Cecilia Venetiana

LHMP #149c Velasco 2011 Lesbians in Early Modern Spain Chapter 3

Heather Rose Jones — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 04:47:07 +0000

This chapter looks at evidence regarding lesbian activity that can be found in specific court cases, as well as perceptions of the role of lesbian relations in criminal activities and contexts. The point here is not that lesbians were inherently criminal in early modern Spain (though some official opinions were that one type of deviant behavior was expected to lead to other types), but that the nature of legal records can provide a wealth of detail that is not available for other contexts.

The conflicting professional opinions on female sodomy in Spain played out in criminal prosecutions. The outcome of trials could depend both on the specific nature of the behavior and situation as well as on how successful the accused woman was in contesting the charges. The summary of this chapter will largely be brief outlines of the cases.

Ca. 1400 a woman dressed as a man served as a judicial official and married two women (presumably sequentially). She was convicted of sodomy because she used a penetrative instrument for sex, but recognition of her government service resulted in leniency. Specifically, she was hanged rather than the prescribed sentence of being burnt to death. The accusation had come from her second wife.

In 1502 in Valencia a woman passed as a man and married a woman, using an artificial penis made of lambskin for sex. She had also had sex in that way with other women. Her gender was discovered in the context of an accusation of theft. She was sentenced to hang but was pardoned on the basis of a legal technicality with regard to how the trial was handled. In a number of these cases, it is an open question whether the “femme” partner was truly ignorant of the sex of the passing woman or whether she was relying on the legal tendency to focus on gender transgressions rather than the sexual relationship per se.

In 1503, two women--Catalina de Belunçe and Matiche de Oyarzún--were accused of having sex “like a man and a woman”. No other specifics of the offence were given and there was no mention of the use of an instrument. Only one of the pair was sentenced to banishment and confiscation of her belongings, but with capital punishment if she returned from banishment. But rather than accepting this leniency, she appealed to the royal court, claiming innocence and that no evidence had been offered. The charge had been based on “public reputation” of her activities. She impugned the witness and accused the prosecutor (the local mayor) of a profit motive in pursuing the case. She was pardoned, the sentence reversed, and her possessions were returned to her. The true story behind the case is hard to decipher. Why was her partner not also accused (given that there doesn’t appear to have been a “butch-femme” dynamic in the accused behavior)? Who was the witness?

In 1560, the Inquisition in Aragon debated whether a case involving several women fell under the category of sodomy as no sexual instrument had been used, though there was genital contact (which was described in heterocentric terms). They ended up not prosecuting.

In 1656, the Inquisition in Aragon judged a case against a 28 year old widow Ana Aler and a 22 year old laundress Mariana López who were accused of sodomy by nosy neighbors (two men and three women). The specific behaviors involved were hugging, kissing, putting a hand under the skirt to touch the genitals, expressions of jealousy followed by protestations of loyalty and pledges of love. The women were said to follow each other around. It was claimed that Ana boasted of having sex with “the best woman in Zaragoza” who was willing to pay her for it, but it’s unclear if this was an actual reference to female same-sex prostitution or just boasting. The neighbors testified they overheard the sounds of passion and sex talk , “Give it to me, I can’t wait any longer!” as well as to seeing the women lying on top of each other and evidence of “emission of semen” (i.e., orgasm). Although there was no evidence of a penetrative instrument being used, the verdict was still labeled “sodomy” but the sentence was limited to whipping and exile and the women were forbidden to live in the same location in the future.

Inés de Santa Cruz and Catalina Ledesma were arrested in 1603 in Salamanca as “bujarronas” (female sodomites). They had previous sodomy convictions in Valladolid. A complex background story emerged from the trial. Inés had at one point claimed to be a nun and was soliciting donations and assembling a group of “wayward” young women to take them to a convent (the implication being a house of penitence for reformed prostitutes). The suspicion was that instead she was recruiting for the sex trade. The sexual accusations against Inés and Catalina included use of a penetrative instrument and they were given a death sentence which was appealed and reduced to whipping and banishment.

Among the details of the testimony it emerged that the two women had enjoyed a long term domestic partnership “eating at the same table and sleeping in the same bed.” Their love for each other was public knowledge. Catalina had left her husband to live with Inés. Among the witnesses was a maid from Catalina’s father’s house where the two lived for a time. The detailed testimony reveals the witnesses’ fantasies as well as facts. The existence of sexual activity was assumed from overheard activity including panting and grunting and comments like, “Does that feel good?” as well as love talk.

The defendants admitted to the sex but each tried to frame her own role as less culpable based on minor technicalities such as who was lying on top. The sexual acts they admitted to included rubbing vulvas together and manual stimulation. They were inconsistent with regard to the use of an instrument. (Witnesses said they had used an instrument made of cane, but Inés described one made of leather that they stopped using because it was painful.)

