Introduction

Despite the often heated debates at the national and local levels about prostitution that have been ongoing since the 1950s, commercial sex has only quite recently begun to receive more attention among Italian historians. This is apparent in the lack of studies covering the last four centuries of Florentine prostitution. While the most relevant publications devoted to this subject focus on the late mediaeval and Renaissance periods, ¹ none fully addresses the seventeenth or the eighteenth century, ² and only one study explores the sex trade from the Restoration to 1888. ³ All this research is mainly based on documents preserved at the Archivio di Stato in Florence, from the Ufficiali dell’Onestà (Office of Decency 1403–1747) to the Buongoverno (1814–1848), and from the Prefettura del Compartimento Fiorentino (1848–1858 and 1859–1864) to the Prefettura (1865–1952) and Questura (1860–1888).

To date, no studies have investigated male prostitution which, according to Michael Rocke, was a well-known phenomenon in Florence starting in the fourteenth century. ⁴ Likewise, no studies concerning twentieth-century prostitution have been carried out so far. ⁵ Twentieth-century archival documents, such as those preserved at the Archivio Centrale di Stato in Rome, do not seem to have information that could provide good insights into the last century. The relative paucity of sources is mainly the result of the partial reform of the regulation of prostitution dating back to 1860 and definite abrogation in 1958. Following the early feminists’ battles against regulation, some measures were introduced in 1888 which limited the state to regulating places of prostitution but not the persons involved. However, it is possible that health and police statistics and, in particular, press reports might offer a very general picture of the trade in the early 1950s when the socialist senator Lina Merlin presented to parliament her draft bill on the abolition of regulation.

The details of prostitutes’ working conditions, family situation, mediation, and profiles are largely unknown, but could perhaps to some extent be gathered from court records and newspaper articles. Florentine non-profit organizations, such as the c.a.t. social co-operative and Associazione Arcobaleno, provide additional sources of information, as they produced noteworthy documentation between the late 1990s and the first decade of the twenty-first century. These organizations offer medical and legal support to both those who want to leave the business of sold sex and those who decide to keep working as streetwalkers. Given the state of research and the nature and lack of available sources, providing a satisfying overview of prostitution in Florence from the seventeenth century to the present is not an easy task. However, this chapter will attempt to draw a reasonable, though necessarily incomplete, picture based primarily on what the law has said about prostitution, archival findings, and what is known about the social and economic structure of Florentine society.

The Seventeenth Century: Laws, Definitions, and Social Profiles

Until 1680, prostitution in Florence, which was then the capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, was under the administration and control of the Onestà (hereafter Office of Decency). Created in 1403, this magistracy was to “establish brothels in the city, licence prostitutes and pimps to work in them, regulate their activities, and adjudicate criminal cases involving the women under [its] supervision.” ⁶ At the same time, it was expected to generate revenue by granting licenses and permission to meretrici (prostitutes) on the basis of a fee and the imposition of pecuniary penalties. ⁷ Over the course of three centuries, the magistracy imposed several restrictions on prostitutes’ freedom but also granted some concessions, such as protection from other magistracies, immunity from prosecution for debt, and the right to bring injustices before the Office. In fact, according to Cohen, “Prostitutes enjoyed more direct access to the courts than did their respectable female contemporaries, who had to rely on male representatives to bring their cause to court.” ⁸ Moreover, the Office of Decency was not infrequently asked to establish whether “loose-living wives and spinsters” or “a woman with only one lover […] were to be counted as public prostitutes.” ⁹ The decisions of the court varied from one woman to another; while some were punished, others were exonerated.

By the end of sixteenth century, however, the Office of Decency had already tightened control over both the resources and the movement of prostitutes. Permission to traverse the city at night or change residences had to be purchased from the Office. Any violation was duly fined but “exemptions to most of these regulations were also sold to those able to pay, which was a quicker method to generate revenue than was the collection of fines.” ¹⁰ Moreover, in line with this trend, registered prostitutes who were married and could generally have expected to escape prosecution for adultery saw a deterioration in their position. In 1635 the grand-ducal government allowed the criminal magistracy, the Otto di Guardia e Balia, to charge registered women who were married with adultery if they did not withdraw from their “shameless life” and return to their husbands. ¹¹ Adultery was certainly considered to be worse than prostitution as it undermined the institution of the family and challenged male prerogatives. Even so, this and other edicts making it possible for husbands and relatives to denounce married prostitutes had few consequences in practice. Cohen suggests that “prostitution might seem to be not a sin but a rational strategy, necessary along with marriage, for women to make economic ends meet.” ¹²

Laws attempting to control married prostitutes were as ineffective as those decrees concerning unregistered prostitutes and suspect women. More numerous than any other, unregistered prostitutes were perceived to be an additional serious problem but, at the same time, an additional source of revenue. By buying their own immunity, they could avoid wearing the prostitute’s identifying sign (a piece of yellow ribbon) and they didn’t have to work in bordellos or reside on those streets designated for prostitution. ¹³ They could enjoy a degree of freedom as long as they behaved with “apparent modesty and decency.” ¹⁴ They could preserve their reputations and independence and move about freely, increasing their opportunities for better business. In fact, “only unregistered prostitutes had property” while “the registered prostitutes were ‘like a snail’ owning so little they could carry it on their backs.” ¹⁵ Social background, independence, and the ability to make the most of their entrepreneurial activities could determine (or improve) the living conditions of a prostitute.

