3 Prostitutes, courtesans and public morality
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Brian Pullan
Abstract
Chapter 3 discusses developments in public policy and intellectual attitudes towards prostitution and sexual immorality in early modern Italy. It shows how attempts were made to discipline courtesans and repress concubinage, which were both regarded as greater menaces to good order, marriage and the social hierarchy than was the ordinary prostitute who kept her place. Official brothels fell out of favour and the registration and taxation of prostitutes became more haphazard, though vice districts stayed and were somewhat erratically maintained. Trenchant criticisms were made of the notion that prostitution was a defensible ‘lesser evil’ capable of preserving the public good; in some quarters it was seen as an enemy of marriage and demographic growth, as a stimulus to irresponsible lust rather than a device for controlling it. But writers still defended the regulation rather than the repression of prostitution, even in the face of venereal disease.
Abstract
Chapter 3 discusses developments in public policy and intellectual attitudes towards prostitution and sexual immorality in early modern Italy. It shows how attempts were made to discipline courtesans and repress concubinage, which were both regarded as greater menaces to good order, marriage and the social hierarchy than was the ordinary prostitute who kept her place. Official brothels fell out of favour and the registration and taxation of prostitutes became more haphazard, though vice districts stayed and were somewhat erratically maintained. Trenchant criticisms were made of the notion that prostitution was a defensible ‘lesser evil’ capable of preserving the public good; in some quarters it was seen as an enemy of marriage and demographic growth, as a stimulus to irresponsible lust rather than a device for controlling it. But writers still defended the regulation rather than the repression of prostitution, even in the face of venereal disease.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i 1
- Contents v
- Preface vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 Women of lost honour 10
- 2 Prostitution, sin and the law 29
- 3 Prostitutes, courtesans and public morality 48
- 4 Extenuation and rescue 67
- 5 Penitent sinners 86
- 6 Women and girls in danger 106
- 7 Foundlings and orphans 125
- 8 Natural and spurious infants 140
- 9 Abandonment, reception and infant mortality 159
- 10 Fostering and adoption 177
- 11 Foundlings and society 192
- Conclusion 210
- Bibliography 217
- Index 237
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i 1
- Contents v
- Preface vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 Women of lost honour 10
- 2 Prostitution, sin and the law 29
- 3 Prostitutes, courtesans and public morality 48
- 4 Extenuation and rescue 67
- 5 Penitent sinners 86
- 6 Women and girls in danger 106
- 7 Foundlings and orphans 125
- 8 Natural and spurious infants 140
- 9 Abandonment, reception and infant mortality 159
- 10 Fostering and adoption 177
- 11 Foundlings and society 192
- Conclusion 210
- Bibliography 217
- Index 237
