558 guido ruggiero
but in this case we see the kind of relationship that would have created
virtually no record. and although it was clearly sexual from many perspec-
tives, with kissing, fondling and much more suggested, it was a kind of
physical contact that might be construed as merely friendship or a warm
supportive relationship between women. The master/servant relationship
in this case seems to belie this, but nena appears to have been untroubled
by the attentions of her mistress, aside from the fact that it interfered with
her sleep. More significantly, the dialogue makes it clear that angela saw
it as more than mere friendship and if not sexual very close.30 Tellingly
she asks her servant, “dear sweet, stay like this for a little; and then start
to swear, so that i can pretend that you’re a man.”31 When nena objects
that “i don’t know what to say!” angela replies, “swear on the body of
christ, say dirty words like men do... those dirty things they say in the
bordello—you know.”32
angela’s desire that her servant imitate what men said in the bordello
jumps us from the more private world of illicit sex within the household
to the broader and more public world of illicit sex for which Venice was
more famous—in many ways the wonderland that young Giulio and Ban-
dello’s fellow lombard sought in the city.33 The most notable aspect of
that world was undoubtedly prostitution. The noted diarist Marin sanudo,
who reported virtually everything that he saw as worth reporting in his
massive diary (58 folio volumes in the modern edition) claimed that in the
early 16th century there were 11,654 prostitutes working in Venice, almost
certainly an exaggeration in a city whose population probably never
30 for a discussion that opens new perspectives on such relationships, see the chapter
“Woman with Woman: ‘Ma che potrà succedermi se io donna amo una donna?’ ” in Giannetti,
Lelia’s Kiss, pp. 76–112. see also the classic study by Judith c. Brown, Immodest Acts: The
Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (new york, 1986), pp. 6–20.
31 La veniexiana, p. 291.
32 ibid., p. 292. it is interesting to note that as she gets more excited, although still
taking the active role, she appears to shift her fantasy to an imaginary male who is less
innocent and feminine. This seems to suggest that the erotic audience of the scene was
assumed to be older males who would find that this was an exciting, erotically charged
fantasy for a young woman.
33 i have discussed more extensively the world or, perhaps more accurately, worlds
of illicit sex in Venice elsewhere. for this see ruggiero, Boundaries of Eros, especially
pp. 10–13, 146–68; Binding Passions, pp. 5–13, 33–55, 179–90; and “Marriage, love and sex,”
pp. 23–29. for a more general overview, see ian frederick Moulton, “The illicit Worlds of
the renaissance,” in ruggiero, ed., The Worlds of the Renaissance, pp. 491–505. see also the
works cited above in nn. 3 and 34.