During one temporary separation, they may have had sex with other women and there was reported discussion of the advantages of lesbian sex: no pregnancy, it was more pleasurable than heterosexual sex, they found men repulsive. In this context, Catalina reported on knowing of other female couples in the convent where she stayed for a time. Much of the evidence may have come out during fights between the women. Catalina felt that Inés was stalking and harassing her to renew the relationship, though witnesses said their relationship ran hot and cold and was not one-sided. Inés seems to have been the more jealous and controlling. Neighbors described them as being so close a couple “like man and woman” that all attempts to break them up failed. All this happened over an extended period of time during which their relationship was public knowledge. The neighbors would insult them (and they each other) with terms like bujarronas (female sodomites), puta bellaca (cheating whore), somética (fem. sodomite), bellaca baldresera (dildo-wielding scoundrel). Velasco compares their reported behavior to modern patterns of domestic violence among lesbians. Inés was significantly older, more economically stable, and was the more aggressive and controlling. The trial was instigated when Catalina went to the authorities to complain about Inés’s violent behavior.

Despite the admitted use of a penetrating instrument, they were not given the death penalty and had received similarly lenient treatment in a previous trial. Velaso notes that these trial records contradict the idea that sexual relationships between women were invisible but also contradict the idea that they were tolerated or considered insignificant.

In 1745 in Colombia, two mestiza seamstresses named Margarita Valenzuela and Gregoria Franco had a long-term public romance that was disrupted by the reappearance of the father of Margarita’s child. This resulted in a conflict that came to the attention of the law. Gregoria was banished for a short term and warned not to reinitiate the relationship on penalty of permanent banishment.

In 1597, the Inquisition in Mallorca found a 30 year old single woman Esperanza de Rojas guilty of various offences, including practicing love magic to re-attract the passion of two women she’d been sexually involved with while all three were at a home for fallen women. She was sentenced to whipping and exile with the mitigating factor that she had acted in anger. The major concern was the accusation of demonic magic and the recorded testimony included specifics of the rituals. These included claims that she used Jewish and Muslim prayers as well as using a demonic statuette as a focus. The nature of the rituals was consistent with descriptions of heterosexual love magic at the time. Esperanza claimed she had learned the rituals from another woman while traveling to Rome and Naples.

Further investigations by the Inquisition at the institution where the three women had lived that took place in 1597-8 turned up other accusations of same-sex activity. Catalina Lebrés was accused of “illicit relations with other female residents.”

Velasco spends some time discussing the nature and context of female penitential institutions in early modern Spain. Their general purpose was to control women who were not successfully under patriarchal authority. There were concerns about women’s misbehavior inside the institutions, but that concern might either focus on, or be oblivious to, the possibility of lesbian sex. Overcrowding was a regular concern, as well as the potential for women to learn new forms of criminality from the other inmates.

Concerns regarding the potential for sexual relations between women were shared by religious penitential institutions and regular convents. Convent rules often proscribed sleeping together or forbade two nuns to be alone together behind closed doors. The code word for the concern was “special friendships”. Specific behaviors that were considered a sign of danger were talking together at night, sleeping together, hugging, “joining their faces together.”

Another intersection of concern is the long historic association between lesbianism and prostitution, dating as early as Roman times (Lucian, Alciphron). Velasco notes the contrast laid out in a 16th century Italian text on women’s friendships by Firenzuola, that contrasts the “chaste” love between Laudomia Forteguerra and Duchess Margaret of Austria with the lascivious love of Sappho and of “the great prostitute Cecilia Venetiana.” But within the same century, Brantôme in France imputed a more sexual relationship to Margaret and Laudomia, and grouped them with a noted Spanish prostitute in Rome, Isabella de Luna, who kept a mistress. Moving our attention back to Spain, there were conflicting opinions whether the existence of legal brothels successfully kept men away from sodomy (by making women available) or whether one sin would breed other sins and thus men who frequented brothels were more likely to move on to sodomy.

The intersection of prostitution, love magic, and “medical” manual stimulation, as well as the possibilities of sex between women appear in Fernando de Rojas’ La Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea more commonly known as La Celestina. Velasco spends some time reviewing the details and implications of this work.

There was an association of witchcraft and lesbian desire, along with aspects of heresy. Several authors repeat a description from Leo Africanus of North African sahacat witches, who seduce or pleasure other women under the guise of medical treatment. (It isn’t clear whether the repetition of this motif is in reference to Africa or gives the appearance of generalizing it to Spain. Note that sahacat is from the Arabic root sahq with the same general meaning of rubbing as fricatrix.)

