reformation
and Counter-Reformation
Europe(Bloomington,Ind., 1989),
166-188, and in Cohen, TheEvolutionof Womens Asylumssince1500:From
Refugesfor Ex-Prostitutesto Sheltersfor BatteredWomen(New York and
Oxford, 1992).
127. BCA, Ms Cl II, n. 355, Mario Equicola,Annali dellacita di Ferrara
221 (see n. 110). Sandri(n. 137 below)gives
320-1582; Guarini,Compendio,
the date as 17 March 1538, c. 89v;however,this was the date that the complex received its new name of Santa Maria Maddalena,not the date the
Convertiteoccupiedit. Nearly everyconvent erectedin the sixteenthcenturywas locatedin Terranova.
128. Equicola,Annali,year 1537. For the post-Tridentinerule governing
the convent, see Regoleet ordinationi
di Ferrarasottoil
per le suoreconvertite
titolodi S. Maria Maddalena,riformateet ampliateda Monsig.Revendissimo
Vescovo
di Ferrara(Ferrara,1599).
129. Atti dellaVisitaApostolica
a Ferrara,ParteII, Cap.XXV,ff. 100v-101v,
228rv.
130. ArchivioSegretoVaticano,SacraCongregatioEpiscoporumet Regularium,Positiones 1573-1908, 1589, lettere C-F, 1July 1589.
131. ASD, Fondo Moniales, Convertite, b. 14, Regoleet ordinationi
per le
SuoreConvertite,6-7.
132. Ibid., 10-12.
133. II Conciliodi Trentoe la Riformatridentina,Atti del Convegno Storico
Internazionale, Trento, 2-6 September 1963 (Rome, Fribourg, Basel,
Barcelona,Vienna, 1965).
134. ASD, Fondo Moniales, Licenze 1590-1594, "Monasteriumconvertitarum,"c. 24r-27r.
135. Ibid., c. 25r. For a thorough discussionof instructionin the organ in
Ferrarain the sixteenthcentury,see Enrico Peverada,"Documentiper la
storia organaria dei monasteri femminili ferraresi (secc. XVI-XVII),"
L'Organo30 (1996): 119-193.
136. Guarini,Compendio,
223.
137. Antonio Sandri'smanuscript,"Originidelle chiese di Ferrarae luoghi
delle provincie"(c. 1825), is locatedin the BibliotecaComunaleAriostea;
the page numbersfor his entry on SantaMariaMaddalenaare 89rv.
138. Guarini,Compendio,
222.
139. ASD, Fondo Moniales,Licenze 1590-1594, c. 26r.
140. ASD, Fondo Moniales, b. 14, Fontana,Regole,45: "Siail Monastero
molto ben serratoda tutte le partiin modo che nissunapossi uscire,ne altri
entrare.. ."
141. GiuseppeAntenoreScalabrini,Guidaperla cittae i borghidi Ferrarain
cinquegiornate(1755-1767), transcribedby CarlaFrongia(Ferrara,1997),
49. See also CesareBarotti,Pitturee Scolturechesi trovanonellechiese,Luoghi
dellacittadi Ferrara(Ferrara,1770), 111.
Pubblici,e sobborghi
142. AndreaBorsetti, Supplemento
al Compendio
Historico(Ferrara,1670),
172.
143. See, for example,ASFe,ANA, Matr. 1027,Not. LorenzoVacchi,b. 1,
16 October 1675: "Inventariode mobili ritrovatiin casa della gia Cecilia
Polidori,publicameretrice."In 1677 alone,Vacchiinventoriedthe belongings of ten deceasedprostitutesfor the Convertite.
144. Cittadella,Notizie,290 (see n. 20).
145. Unsubstantiatedclaims that Alfonso marriedLauraas he lay on his
deathbedcirculatedparticularly
when the citywasaboutto devolveto direct
control
in
and
the
1597,
papal
only maleheir availabledescendedfromtheir
son Alfonso,andnot fromthe legitimateline of AlfonsoI andLucretiaBorgia. The problemwas that Laurawas not of noble extraction.Her family
originsremainsomewhatin dispute,althoughscholarsagreethat her father
was FrancescoDianti and her brotherBartolomeoDianti; "LauraDianti.
La Donna del Duca Alfonso I d'Este,"Deputazione
Provinciale
di Ferraradi
StoriaPatria,n.s., 28 (1950), 82. Althoughsome havearguedfor noble links,
and specificallythat the familychangedits name from Boccaccito Dianti
andthen AlfonsochangedLaura'sto Eustacchio,notarialrecordsfrom 1520
point not only to Dianti as the family'snamepriorto Alfonso'sinvolvement,
but also to plebianorigins;ASFe, ANA, Matr. 384, Giacomo Ziponari,b.
(hat maker),son
1, f. 4, May 1520. The will of FrancescoDianti, beretarius
of BernardinoDianti and living in the contraof SantaMariadi Bocca,desof the conignatesas his heir Alberto,son of BartolomeoDianti,marangone,
tra of SanAntonio in Polesine.
146. "Relationesoprala Citta e Statodi Ferrara,"n.d. (c. March 1598),BL,
AdditionalMs Ital, f. 389v.
147. Cittadella,Notizie,291.
Illustration Credits
Figures 1, 2, 7, 9, 11, 12, 18, 19. Ferrara,AriosteaCommunalLibrary
Figure 3. Author'sCollection
Figures4, 14, 15. Ferrara,Archiviodi Stato/StateArchives;(Fig. 15:B. 298,
f. 33)
Figures5, 6, 17. Ferrara,Fototeca, CivicMuseumsof AncientArt
Figure 8. Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and ManuscriptLibrary,
New Haven, Conn.
Figures 10a, 10b, 13a, 13b, 20. Author'scollection
urbana
Figure 16. By authorafterMarzot,Morfologia
Figure 21. Ferrara,Diocesan HistoricalArchives
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FERRARA
431