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7. Women During
the Winter, Especially Courtesans
At home in winter,
many women in this city wear long fur-lined Romane
[full-cut unbelted overgowns] which are very comfortable
and allow the wearer great freedom of movement for every
sort of task. Many of them wear these with the upper
layer of satin, changeable ormesino [a light,
shiny silk] or other fabrics, and the linings are of
marten, pigskin, and other valuable skins. Some wear
these gowns over their camicia, and under them a carpetta
of coloured silk, also lined with fur, and fastened in
front with small ties or buttons. These carpettas
are usually trimmed with different-coloured borders, for
they’ve now stopped wearing the finely worked
embroidered trim they wore earlier. To return to their
overgarments, they have narrow hanging sleeves,
floor-length; as belts, they wear the silk sashes they
call poste, or silk veils, which have two buttons or
tassels at the ends. And this clothing is very often
worn among courtesans, more so than by other women, and
courtesans also wear carpette more richly
decorated then other women’s. Courtesans are forbidden
to wear pearls at home but they still do wear them (as
I’ve said), along with very valuable bracelets and
long earrings, and they continually stand at their
windows, flirting with this man or that, as their custom
is. And if they have been involved for some time with a
Venetian nobleman, with shrew haughtiness they usurp his
family name; this is why many foreign men are deceived
and believe that they are Venetian noblewomen. The
courtesans’ ruffiane [female go-betweens] also
make them believe this, for when they lay hands on a
foreign man who wants a willing woman, they take one
from the street, dress her up splendidly, take her to a
secret place and with great fanfare make the man believe
that she is a noblewoman. The result is that foreign
men, unaware of this trick, brag about what is in fact
very far from the truth, for Venetian noblewomen are
fiercely protective of their honor and are models of
chastity and purity.
© Ann
Rosalind Jones and Margaret F Rosenthal.
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