According to contemporary observers, ¹⁶ the number of prostitutes in Florence seems to have increased in the seventeenth century. The great majority were single, but widowed and married women were not infrequently registered with the Office of Decency and they were also among those taken in as repentant prostitutes. ¹⁷ Reversing the trend of the previous century which was characterized by a predominance of foreign and northern Italian women, ¹⁸ prostitutes were now mostly of Florentine origin and from Tuscany. Among the 767 meretrici registered with the Office of Decency between 1606 and 1650, only twenty were not Italian. ¹⁹ However, according to Brackett, the “1627–50 period saw a drop in all types of enrolments” as a result of the progressive restrictions imposed on meretrici and, above all, the criminalization of married prostitutes. He suggests that “what probably happened was that many prostitutes simply refused to register and went underground.” ²⁰ Yet, according to the Census of 1631, 4 per cent of the women whose occupations are known were involved in prostitution. ²¹

The development of textile manufacturing attracted many women from the countryside throughout the sixteenth and seventieth centuries. Brown and Goodman report that “surveys of both the silk and the wool industries completed in 1662–1663 show that female employment [constituted] about 38 per cent of wool workers and 84 per cent of workers in silk.” ²² Nevertheless, the majority were employed in the lowest-paid jobs in this industry, thus inducing some of them to seek additional sources of income. Despite social disapproval, the violence to which they were subjected, ²³ and the taxes and limitations on their freedom imposed by the Office of Decency, selling sex could be seen as a profitable option. Moreover, Calvi notes that “the crisis in manufacturing, in conjunction with the widespread poverty of the popular classes, forced many women, particularly in the textile industry, to become prostitutes.” ²⁴

An important aspect of the system created by the Office of Decency was the relationship between the Monastero delle Convertite and the rescue homes such as the Casa delle Malmaritate and Santa Maria Maddalena. Paradoxically, the fines and taxes that prostitutes had to pay to the Office were used to finance the homes for those who gave up the trade. ²⁵ Later on, cancellations and immunities granted to unregistered prostitutes and women of bad reputation provided the additional income that the Monastero delle Convertite sorely needed. The widespread practice of granting concessions made it more difficult to identify prostitutes and keep control over them. Nevertheless, the grand-ducal government never ceased to exhort (even by threats) registered, unregistered, and suspect women to reform themselves.

The Eighteenth Century

The lack of available research makes it difficult to offer up a detailed account of prostitutes and prostitution in eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Florence. Nevertheless, some sources and legislation on this matter, as well as an initial superficial exploration of the available sources, allow us to outline some general considerations. The Office of Decency was absorbed by the city’s chief criminal court in 1680 but, so far as is known, no substantial changes were made to the regulatory and fiscal system of prostitution until the late eighteenth century. There is no doubt, however, that Cosimo iii de Medici’s reign (1670–1723) was characterized by bigotry and corruption. His decisions influenced, to a greater or lesser degree, his subjects’ lives, including the lives of prostitutes. In a burst of anti-Semitism, for instance, he enacted several laws against the Tuscan Jewish population. Among them, he banned all “sexual interactions between Jews and non-Jews (which targeted Jewish men who paid for Christian prostitutes).” ²⁶

After the short reign of Gian Gastone, the last Medici grand duke, Tuscany came under the control of Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine, whose policy on prostitution tended towards repression. Known for having abolished capital punishment and torture in 1786, Pietro Leopoldo’s efforts were also directed to the improvement and protection of public morality. In January 1777 he abolished the tax imposed on meretrici, and in 1780 he banned prostitution from Tuscan territories with the exception of Livorno. A pragmatist, Pietro Leopoldo allowed the toleration of prostitution in this important harbour and centre of trade and business. Leopoldo’s policy regarding prostitution seemed to be efficacious. By this time, Florence was already one of the main destinations of European travellers who made the Grand Tour. According to Rosemary Sweet, “references to prostitutes or ‘public women’ in Florence were extremely rare: they formed no part of the discourse around the city, unlike Naples, or Venice, or even Rome.” ²⁷ Archival sources, however, seem to reveal that some form of control over prostitution remained at work in Florence despite the ban. It appears, in fact, that a compulsory monthly health check for all “parlour whores” (so-called donne di partito) was a practice that had been contemplated but not enacted. ²⁸

