THE ‘MAL FRANCESE’ IN VENICE

Leggi e memorie Venete sulla prostituzione fino alla caduta della republica.

Venice, a spese del conte di Orford, 1870-72.

Folio, pp. [4], viii, 399, [5]; with 6 leaves of plates (including 4 photographic plates of allegorical paintings by Paolo Veronese); text in Italian and Latin, title in red and black, headings, initials and tailpieces in red; occasional light foxing, a very few light marks; a very good copy in contemporary brown morocco, gilt lettering to spine, gilt Venetian device to covers, gilt turn-ins; some rubbing to extremities and marks to covers; armorial bookplate of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, to front pastedown; autograph letter signed from Rawdon Brown to Lord Houghton (15-16 December 1872) loosely inserted.

£950

Approximately:
US $1199€1111

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Leggi e memorie Venete sulla prostituzione fino alla caduta della republica.

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First edition, number 33 of 150 copies, issued hors commerce, of this extraordinary collection of historical documents relating to prostitution in Venice, many regarding its impact on public health in the republic. Following a catalogue of Venetian courtesans, with their addresses and prices, and a list of prostitutes prosecuted between 1579 and 1617, the main body of the work comprises transcripts of numerous statutes, decrees and proclamations from 1228 to 1796, drawn from archival sources. Many of the texts were issued by the ‘Provveditori alla Sanita’ and several contain references to syphilis (referred to as ‘mal francese’ and ‘morbo gallico’). Also included are transcripts of sentences issued against various individuals for prostitution, running brothels, abduction, and sexual crimes.

Provenance: from the library of Richard Monckton Milnes, first Baron Houghton (1809-85), writer and politician, with a four-page letter to him from Rawdon Brown (1803-83) loosely inserted. Written from Venice in December 1872, Brown’s letter discusses the Leggi e memorie, provides his own related anecdotes, and gives an account of the death of Houghton’s friend Mulazzani from a ruptured artery. Brown lived in Venice from 1833, acquiring an unrivalled knowledge of its history and antiquities through study of its archives. As well as assisting Ruskin in his researches for The Stones of Venice, Brown was commissioned by Lord Palmerston to calendar Venetian state papers dealing with English history.

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