Abstracts
Abstract
In mid-sixteenth-century Florence the need to fund Santa Elisabetta delle Convertite, the convent sheltering retired sex workers, prompted the introduction of a higher tax on sex workers that offered freedom from identifying signs, geographic restrictions, and the title of meretrice. The result was precisely the diffusion of sex workers across the city that previous legislation has sought to avoid. While legislation identified sex workers’ mala vicinanza (evil proximity) as the justification for creating buffer zones around convents, conversely it also allowed sex workers to live within those buffer zones if they exhibited modestia e bontà (modesty and goodness). This unlikely loophole privileged Santa Elisabetta’s needs while allowing the segregation policy to fail. Using the 1561 decima census, this article tracks the residence of sex workers near to unenclosed female household-heads in an effort to explore the effect of Florentine magistrates’ ambivalence towards poor working women and the segregation policy’s failure.
Keywords:
- Florence,
- Sex Work,
- Ufficiali dell’Onestà,
- Poverty,
- Women,
- 1561 Census,
- Convents
Résumé
Dans la Florence du milieu du xvie siècle, la nécessité de financer Santa Elisabetta delle Convertite, couvent accueillant des travailleuses du sexe retraitées, a entraîné l’introduction d’une taxe plus élevée sur les travailleuses du sexe qui les dégageait de l’obligation de porter des signes d’identification, des restrictions géographiques et du titre de meretrice. Le résultat fut précisément la dispersion des travailleuses du sexe dans la ville que la législation précédente avait cherché à éviter. Alors que la législation considérait la mala vicinanza (proximité néfaste) des travailleuses du sexe comme justification pour la création de zones tampons autour des couvents, elle permettait également, à l’inverse, aux travailleuses du sexe de vivre dans ces zones tampons si elles faisaient preuve de modestia e bontà (pudeur et bonté). Cette faille inattendue a privilégié les besoins du couvent de Santa Elisabetta, tout en permettant que la politique de ségrégation échoue. En recourant au recensement decima de 1561, cet article suit la résidence des travailleuses du sexe à proximité des femmes cheffes de maison non recluses afin d’explorer l’effet de l’ambivalence des magistrats florentins envers les travailleuses défavorisées et l’échec de la politique de ségrégation.
Appendices
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