Veronica Franco vs. Maffio Venier: sex, death, and poetry in Cinquecento Venice

Italica, Fall-Winter, 2006 by Dolora Chapelle Wojciehowski

Although she does not talk about denial per se, Anna Foa points out the difficulties in representing syphilis in sixteenth-century Venice. She argues that syphilis lacked an iconography of its own, and consequently drew on that of leprosy: "It was as if Christian society had already dealt with its fear of sex by symbolizing it in leprosy. Society, then, had virtually used up its metaphorical capacities.... Syphilis, specifically tied to sexual intercourse with Renaissance prostitutes, never assumed the symbolic status of a sickness/evil at the same level as leprosy--the punishment of embraces only dreamed and feared" (Foa 38).

It should also be noted that by the mid-sixteenth century, the effects of the disease seemed less virulent than they had at the onset of the epidemic over a half-century earlier. As one celebrated doctor-historian, Girolamo Rossi, wrote in his Storia di Ravenna, first published in 1572, the symptoms of the disease seemed much mitigated in his own time, a fact that he attributed either to astrological realignments or the discovery of remedies. (18) Habitual denial mingled with hope in the possibility of a cure, or at least in the available programs for treatment. In any case, prostitution in Venice remained one of the principal attractions of the city, for countless foreigners and natives alike, and syphilis remained, paradoxically, a secret malady. (19)

Maffio Contra Veronica: We find in the poems of Maffio Venier written against Veronica Franco some interesting representations of, and fantasies about, prostitution, as well as syphilis. Franca, credeme, che, per San Maffio [Believe Me, Franca, That by Saint Maffio], the first and least offensive poem in the series of three about Veronica Franco, gives a clue in its title to the poet's identity. However, it is likely that Veronica was uncertain about who had authored the capitolo, supposing her lover Marco Venier wrote it, rather than his cousin Maffio (Dazzi 27, 46; Jones and Rosenthal 17). The speaker declares his desire for Franco, yet complains about her high fees:

   Intendo che, quando'un ve vuol basar,
   Vole cinque o sie scudi, e con fadiga
   Con i cinquanta ve lasse chiavar.
   [I understand that she wants five or six scudi / if you want to
   kiss her, / and she'll barely let you screw her for fifty.] (20)

Though Maffio almost certainly exaggerates Veronica's price scale, (21) he feigns outrage that Veronica charges for sex.

Maffio praises her good looks and presentation, but states that she is not worth the price:

   No perche vu no sie bella e pulia
   Cara, dolce, gentile costuma,
   Ma perche mi ho st'umor, sta bizaria:

   Me tagiarave el cazzo, e, despera,
   De sti cogioni faria una fortagia,
   Co' pagasse una volta, co' ho chiava. (Dazzi 23-24)
   [It's not because you're not beautiful and polished, / Lovely,
   sweet, kind and well-mannered, / But because I have this humor,
   this eccentricity: // I would cut off my member, and in despair /
   Have my balls made into an omelette / If I were ever to pay the
   person I screwed.]