The chapter concludes with one last case study in Mexico of an accusation of lesbian seduction (or predation) by a female couple of their female boarder, who then used witchcraft to try to take revenge on the couple.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Velasco, Sherry. 2011. Lesbians in Early Modern Spain. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville.

Velasco, Sherry. 2011. Lesbians in Early Modern Spain. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville. ISBN 978-0-8265-1750-0

Project ID number:

149

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Chapter 3: Criminal Lesbians

Introduction:

[The following is duplicated from the associated blog. I'm trying to standardize the organization of associated content.]

Using the records of court cases to research lesbian lives in history is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, they often present a wealth of detail not found in any other type of record unless--by miraculous luck--a personal diary or set of candid correspondence is unearthed. But conversely, court cases, by their nature, present a skewed view of people's lives. They show people in conflict and distress. They arise when relationships go bad, or were never particularly good in the first place. They are typcially the records of only those classes of people who aren't able to conceal their activities through priviledge, or to evade legal penalties if concealment is impossible. It would be all too easy, when looking at the trials of criminal lesbians, to conclude that lesbianism inherently leads to criminality. (Consider as a parallel how early psychiatrists studying homosexuality in their patients--patients who had come to them for help with severe problems--concluded that homosexuality was an inherently deranged condition. Because, after all, all the homosexuals they knew were people with serious emotional problems!) With that caveat, the court records studied here provide a rich and extensive (sometimes very extensive) record of the details of how some women lived together in romantic and sexual partnerships. Of what some of their sexual practices were. And how their relationships were sometimes viewed by the neighbors and family members who were aware of them.
One interesting take-away is that these romantic relationships between women were sometimes public knowledge in their communities, and sometimes apparently accepted by their families. (At least, that's the implication when they are living as a couple in a family member's house.) And although the cases that came before the law demonstrate that any sort of sexual activity between women was considered worthy of punishment, the severity of that punishment depended strongly on the specific sex acts involved. Reading between the lines, there seems to be plenty of scope to imagine lesbian relationships that never came to the interest of the law for the simple fact that they never turned sour enough to disrupt the community, and where the women lived openly as a couple with at least tolerance from family and neighbors.

# # #

Event / person:

Catalina de Belunçe & Matiche de Oyarzún Ana Aler & Mariana López Inés de Santa Cruz & Catalina Ledesma Margarita Valenzuela & Gregoria Franco Esperanza de Rojas Catalina Lebrés Laudomia Forteguerri Margaret Duchess of Austria/Parma On the Beauty of Women (Agnolo Firenzuola)Lives of Gallant Ladies (Pierre de Bourdeille seigneur de Brantôme)Cecilia Venetiana Sappho Isabella de Luna La Celestina (Fernando de Rojas)Leo Africanus

ISBN:

978-0-8265-1750-0

Blog post:

A Vast Wealth of Detail of Spanish Lesbian Lives

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #45 - Merrick & Ragan 2001 Homosexuality in Early Modern France: A Documentary Collection

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:03:17 +0000

This is a sourcebook of excerpts (in translation) from historic documents relating to France during the 16-18th centuries that relate in some way to same-sex relationships. The documents cover court records, personal correspondence, religious commentary, medical opinion, satire, and political polemic. While most items take an external point of view, some are (or purport to be) from the point of view of homosexuals themselves. One significant aspect to keep in mind is that accusations of homosexuality (against both men and women) were used as political weapons and smear tactics, especially during the revolutionary era, and therefore while the texts may shed light on public attitudes (the attitudes that enabled the accusations to be a smear) they do not necessarily constitute evidence of homosexual behavior or orientation of specific named individuals.

The book begins with a glossary of vocabulary related to homosexuality that is used in the documents. This enables the editors to avoid some of the distortions that translation can require, but it would also be invaluable for the potential historic novelist. The remainder of this entry will be brief summaries of the individual documents that relate to lesbian-like motifs, although some are clearly better categorized as transgender. (As a departure from my usual format, I’ll provide the starting page number reference for each excerpt, simply to make it easier for anyone who wants to follow up in the book itself.)

Religion

p.2 1610 Treatise on sin mentions women in the context of sodomy, but specific examples are all clearly male.

p.5 1648 Instructions to confessors inquiring about sexual sins; suggests inquiring whether “something lewd took place with other girls or women” and who they learned it from or may have taught it to.

