The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice Book

Veronica Franco, beautiful Venetian courtesan and accomplished poet, may be best known as Catherine McCormack's character in the film Dangerous Beauty. However, the real woman was far more provocative, challenging and engaging than anything the film could imagine.

Rosenthal takes a wide view and places Franco within her historical, cultural, literary and economic milieu with breathless ease and fine judgement. Not a biography, although it does include biographical elements (such as they can be retrieved), not a book of literary criticism, not a history book, it combines elements of all these to give us a three-dimensional view not just of Franco but of the possibility for Venetian women to subvert the rules and pressures of Venetian patriarchy.

Although this does contain examples of Franco's writings, it would be best read alongside the collection edited by Rosenthal: Poems and Selected Letters (Other Voice in Early Modern Europe).

Franco is a fascinating woman, and Rosenthal does a fine job of making her accessible to a non-Italian speaking audience.