What is Women’s History?

For me, it is the study of female troubadours, the role of girls and women in fairy tales and folk tales, the diaries of women who traveled on the westward trails of the U.S., women who worked as midwives, how women were treated by the legal system (in particular, during the middle ages, when they were often persecuted as witches), women who were early lawyers, and women’s roles in the middle ages.

And, for the next three books that I’m going to cover, how women of a certain type were treated as sexual objects.

In this book, the author traces the role of the courtesan in renaissance Europe, where they were often painted and oded, and placed on a pedestal that elevated them to mix in aristocratic circles. Unlike independent women previously, these women were able to live somewhat freer lives than most women of that time – and yet it was a precarious existence that could end disastrously with the loss of their sponsor.

The author links the rise of the courtesan to the Papal Court, a subsection of Rome full of celibates. Somehow, a subsection of prostitutes arose there that catered to the higher class merchants and bankers that were drawn to Rome to treat with the Papal Court. These women elevated their appearance and their lifestyles, similarly to the higher class prostitutes of ancient Greece and Rome, who held salons and feasts where men could go to have fun, in contrast with their “boring” lives at home.

The allure of these women, so different from the prostitutes on the street, and their proximity to power, and – to be frank, probably their accessibility and willingness to pose nude – attracted the artistic class, and these women became accepted subjects of portraits and poems, which idealized them. They became, as many celebrities are today, influencers of fashion, creating a feedback loop that reinforced their social power.

And, like our own celebrities, some found their power elusive. One story tells of how a courtesan fell from grace, her sponsor jealous perhaps of her celebrity or perhaps she faltered. He swept her away to a village where he paid a parade of men, strangers of the lower class, to rape her, one after the other, leaving her with injuries, trauma, and VD, which basically ended her career, their being no antibiotics in those days, and VD being something no elite customer wanted. So, in a day, she went from being treasured and admired, dining out with the top of the pyramid, dressed in the best clothing and living in luxury, to a life at the other end of the scale.

This is a beautifully illustrated and authoritative book – the author spent over 15 years researching it – and well worth reading, if you can get your hands on it.