Control over suspect women and indecent behaviour was the responsibility of the four Commissari di quartiere, the post of the community police offices created in Florence in 1777. ²⁹ In February of 1780, for instance, they were asked to provide both a list of the “more libertine and scandalous, more loose-tongued, mordacious and chatterbox ecclesiastics and regulars” and a “note of the men and women who are the more libertine and scandalous.” The latter included a number of married women who, with the more or less explicit consent of their husbands, were having “friendships” with married men. ³⁰ Procuring was forbidden and punished. In March of the same year, the commissario of San Giovanni produced a record of those women who acted as procurers (ruffiane). The list was actually very short as it indicated only two female pimps, both of whom were married. According to a police report, one of them was arrested for violating an injunction against admitting anyone into her house, and a parlour whore had been found in company with a married man at her place. ³¹

This and other documents suggest that, in the economy of neighbourhood life, men were generally not involved in procuring and prostitution was often an all-female affair. Moreover, they reveal what was still an unbroken bond between women selling sex and their communities that dates back to the previous centuries. In fact, as already noted, “Despite the state’s attempt to stigmatize […] prostitution from the sixteenth century on, leading citizens still saw it as something that has to be tolerated ‘in order to avoid the worst.’” ³² Thus, it is no wonder that not only ordinary citizens but also patrician men could be found among the clients of average prostitutes. Anna Tamburini, for instance, the mother of a 5 year-old boy and the wife of a debtor who had taken refuge in Naples, could count on the “friendship” of the noble Francesco Palli, the Count Niccolò Acciaioli, and the Marquis Giuseppe Riccardi. ³³ Perhaps because of her involvement with nobility, Anna was not immediately sentenced to punishment. On being ordered to join her husband in Naples, she pleaded against the judgement and obtained probation by promising to keep good conduct, which she did. ³⁴ But that was not her first time in court.

Anna’s story tells us about the importance of having good relationships, some form of silent support from both families and neighbours, and the ability of some women to slip through the spaces left between the law and its practice. ³⁵ Her activities dated back to 1773 when she was 20 years old and her husband was still in Florence. In the following seven years, Anna had a child whom her mother cared for, she started practicing the art of comica, and she continued to maintain her various “friendships”. As far as the documents reveal, she received no sentences; rather, she asked for probation twice, which she judiciously used as a means of loosening the grip of the watchful police. Continuously scrutinized, suspect married women and married prostitutes tried to find or make room for themselves so they could negotiate their way out of police control.

The Nineteenth Century: Towards the End of an Epoch

The dissolution of the Grand Duchy and the creation of the Kingdom of Etruria in 1799 did not bring about a change in the policy on prostitution. However, the annexation of the Tuscan territory by Napoleon brought about a significant novelty, referred to by the maire of Florence in the following terms: “since the French government [took power] those women are quartered in twenty-seven different districts of the city.” ³⁶ It is probable that the French rulers tried to introduce a new model already implemented in France that was based on the compulsory registration of prostitutes, medical examinations, and the police supervision of brothels. ³⁷ What was left, however, was the perception of a generalized lack of control over prostitution: “Such a large and badly regulated license”, wrote the maire of Florence in the aftermath of the Restoration in 1814, “demands from the present wise government vigorous measures.” ³⁸

Despite complaints made by the “most respectable individuals”, no specific decrees on prostitution were enacted, and no written regulation existed. After an initial outburst of activity, the interest of the restored Buongoverno appeared to decline. ³⁹ In May of 1814 a circular was sent by the Buongoverno to the prefects of the main Tuscan cities ordering the closure of brothels located along the busiest streets and the expulsion of all foreign prostitutes. It was supposed to be a temporary solution until a definitive regulation was drafted. A few days later, the Buongoverno instructed police commissioners about how to distinguish between women assigned to a brothel and those engaged in “scandalous practices”, between the meretrici and libertines. Once identified, the latter were normally subjected to a number of precepts, such as de non conversando (injunction to stop talking to men) or della sera (requirement to stay indoors after dark), and they were only sent to prison as a last resort.

Throughout the forty years after the Restoration in 1814, no other measures on prostitution were introduced and, with some exceptions, ⁴⁰ no particular anxiety was expressed on the subject of venereal diseases. In 1830 the pre-existing regulations on the medical examination of tolerated prostitutes were merely renewed and slightly modified. The number of inspections was increased to three per month, and infected prostitutes were sent to the hospital until the disease went into remission. If concerns were raised, they were of a moral nature, that is to say the protection of public mores and decency from this “necessary evil”.

