Cortigiana onesta veronica franco biography

Veronica Franco (letter to Cardinal Luigi d'Este, 2 August 1580)

Born in Venice in 1546, Veronica Franco was the daughter of Paola Fracassa, who was a cortigiana onesta, an "honored courtesan," and Francesco Franco. 

About the problematic designation "courtesan," Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret Rosenthal distinguish between the prostitute, or meretrice, the whore, or puttana, "the poorest class and most morally condemned category of sex worker," and the cortigiana:

Cortigiana--"courtesan"--had a different meaning.

It was derived from cortigiano, meaning a man who served at court, so it had connotations of splendor and technical or at least bureaucratic expertise.

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The addition of onesta meant "honored" rather than "honest," that is, privileged, wealthy, recognized. . . . [I]t was in the interest of a woman aiming for the heights of this profession to insist on the