Law

p.14 1563 Court case covers “two women corrupting each other together without a male” and cites an accusation against Françoise de l'estage and Catherine de la Manière. The women were not executed because the witnesses were “validly challenged” but they were sentenced to be tortured.

p.14 1573 A treatise on punishments for various crimes includes women under “buggery” describing it as “practiced between women who are so abominable that they follow other women, just as or more ardently than the man follows the woman, corrupting each other together without males.”

p.15 1618 A discussion of sexual crimes and punishments includes women under sodomy: “women who corrupt each other, whom the ancients called tribades” and cites several classical sources. The death penalty is specified.

p.17 1715 A discussion of sexual crimes including sodomy notes “women who corrupt each other are called fricatrices and triballes [sic]” but prescribes two years penance per canon law rather than execution.

p.19 1771 After a long list of cases where men were sentenced to death by burning for sodomy, women are mentioned as a hypothetical case “if they have sexual relations with each other after the example of the male and the female” and note that the crime “deserves” capital punishment but that sometimes a less severe punishment is given.

p.23 1785 Women mentioned almost as an afterthought in a discussion of various punishments for sodomy.

p.24 1787 “Women who corrupt each other without men” mentioned briefly in passing in a discussion of sodomy.

Medicine (Purely as an aside, the phallocentric myth that associates an enlarged clitoris with lesbian activity was still appearing in "enlightened" sex manuals in the 1960s!)

p.26 1599 Anatomical discussion of the clitoris and its function for sexual stimulation, followed by a discussion of the claim that tribadism involves women with an enlarged clitoris who use it as a penis.

p.27 1612 In a discussion of women’s reproductive health, mention of the claim associating tribadism with an enlarged clitoris.

p.27 1690 Anatomical discussion of the clitoris and its function, covering masturbation and the “enlarged clitoris = tribadism” motif.

p.28 1760 Discussion of the clitoris covering both masturbation and lesbian sex, citing classical Roman sources, though no reference to the “enlarged” motif. Notes the attraction of lesbian sex in not risking pregnancy and associates lesbian desire (through an odd chain of logic) with the leveling of class distinctions. Mention of a lady at the court who was “so smitten by a young girl” that she became jealous of the girl’s other suitor.

p.29 1771 Discussion of nymphomania and investigating whether it is caused by lesbian activity either with friends or servants. Recommendation that the afflicted girl be separated from all her close companions and spied upon to determine whether this cause is involved.

Repression (Primarily references to legal accusations, but from sources other than the law codes covered previously. The introductory discussion notes that -- the law codes notwithstanding -- most sodomy accusations were handled by the police outside the courts and did not involve the severe penalties listed there.)

p.33 1580 A group of 7-8 girls decided to dress and live as males. One, making a living as a weaver, became engaged to a woman but broke up with her, then married a different woman. He was recognized by someone from his home town and brought to justice for “using illicit devices”. He was hanged in punishment, saying he would rather endure that than return to being a girl. [The condemned individual's statement seems to put this case clearly in the transgender category, and the original records appear to alternate pronouns depending on context.]

p.37 1698 An extensive set of documents and correspondence related to one Madame de Murat who was suspected/accused of improper behavior with women. The following items were supplied in evidence. A woman of immoral reputation, Madame de Nantiat lives with Murat and “is the object of her continual adoration” even in front of third parties. Something about a portrait (of Murat?) that had been defaced with a knife by a woman she’d left for Madame de Nantiat. (Also mentioned were cursing and gambling and singing lewd songs.) Murat left Paris briefly in response to the accusations and warnings but returned a week later and took up again with Nantiat. Then Nantiat left town. Murat claims that since her husband doesn’t complain about her conduct it’s no business of the law. Murat is sent off to the chateau of Loches to be imprisoned but continues to correspond with her lover(s).

p.74 1750 Testimony of Geneviève Pommier, an unmarried 34 year old embroidress. She was arrested for selling newspapers and sent to prison. She got permission to go put her possessions in safekeeping and was being transported in a carriage to do this in company with “la Maréchale” with the jailers riding on top of the carriage. La Maréchale took the opportunity to have a sexual encounter with her and offered to get her out of jail if she would promise to love her and live with her. The witness (Geneviève) claims she didn’t really understand what was being suggested and agreed. She was, indeed, released from prison with la Maréchale writing her love letters, sending her food, and paying her prison expenses in the mean time. On arriving at la Maréchale’s house after her release, Geneviève was taken aback by the other woman’s expressions of love and passion, “in bed with her, she was surprised by what la Maréchale said to her and wanted to teach her, telling her that if she knew the pleasure that two women could have together, she would abandon her [male lover].” There are more details indicating how la Maréchale expressed her desire and sexual interest. Geneviève was uninterested enough to eventually sneak out and beg to be taken back to prison instead.