Particular emphasis was placed on the protection and re-education of those girls and young women who did not adhere to gender roles or were exposed to “bad examples” but not all of them could be defined as libertines. In daily practice, the law in fact distinguished between girls in moral danger (pericolanti), concubines, and women of ill repute (scostumate), applying to each distinctive and personalized measures and solutions. A paternal and flexible attitude seems to have characterized the relationship between the grand-ducal authorities and some of their weakest subjects. The network of institutions—used both as refuges and as places of internment—played an important role in this regard. ⁴¹ Yet, thirty years later sources describe what was defined as “governmental leniency” precisely towards those women known for their “loose behaviour”, not to mention the issue of married prostitutes and libertines. ⁴²

At the beginning of the Restoration, in 1814 Florence counted thirty-three official brothels that were generally small and only one or two women were working there. Two years later there were forty-six registered prostitutes but their number decreased throughout the following decades from twenty-two in 1822 to only five in 1846. Following the revolution of 1848, however, a reverse trend took place. The arrival of Austrian troops in May 1849 was a turning point. A convention signed between Austria and Grand Duke Leopold ii stipulated that ten thousand soldiers were to be kept in Florence and in the Tuscan territories for an indefinite period. ⁴³ The presence of a foreign army was certainly a source of unexpected revenue for many but it was also a great concern for the Austrian command. Less than a month later, the military authorities filed complaints to the prefect over the spread of venereal diseases among the troops. ⁴⁴

In a few months the number of prostitutes leaped to twenty-one, and they were housed in six brothels. A later survey conducted at the request of the prefecture referred to a further, although not spectacular, increase to thirty-three women in eight brothels. Moreover, an unknown number of unregistered prostitutes or women who were suspected of libertinage should also be noted. Pressured by the Austrian command, the grand-ducal authority ordered that stricter watch be kept over suspect women and that medical examinations should be carried out according to the circumstances. At the same time, following the instructions of the Home Minister of August 1849, the Prefect of Florence began to work on a project for the regulation of prostitution that took six years to complete. It is notable that the regulation of prostitution was enacted just a few months before the end of the Austrian occupation. It seems that silent resistance against regulation may have involved anti-Austrian sentiment and the financial distress caused by the foreign occupiers.

On 17 March 1855, the Home Minister finally enacted “Instructions on the Toleration of Public Prostitutes”, acknowledging and reflecting the influence of the “imported” French regulation system. Despite other more repressive suggestions, the new measure did not include the compulsory registration of clandestine prostitutes. Rather, being granted the formal status of prostitute was considered to be a concession given only to those women who made a request and on the basis of certain pre-requisites. They were to be at least 18 years old, not pregnant, free from contagious diseases, and have no criminal record. If they were from the grand duchy, they were to be single or a widow with no children, and their parents or relatives should not be opposed to their participation in prostitution. At the same time, it was permissible to renounce the licence and leave a brothel after giving notice to the police. Former prostitutes, however, were to be kept under control with the aim of preventing clandestine prostitution. Compulsory medical examinations and restrictions on these women’s movements characterized the life of registered prostitutes who also had to pay doctor’s fees and the costs of their own hospitalization. They could work (and live) on their own or with other prostitutes in a brothel overseen by a woman older than 40 years of age.

Sources indicate that the geographical origins of prostitutes tended to vary from decade to decade. Among the forty-six meretrici registered in 1816, only seven were “foreign” born (15 per cent), while Florentine and Tuscan women represented 45 and 36 per cent, respectively. Foreigners (estere) were considered to be women who came from outside the grand duchy. Most of them were from the Papal States and a few were from Venice and Padua, while none were from southern Italy. Three decades later, in 1846, none were described as being as Florentine and only three were from Siena. Following the Austrian occupation, however, almost 43 per cent of the prostitutes registered in November 1849 were from grand ducal cities and the countryside, 30 per cent were foreigners, and the remaining 19 per cent were from Florence. In 1851, there was a partial reversal in that trend. The number of foreign prostitutes dropped while women who were Florentine and Tuscan increased to 33 and 45 per cent, respectively (Table 4.1).

View Table

According to the 1849 Note and the 1851 survey, the average age of registered prostitutes was 23. The youngest, ranging between 17 and 20 years old, diminished from 47 to 35 per cent in 1851 after the Restoration, while those in their early and late 20s increased from 47 to 61 per cent. Very few were over the age of 30. The great majority were single, as married women were generally not allowed to be registered. Very little is known about their former occupations, as the available sources provide information only for sixteen prostitutes. It appears, however, that most of them were farm labourers (braccianti), while five had worked as domestic servants. These and other figures would dramatically change after the unification of Italy in 1861.

