Site Visit

• Prostitution and Violence from the Ponte delle Tette to the Ponte dei Pugni

Seminar Questions

• How was prostitution organised and controlled in Renaissance Venice?
• How was violence expressed and controlled in the Republic of Venice in the Renaissance?

Core Reading

You should each read three of the following items:

• Chambers, David, and Brian Pullan (eds), Venice: A Documentary History 1450-1630 (Oxford, 1992; rept. Toronto, 2001), pp. 85-129.
• EITHER
  • Clarke, Paula, 'The Business of Prostitution in Early Renaissance Venice,' Renaissance Quarterly 68 (2015), 419-464
  • OR Ferraro, Joanne M., 'Making a Living: The Sex Trade in Early Modern VeniceLink opens in a new window', The American Historical Review 123/1 (2018), 30–59
• Povolo, Claudio, 'Liturgies of Violence: Social Control and Power Relationships in the Republic of Venice between the 16th and 18th Centuries', in Eric R. Dursteler (ed.), A Companion to Venetian History 1400-1797(Leiden, 2013), pp. 513-42.

Further Documents

• Sanudo, Marin, Venice, cità excelentissima: selections from the Renaissance diaries of Marin Sanudo, ed. and trans. Patricia H. Labalme and Laura Sanguineti White (Baltimore, 2008), pp. 113-58, 311-21.

Indications for Further Reading

• Prostitution
• Violence