Representations

p.97 1566 Anecdote about a girl from Fontaines who disguised herself as a man and worked as a stablehand at an inn for seven years, then married a local girl. They lived together for two years working in the vineyards but then she was exposed, arrested, confessed, and was executed by burning. There is mention of “the wickedness she employed to fake a husband’s function” which may have contributed to the harshness of the penalty.

p.103 early 17th c. Excerpts from Brantôme regarding whether married women commit adultery when participating in lesbian activity. This excerpt doesn’t include any conclusions on that point, but provides five pages of historical and contemporary anecdotes regarding lesbian sex. [I really should just give Brantôme his own entry, but this will be an extremely abbreviated list of the quoted contents.] Positive description of the topic: “two ladies in love with each other...sleeping together and doing what is called ‘donna con donna’” Classical examples: Sappho, Martial’s epigram #90 about Bassa who was considered virtuous for never entertaining men, only women, until it was discovered that she “played the role of man ... and couple with them.” A Spanish courtesan in Rome named Isabella de Luna who was enamored of another courtesan named Pandora and continued maintaining and sleeping with her even after Pandora married a man. Juvenal’s reference to a particularly skilled female lover named Grissas. Lucian’s evaluation that women who “come to couple together like men” are still better than an effeminate man. Also from Lucian, a woman describing how her female lover kissed and embraced her, including tongue-kissing, plus an oblique mention of how they “coupled in a certain way that was much more pleasant than with a man.” Moving on to contemporary (but non-French) examples. Lesbianism common in cultures with female seclusion as a means for “cooling off a bit”. Turkish women going to the (segregated) baths for sex. Courtesans in Italy and Spain who seek out female lovers despite having men freely available. Description from a peeping Tom about seeing two women at court making love. [Very many of his anecdotes begin “I have heard it told ....”] General observation about women who make love to women and maintain them “as a man does to his mistress” with the complaisance of their husbands, which Brantôme warns is a mistake as he considers that lesbianism will only lead to the greater sin of heterosexual adultery. Anecdote about “two lovely and respectable gentlewomen ... both of them cousins” who slept in the same bed for three years and enjoyed sex together but who then decided to try male lovers, which he blames on their previous behavior having whetted their appetites. Anecdote about a nobleman asking a woman’s opinion about a relative of hers that he is interested in marrying, and being told to forget it because the woman’s female lover would never allow the woman of his interest to marry. Mention of the myth that female weasels make love to each other and therefore that the weasel has been used as a symbol for lesbians. Discussion of the difference between tribadism and the use of dildos, including a caution of the physical damage that the latter can cause. Anecdote about two women of the court who were known for frequent Public Displays of Affection, who were making love vigorously supported on a close stool (portable toilet) that broke under them, soiling the gown of the one underneath. [This anecdote takes the spin of “they were so ardent they couldn’t wait for a more appropriate location.”] Another discussion of how men would prefer their wives to have female lovers than male ones. Mention of the observations by Firenzuloa [see Eisenbichler 2001] that some women love each other “in a pure and holy way” as with Margaret of Austria and Laodamia Fortenguerra while others love “lewdly and wantonly” like Sappho and the Venetian courtesan Cecilia in Rome. (He discourses for a while on Margaret of Austria in a way that makes it clear he knows nothing about the actual historic woman.) He concludes with a couple of anecdotes about hermaphrodites (i.e., intersex persons) presenting as women who had sexual relations with women.

p.110 1680 Dialog from the play The Academy of Women accompanying a rather explicit sexual initiation scene between a married woman and one engaged to be married. It goes on for eight pages and provides a lot of varied vocabulary and imagery for the activities. The married woman climaxes but the initiate is only somewhat stimulated. They discus the use of dildos but that is to be put off so that she can go to her future husband a virgin. [The dialog then devolves into a long medical lecture for two pages.]

p.131 1748 [This appears to be an excerpt from a novel entitled Thérèse the Philosophe.] The narrator has just arrived in Paris and has been taken under the wing of a female neighbor named Bois-Laurier who sounds her out about her sexual history and interests, and then flirts with her while helping her settle in. Bois-Laurier initiates a sexual interlude in the guise of personal hygiene and later on the two go to bed together and it is implied they have sex. In the larger context, though, Bois-Laurier seems to be a procuress of sorts who is grooming the narrator for prostitution.

p.137 1778 [Excerpts from a pornographic novel.] The protagonist is a young woman who is thrown out of her home for being so lascivious (due to an enlarged clitoris) that she was caught engaging in tribadism with her younger sister. She falls into the hands of a procuress who decides that her physical attribute will make her sought-after by her lesbian clientele. She is cleaned up and offered to a social circle of lesbians, which she takes to enthusiastically.

p.144 1773 [Yet more excepts from a different pornographic novel.] There is a long description and explanation of the “Anandrine Sect” of lesbians -- it isn’t clear whether this is an actual fictional international organization, or a metaphoric expression for lesbianism as an orientation. The extensive descriptions are very vague and flowery, for the most part.

p.152 1785 [Yet another pornographic novel.] This text includes lesbian interactions as a minor part of a pansexual orgy.

p. 155 later 18th c. Dictionary definition of “tribade” as a woman who has a passion for another woman.