1861: The Cavour Regulation

In fact, the grand ducal regulations lasted only five years and were swept away by the introduction of the new and more repressive Cavour Regulation. Enacted by an administrative decree in February 1860 and extended to Tuscany two months later, the regulation “adopted a three-pronged strategy of registration, examination, and treatment. A special polizia dei costumi (moral police) were put in charge of the surveillance over the prostitutes, while subordinate uffici sanitarii (health offices) carried out vaginal examinations.” ⁴⁵ Prostitutes could voluntarily request registration, but it could also be done without their consent. In other words, any woman who was known to be or was suspected of being a prostitute was sent for a medical examination and forcibly registered. According to Cavour, morality and public health were thus guaranteed. In reality, “the threat of registration constituted a powerful mechanism of harassment potentially applicable to every lower-class woman.” ⁴⁶ Mistresses, courtesans, and other categories of “high-class” prostitutes were generally excluded from registration. However, abuse and intimidation by the police and within the brothels became a daily occurrence for many prostitutes. While the grand-ducal authorities wanted to maintain a distinction between women of ill reputation and those involved in prostitution, the unified Italian state distinguished only between clandestine and public prostitutes. No negotiation was allowed.

The regulation soon turned into an extremely repressive and intrusive measure. Only a few months after its practical implementation, the number of registered prostitutes jumped from thirty to 300, subsequently decreasing in 1863. According to the prefecture, in fact, eighty-four were prostitutes already regularly registered by the office of health. In addition, 134 women were registered throughout the year, thirty-three by order of the moral police and the remainder presented themselves voluntarily for registration. ⁴⁷ Unlike the previous regulation, Cavour’s law allowed for the registration of girls aged 16. This might explain the slight decrease in the average age in comparison to the previous period, from 23 to 21. 58 per cent were under 21, 35 per cent between 21 and 25, and only 6.7 per cent between 26 and 30. ⁴⁸ Moreover, 81 per cent of the 134 women registered in 1863 were single, 16 per cent married, and 22 per cent widowed. These percentages were not so different from the national data, but higher compared to Florentine women as a whole. ⁴⁹

Like most Italian women, the majority of prostitutes were not educated although the level of illiteracy was generally higher among the latter, with significant local variations within the two groups. ⁵⁰ Demographic growth and lack of land and work opportunities pushed many peasants, including women, to migrate to the main urban centres. As a consequence, the Florentine population increased by 63 per cent between unification (1861) and 1911. ⁵¹ Unskilled, uneducated young women moved from the countryside to Florence where, however, the jobs available to them were not well paid. This might explain the change in the geographical origins of prostitutes after unification. According to the statistics on prostitution in 1863, 20 per cent were from Florence whereas 49 per cent were from Tuscany, and 22 per cent were from other provinces and 4.3 per cent were from foreign countries.

Moreover, as mentioned above, the data on prostitutes’ former occupations began to indicate a slight change; according to the same statistics, 30.5 per cent declared that they had worked as domestic servants, ⁵² 27.6 per cent had been farm workers, 24 per cent had been garment workers, 8.9 per cent had been milliners, and 3.7 per cent had been straw workers. The remaining 4.4 per cent had been unemployed. Domestic service, straw work, and farm work in particular were seasonal and poorly paid, which explains the tendency of women to combine part-time occupations, including prostitution. ⁵³ Mobility characterized prostitutes’ lives. On the one hand, this was a means of “refreshing” the women in the brothels. On the other hand, it was a way of evading police control and the compulsory bi-weekly medical examinations. ⁵⁴ In other words, mobility can also be seen as a form of resistance: “the easiest way to remove oneself from police lists was secretly to leave one city and set up shop in another.” ⁵⁵

According to the regulation, prostitutes could live in groups in tolerated brothels or work alone (meretrici isolate). Florence had a high number of “special places” (case particolari) where lone prostitutes carried out their work. In 1860, the San Giovanni quarter had sixty-four such lodgings, whereas Santa Maria Novella, Santo Spirito, and Santa Croce had twenty, seventeen, and sixteen, respectively. Ten years later, 100 lone prostitutes legally worked in the San Giovanni quarter. Working alone as a prostitute was highly valued. By working in that way, prostitutes could avoid the intolerable work rhythm imposed in the brothels and, above all, they could enjoy the right to refuse clients. In other words, they could achieve a degree of autonomy that was unheard of in terms of freedom from pimps and, in particular, their clients. It made it possible for such women to have an appearance of normality, develop more complex relationships, and increase their chances of finding an “honest” job or someone who would agree to provide them with economic support. Under Article 33 of the regulation, registered prostitutes could move in with citizens who formally agreed to be responsible for their behaviour and were able to support them. Women could thus avoid the compulsory health checks while they were being supported. ⁵⁶

As for the past two centuries, very little is known about prostitutes’ clients in terms of their numbers, ages, civil status, and social standing. The sources available vaguely refer to plebeians and boors (plebei and beceri), distinguished gentlemen, Florentine and foreign aristocrats, and soldiers of all ranks. However, the requests made by aspiring guarantors of registered prostitutes between 1861 and 1888 help shed some light on their clients. They came from all classes and professions, and on average they were 35 years old; most of them were artisans, shopkeepers, domestic servants, and civil servants, and there were also, albeit fewer, wealthy land owners, bookkeepers, shop helpers (garzoni), innkeepers, and nobles. The majority were single but widows with children were common as well. ⁵⁷

An abolitionist campaign against Cavour’s regulation began soon after its implementation. ⁵⁸ This campaign obtained partial success only in 1888 when Prime Minister Francesco Crispi introduced a new set of rules. The most important innovation was the closure of the health offices and the sifilicomi (special hospitals for the treatment of venereal diseases) and the abolition of the compulsory health check; as a result, “the police could no longer force women [to] undergo vaginal examinations.” Moreover, “only places—[…] in which prostitution is exercised habitually—not persons, were suitable objects of police registration.” ⁵⁹ Treatment of venereal diseases was guaranteed and free for both sexes. Three years later, Home Minister Giovanni Nicotera enacted a third and more restrictive regulation, a compromise between the decrees of Cavour and Crispi. Under this regulation, the registration of prostitutes was still prohibited but madams had to provide the authorities with a list of the women working in their brothels. In this way, the police could keep brothels and lone prostitutes under surveillance and they had the authority to send prostitutes who refused to undergo medical examinations to the hospital. In 1905, some aspects of the Nicotera law were mitigated by a health regulation which stripped the police of the power to carry out sanitary interventions. That regulation remained in place until the Fascist era, when a different approach was adopted.

The Twentieth Century

Between 1923 and 1940 a set of laws was passed under Mussolini’s dictatorship with the aim of isolating prostitutes from the “healthy” segment of society, and this was a step backwards towards repressive regulation. As a whole, the new legislation not only re-asserted most of the pre-existing rules, but also introduced surveillance over those women who worked outside the authorized brothels. ⁶⁰ All prostitutes, including lone practitioners, were “ordered to carry a special passport with records of their vaginal examinations for venereal diseases.” ⁶¹ Although prostitution was tolerated, the police could arrest a woman who was suspected of having a venereal disease, refused to undergo a medical examination, practised clandestine prostitution, or merely had an “attitude of soliciting”. ⁶² The transmission of venereal diseases “was transformed from a minor offence into a crime against the race.” ⁶³ Because they were institutionalised in brothels and trapped for life by criminal and sanitary records, women had few opportunities to stop engaging in prostitution. Victoria De Grazia suggests that, in so doing, the fascist regime intended to emphasise women’s biological mission, their motherhood: “Only by segregating illicit sex from public view and by drawing a sharp line between bad women and good ones might the state preserve the site and purpose of legitimate sex, namely, in marriage, at the initiative of the man and for the purpose of procreation.” ⁶⁴

As mentioned in the introductory section of this chapter, the available archival sources do not allow us to provide, at this stage, much information about prostitutes for this time period. The sources reveal very little about these women’s profiles and families; likewise, they do not indicate to what extent prostitution took place in brothels and was carried out alone, nor can we know how widespread clandestine prostitution was. In reply to questions posed by the abolitionist senator Lina Merlin in March of 1949, the Public Security Division of the Ministry of Interior Affairs revealed that, following the abolition of registration in 1888, no details whatsoever could be found. It was suggested that the High Commissioner for Public Health and Hygiene could provide some data, while answers to other queries would have to be obtained by carrying out a survey with prostitutes. ⁶⁵ Piecing together and analysing the scattered and fragmentary information available in ministerial archives, newspapers, trial records, parliamentary acts, ⁶⁶ literary works, ⁶⁷ and personal recollections ⁶⁸ might help us reconstruct some of the many aspects of prostitution in this era that are still unknown.

Tragic events, however, can lead to the disclosure of personal details, life stories, and information about the business. For instance, this is the case for Valmiria P., a woman 25 years of age who was killed in one of the fourteen brothels of Florence in September of 1954, as newspapers and the Ministry of Interior Affairs reported on the event. Born in the province of Modena, Valmiria left behind a 7 year-old son and her family, who, for all appearances, had not been aware of her activities. According to the available sources, in the year before her death she started working with her cousin in Turin as a seamstress and then started working in a brothel where she stayed until July of 1954 when she headed to Florence together with two other women. After spending fifteen days with her son at a hotel in Rimini, where she had relations with two young men, she returned to Florence. ⁶⁹ This account reveals some aspects of the trade, such as the turnover of women in brothels and hotels, as well as their movement between cities; it also tells us about the autonomous choices that women made, their independence, and their family relations.