Revolution (During the period generally surrounding the revolution, accusations of homosexuality were made against both male and female members of the court for political purposes, whatever basis of truth they might have had in individual cases. Queen Marie Antoinette was a particular target of accusations of sexual impropriety.)

p.173 1790 Brief and passing mention of “tribades” in a satirical tract that purports to be an address from the sodomites of Paris to the National Assembly.

p.204 1791 An almost incomprehensible and very rude satirical polemic, invoking the fictitious “Anandrine Sect” and arguing from the basic premise that since all men are given over to sodomy, the women should renounce men entirely and stick to their own kind.

p.212 1793 A polemic against Marie Antoinette that purports to reveal her entire scandalous sexual history since childhood. Lesbian activity features prominently. [Yes, I’m getting a little fatigued with giving detailed summaries at this point. Let’s just say that if you want to write historically-accurate male-gazey lesbian pornography set at the French court, you should track this material down and read it.]

LHMP entry type:

Stand-alone

Merrick, Jeffrey & Bryant T. Ragan, Jr. 2001. Homosexuality in Early Modern France: A Documentary Collection. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 0-19-510257-6

Project ID number:

Project ID letter:

Introduction:

I know I promised to do Dekker & van de Pol next (based on the survey results), but I sort of fell into this one while doing my intake-posting last weekend. (And it doesn't actually delay the postings for Dekker & van de Pol because I'd been planning to stretch out Dugaw to finish up today.) When you see historians talking about how little evidence there is on pre-modern homosexuality, it often means that they simply haven't had the interest or the access to dig deeply enough. Collections like this one that mine primary source documents may be a bit dreary and depressing in terms of the actual content, but they are refreshing in the hints and clues they provide to "hidden history". The majority of the content of this collection concerns men, simply due to the asymmetry in the social context, however the authors have been assiduous in identifying and including material on women when it is available.

Event / person:

Anandrine Sect Epigrams (Martial)Lives of Gallant Ladies (Pierre de Bourdeille seigneur de Brantôme)Cecilia Venetiana Francoise de l’Estage and Catherine de la Maniére Juvenal Isabella de Luna Madame de Murat & Madame de Nantiat Sappho Laudomia Forteguerri Margaret Duchess of Austria/Parma Marie Antoinette Dialogues of the Courtesans (Lucian)The Academy of Women (L'Academie des dames) (Nicolas Chorier)la Maréchale Thérèse the Philosophe (Jean-Baptiste de Boyer)

ISBN:

0-19-510257-6

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #29 – Eisenbichler 2001 “Laudomia Forteguerri Loves Margaret of Austria”

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:02:43 +0000

In the 16th century Laudomia Forteguerri wrote sonnets to Duchess Margaret of Austria, five of which survive. And at least one contemporary of theirs placed the relationship between the two in the context at Plato’s myth of lovers seeking their "other half”, placing them in a list of "those who...love each other’s beauty, some in purity and holiness, as the elegant Laudomia Forteguerra loves the most illustrious Margaret of Austria, some lasciviously, as ... in Rome the great prostitute Cecilia Venetiana.” Setting aside the distinction between "pure" and "lascivious" love, this text provides not only an acknowledgement at the possibility of love between women-in a variety of expressions-but gives the names of actual women considered to embody that love. In addition, it puts a label on the sentiments expressed in Laudomia's poetry that otherwise would be at the mercy at interpretations that focus only on the conventional expressions and format of laudatory verse. The literary dialog in which the discussion takes place is rife with male gaze and privilege. Written by a male author (Agnolo Firenzuola) it presents a conversation between a young man and four women on the topic of female beauty where the man dominates and directs the conversation. Despite this, not only does he express this view of apparent tolerance, but the conversation began as a female-only admiring discussion of another woman's beauty that they were reluctant to include the man in. (As framed by the male author, to be sure.)

There is no other reliable source for the identity of Cecelia Venetiana though another author gives a brief biography of her origins and how she set herself up in her profession with the assistance of a series of men. There are other references to Roman courtesans having female lovers as in Brantôme’s description “courtesans, who still have plenty of men available to them all the time, indulge in this rubbing (fricarelles) and seek each other out and love each other, as I have heard it said in Italy and Spain.” Whether this reflects reality or only popular imagination is unclear.