In general, very little is known about the working conditions in Florentine brothels. However, Lettere dalle case chiuse, a collection of letters written by women employed in public houses that was sent to Lina Merlin, the socialist senator who fought for the abolition of regulationism, provides a glimpse of those places that we may assume was common to most of the case (brothels). ⁷⁰ The letters disclose a world far from the glamorous images later depicted by some of the brothels’ customers who nostalgically remembered them; that world was also a far cry from the atmosphere of lust and perversion that moralists and Catholics imagined. Rather, the eloquent and lively accounts of prostitutes paint a picture that reveals dimly lit interiors, repetitive daily routines, and tense relations with madams. Some of them provide harsh and embittered details about careless clients who “come to us routinely, as if they were barber’s clients”, ⁷¹ and they indicate that the women had from thirty to thirty five men per day, or more. ⁷² The enquiry carried out by Lina Merlin (cited in her speech to the Senate) estimated that prostitutes had an even higher average number of colloqui (sexual intercourse) per day, but that figure may have been exaggerated to serve her purposes. The price was 100 to 200 lire for each encounter and the madams kept half of that while prostitutes had to pay for admission, room and board, health checks, and medical treatment, as well as the perfume they used. ⁷³

Archival documents shed some light on madams and their brothels and, occasionally, on clandestine prostitution for the time period leading up to 1958 when regulation was abolished. According to a report dated 2 November 1923, Florence had thirty-five tolerated brothels where around 150 women worked under the supervision of the so called tenutarie (madams). Most likely, the madams were former prostitutes and generally middle-aged and unmarried, and more than fifty madams were listed as having been managers of brothels between the 1920s and 1958. Over 70 per cent of them were from northern Italy, and some of them were from the same village and even from the same family, while 20 per cent were from Florence and the rest from Tuscany. ⁷⁴ The figures might suggest that Florentines themselves were more inclined to run clandestine brothels in order to avoid public notoriety, police restrictions, and tax payments. These women frequently replaced each other as managers of the houses, sometimes in rapid succession. However, they appear regularly as brothel-keepers in the prefecture records, and some of them ran the same casa for over twenty years. ⁷⁵

Madams, often referred to as turpi megere (filthy hags), ⁷⁶ were subject to police control in the running of their houses. It was illegal to sell alcohol or drugs on the premises, and entrance was forbidden to minors. Above all, madams were expected to promote and ensure sanitary surveillance over the women working in the case. Their houses could be temporarily or permanently closed down if they didn’t follow the regulations and they could also face trial and imprisonment. In February of 1941, for instance, the local questura (office of the questore) imposed three days of suspension for a house in via Burrella. It had been reported that poor-quality condoms had been distributed to clients in place of those recommended by the provincial surgeon in conformity with the law on prophylaxis against venereal diseases. ⁷⁷ On the other hand, an anonymous tip reporting the presence of an underage youth led to the closure of a brothel in via dell’Amorino 4 for fifteen days. ⁷⁸ Brothels could also be closed and reopened purely for economic reasons. A house of prostitution in via Borgognona 1 was closed down because its manager went bankrupt in March of 1935, and then it was reopened in January of 1936 in the “interests of the mass of creditors.” ⁷⁹

Following a national trend, the number of registered brothels in Florence decreased over time from thirty-five in 1923 to fourteen in the 1940s. They were mainly concentrated around the S. Croce area, between the central market and the train station, around S. Maria Novella Church and the cathedral, and not far from the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge). Only two brothels operated on the other side of the Arno River (Oltrarno). After having been closed down by the Allies just after the liberation of the city in August 1944, the surviving fourteen brothels were reopened three months later as a means of containing the proliferation of clandestine prostitution in hotels and private houses and stopping the spread of venereal diseases. According to a report issued by the prefecture of Florence on 18 November 1944, the questura together with the Allied Military Police arrested 569 prostitutes over a period of two weeks. ⁸⁰ The number of tolerated brothels remained constant for another decade until their closure.

Regulation was repealed in 1958 when, after ten years of debates, Parliament approved the Merlin law. The new measure abolished the regulation of prostitution and forbade the running of brothels, whether state-run or private. It also obviated the requirement for the registration and recording of women working as prostitutes, and abolished compulsory medical examinations and treatment. It also prohibited trafficking and the exploitation of women as well as all forms of aiding and abetting. Under the law, street prostitution was legal and women could engage in prostitution at their own homes. The Merlin law was expected to be a milestone for civil rights, as female prostitutes could, under the terms of the law, enjoy freedoms never known before. Reality, however, fell far short of expectations. The law was a compromise between libertarian and repressive intentions, as some of its articles increased the discretionary powers of the authorities to excessive and dangerous levels. ⁸¹ Although selling sex was not illegal, it was bounded by a network of prohibitions that heavily restricted prostitutes’ rights to the point that, for all appearances, it was an illicit activity. The law is still in effect, although several attempts have been made over time to reform or abrogate it. Some media outlets periodically supported parliamentarians who launched campaigns against street prostitution, which was considered to be the most visible consequence and legacy of the closure of brothels. ⁸²

Street prostitution, however, was not a novelty but it did become more conspicuous starting in the late 1950s. At the same time, brothels did not disappear; police investigations led (and still lead) from time to time to the discovery of clandestine houses. ⁸³ What is new is the increasing visibility of potential clients and simple onlookers who have started cruising in their cars looking for prostitutes, often impeding the flow of traffic. ⁸⁴ Moreover, crucial transformations in the structure and location of the trade occurred in subsequent years, and perceptions have changes as well. The founding of the Comitato per i diritti civili delle prostitute (Committee for Prostitutes’ Civil Rights, cdcp) in Pordenone in 1982, the emergence of the aids epidemic in the 1980s, and the phenomenon of immigration marked a turning point. We can safely say that selling sex in Florence, as well as in the rest of Italy, profoundly changed in the last four decades of the twentieth century.