A far more solid background is known for Margaret of Austria and Laudomia Forteguerri. Laudomia was of the Siennese nobility, twice married, had children, was both the author and subject of poetry, was considered beautiful and learned, and is reputed to have been one of a group of women who organized the women of sienna in defense against a siege of the city in 1555. Margaret of Austria was the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Charles V, twice married, by which she became duchess of Parma and Piacenza, had children, served as governor of the Netherlands, and was remarked on as less than beautiful and masculine in personality. There is no solid documentation that the two met in person though a contemporary claims they did first in 1535 and on later occasions. At their first meeting, he says, “as soon as Laudomia saw Madama, and was seen by her, suddenly with the most ardent flames of Love each burned for the other, and the most manifest sign of this was that they went to visit each other many times.” And on one of these occasions, “they renewed most happily their sweet Loves, and today more than ever, with notes from one to the other they warmly maintain them.” (Alas that none of this correspondence has been located!) This first meeting would have been early in their lives when Laudomia was newly married and just before Margaret’s first marriage. This writer, too, felt it was important to point out the "purity" of their love. The language of Laudomia's poems is conventional love and praise, unusual only in having both a female subject and object. Laudomia praises Margaret's beauty and begs her for a portrait that she can look at always, she longs for Margaret's physical presence. There is no self-consciousness in her expression or sense of guilt for her feelings. Laudomia at that time was an apparently happy wife and mother, with a growing reputation as an intellectual. Margaret, on the other hand, after a brief first marriage at a young age, openly refused to consummate her second marriage. Political satires at the time accused her family of all sorts of sexual vices and she was accused of being a lesbian in this context. Having eventually relented, Margaret produced children for her husband after which she returned to living separately from him. She was never accused of interest in any other man and other than the satirical speculations early in her second marriage, the only claim that she was a lesbian comes a generation later from the unreliable Brantôme, working from Firenzuola's description, but his garbling of the original text and the salaciously misogynistic context he brings it up in cast doubt that the interpretation came from anything except Brantôme's imagination and literary purpose.

In all the discussions of the relationship between the two women, there's a clear Madonna-whore thing going on (with Margaret, at least, assigned variably to both categories) which distorts the possibility of reliable evidence on the women's physical relationship,

The article concludes with the text of the sonnets in the original and English translation.

LHMP entry type:

Paper

Parent:

Sautman, Francesca Canadé & Pamela Sheingorn 2001 Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages

Eisenbichler, Konrad. “Laudomia Forteguerri Loves Margaret of Austria” in Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages (ed. by Francesca Canadé Sautman & Pamela Sheingorn), Palgrave, New York, 2001.

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Sub-reference:

Eisenbichler, Konrad. “Laudomia Forteguerri Loves Margaret of Austria”

Introduction:

This concludes the articles from Sautman & Sheingorn with a lesson on how even conventional formulaic poetry should be taken seriously, or at least one should allow for the possibility that it reflected serious desire. Remember this article when I present two contrasting takes on the lyrics of Bieris de Romans. At the moment I'm trying to line up enough articles to carry me through the coming week's trip off to Portland OR for the Golden Crown Literary Society conference, where I'll be doing a reading and trying to convince people to buy my book. So expect a spate of articles on cross-dressing because I've already pre-digested a lot of that material for my previous summary article.

Event / person:

Lives of Gallant Ladies (Pierre de Bourdeille seigneur de Brantôme)Cecilia Venetiana Laudomia Forteguerri Margaret Duchess of Austria/Parma Plato

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #110g Borris 2004 - Same-Sex Desire in the English Renaissance (Chapter 8)

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:02:19 +0000

Renaissance philosophy tackled the question of friendship: who is an appropriate friend, what behavior should a friend exhibit, what is the relationship between the love of friends and sexual desire? Given the times, the majority of texts addressing this topic were concerned with friendships between men, though a nod was often given to Sappho as a proponent of female friendships, or to the possibility of “Platonic love” between women, which is given explicit license in the Symposium as well as by Renaissance writers commenting on it, as Agnolo Firenzuola did. Although classical models for same-sex friendship diffused from the literati to the common people, the primary literature addressing Sappho would have rarely been accessible to even most literary women (though popular and common as a cultural reference). Differences in male and female access to public discourse also affect what types of texts and discussions we have access to on this topic. Women’s writings about their relationships were more often private correspondence (not covered in the current work), or might be disguised in the conventions of poetry, while men’s writings were more public and more overtly concerned with philosophical underpinnings.

Current researchers on the topic of women’s friendships in the Renaissance include Harriette Andreadis and Valerie Traub. At least among the upper classes, female friendship was characterized as an attraction of similarity between two conventionally “feminine” women, where the possibilities of genital expression were camouflaged with a presumption of female chastity and innocence. Male writers, treating the same historic individuals, were sometimes more willing to ascribe physical desire to female friends, as in Brantôme’s treatment of Laudomia Forteguerri. And in parallel with the literary treatment of female (potentially erotic) friendship, moral and legal writings record relationships that were more clearly physical, as with a 1648 court case concerning “lewd” behavior on a bed between Sarah White Norman and Mary Vincent Hammon. There was also a growing body of proto-feminist literature (often pseudonymous or anonymous) that promoted ideals of female friendship and love that could even eclipse the ideals masculine friendship. Portrayals of close female friends in literature and drama had increasing popularity during this era.

Agnolo Firenzuola (1493-1543), in his dialogues “On the Beauty of Women” provides several examples of notable female friendships that rose to the level of love. Starting from the reference in Plato’s Symposium he notes women who “love each other’s beauty, some in purity and holiness, as the elegant Laudomia Fortegurra loves the most illustrious Margaret of Austria, some lasciviously, as in ancient times Sappho from Lesbos and in our own times in Rome the great prostitute Cecilia Venetiana. This type of woman by nature spurns marriage and flees from intimate conversation with...men.”

Unlike some of the more obscure allusions, we have further evidence regarding Laudomia and Margaret. Laudomia Forteguerri wrote six sonnets declaring her love for specific women and praising their beauty and accomplishments. Five of them are addressed to Margaret of Austria (the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Charles V). Regarding this pair, Alessandro Piccolomini said that when they first met, “suddenly with the most ardent flames of Love each burned for the other, and the most manifest sign of this was that they went to visit each other many times.” Firenzuola, a contemporary of the two women and a personal friend of Laudomia, while acknowledging that women might love each other unchastely, insists that this couple loved purely. Some time later, in the writings of Brantôme, their love is given a more sexual framing. And even some of Margaret’s contemporaries, taking into account her disinterest in consummating her second marriage, suggested that the two were tribades (though the accusations were tied up in politics as well).

An anonymous poem in the ca. 1586 Maitland Manuscript expresses a female speaker’s wish that she could be transformed into a man in order to marry her beloved female friend. (The lack of an attributed author means that a male poet using a female persona cannot be ruled out.) As with many Renaissance treatments of female homoerotic friendship, the example of Ovid’s Iphis and Ianthe is invoked as a model.

As noted above, Pierre de Bourdeille, Abbé and Seigneur de Brantôme (1540?-1614) was inclined to view female friendships as potentially erotic. His deliberately sensationalist collection The Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies includes a number of homoerotic encounters between women. In one, a company of heterosexual couples are viewing a painting depicting women engaging in sexual activity in the baths, which the women viewers find overwhelmingly arousing and thereupon drag their lovers off to seek satisfaction. In another passage he discusses the sexual practice of donna con conna ["woman with woman"], associating its origins with Sappho, referencing other classical examples, and discussing specific sexual techniques popular between women such as tribadism and tongue-kissing. From this, he digresses into Orientalist fantasies of harem activity and then gossip about ladies of the French court who had been spied on during their lovemaking with each other. Another story involved a male suitor who was warned off of the object of his affection, being told “he would but be wasting his time, for as she did herself tell me, such and such a lady--naming her (‘twas one I had already heard talk of)--will never suffer her to marry.” He mentions the legend that female weasels enjoy sexual activity together and that for this reason weasels were sometimes used as a sign and signal between women. The use of “artificial instruments” is discussed under the name godemiches, with the indication that they would be attached with straps for use. Brantôme concludes with the excuse that it may be better for women to “relieve their heat of blood” with each other than to dishonor themselves with men and risk pregnancy.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Borris, Kenneth (ed). 2004. Same-Sex Desire in the English Renaissance: A Sourcebook of Texts, 1470-1650. Routledge, New York. ISBN 978-1-138-87953-9

Borris, Kenneth (ed). 2004. Same-Sex Desire in the English Renaissance: A Sourcebook of Texts, 1470-1650. Routledge, New York. ISBN 978-1-138-87953-9

Project ID number:

110

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Sub-reference:

Chapter 8: Love and Friendship

Introduction:

Given the coincidental focus within this chapter on the romantic friendship between Laudomia Forteguerri and Margaret of Austria (i.e., Duchess of Parma), I feel permitted to remind the reader that my short story "Where My Heart Goes", which was inspired by their lives, is available in both print and electronic formats in the historic romance anthology Through the Hourglass.

Event / person:

Lives of Gallant Ladies (Pierre de Bourdeille seigneur de Brantôme)Cecilia Venetiana Laudomia Forteguerri Margaret Duchess of Austria/Parma Metamorphoses: Iphis and Ianthe (Ovid)Plato Sappho Sara Norman & Mary Hammon Maitland Quarto Manuscript On the Beauty of Women (Agnolo Firenzuola)

ISBN:

978-1-138-87953-9