By the early 1970s, for instance, male and transvestite prostitutes had become increasingly common in public spaces as they joined their female counterparts in the Cascine, a park that runs along the northern edge of the Arno River. ⁸⁵ A more conspicuous transformation took place between 1970 and the early 1980s when West African women and, later, South American transgender individuals began to populate certain areas of the city along with prostitutes who were drug addicts. In particular, transsexual prostitution would go on to dominate and symbolize the Florentine street sex market until the early 1990s (in Cascine Park, Lungarno Vespucci, and along Florence’s inner ring-roads). ⁸⁶ Its supremacy has been undermined by the arrival of young Albanian women who, it seems, have been brought into Italy by smuggling organizations. ⁸⁷ As a consequence, most of the Italian Florentine female and transsexual prostitutes have abandoned the streets and now work mainly indoors, attracting clients with newspaper advertisements. The overall picture of the trade has been complicated by new waves of women from countries in eastern Europe such as ex-Yugoslavian states, Romania, and Poland, thus multiplying both supply and demand. From the late 1980s onward, in fact, the Florentine market has been characterized by a high turnover of women, adaptability to contingencies, and a variety of services that are available twenty-four hours a day. ⁸⁸

Various sources estimate that, between 1996 and 1998, about 700 prostitutes worked in Florence, 200 of whom were streetwalkers. ⁸⁹ Albanian women were the most numerous, followed by eastern European and West African women. South American, Italian, and in particular transsexual prostitutes now represent a very small heterogeneous part of the total, along with prostitutes who are drug addicts. The prostitutes who work indoors are mainly Italian and they are the largest group. Palumbo has noted that the working conditions of foreign prostitutes have generally deteriorated in comparison with the two previous decades and with those enjoyed by their Italian colleagues. ⁹⁰ He distinguishes between sex workers and “new prostitutes”. While the former are mainly Italian or are well-integrated into Italian society, free from the pressure of pimps and other exploiters, the latter are younger, generally foreign, often controlled by pimps/traffickers, exposed to higher degrees of violence and police harassment, and have less control over their clients, working conditions, and income.

More recent reports have identified further changes in terms of the numbers, gender, age, ethnic composition, geography, and structure of the trade. A press release issued by the Florence City Council in June of 2001, for instance, refers to a slight reduction in the daily presence of prostitutes on the streets (confirmed by later estimations), from 200 to 160 individuals. 32 per cent of the prostitutes were from Nigeria, 19 per cent were from Albania, 24 per cent were from ex-ussr states and 16 per cent were from other countries. ⁹¹ An unknown number of children and young boys from Romania should be added to those figures, and they have tended to hang around in, or according to some newspapers have “dominated”, Cascine Park since 2006. ⁹² Moreover, activities related to prostitution have spread beyond the city centre and the Cascine towards other areas, in particular in the north close to the motorway and the airport, and in the southwest across the Arno River. In these neighbourhoods and nearby outskirts, the prostitutes who work on the streets are foreign, arrived illegally, and had their travel organized by smugglers or traffickers; some of them have been forced into prostitution, while others have been deceived about the nature of the work and yet others chose it but were not informed about the working conditions. ⁹³ Although periodic police raids are carried out with the aim of cracking down on trafficking and exploitation, they often simply lead to the arrest and deportation of sex workers who are in the country illegally. In other words, police action represents an additional threat to the daily lives of streetwalkers.

The available sources do not disclose much information about the social profile of female streetwalkers in Florence. More attention seems to have been placed on the system of smuggling, its repression, and the impact of street prostitution in specific areas of the city. We know, however, that most of the Nigerian streetwalkers are between 17 and 27 years old, come from large poor families in the south of Nigeria, only have secondary school educations, and did not work as prostitutes in their home country. ⁹⁴ They seem to have long-term migratory plans to break out of poverty which is the result of relative social deprivation, high rates of youth unemployment, and gender-based inequality. ⁹⁵ Albanian streetwalkers enjoyed a brief period of autonomy in the early stages of Albanian emigration to Italy in 1990 and 1991. Subsequently, the trade in coerced (kidnapped or deceived) women and those who came to work as prostitutes of their own accord has been under the firm control of Albanian criminal organizations. Romanian women seem to migrate temporarily and generally take up consensual sex work after agreeing to pay half of their earnings to their recruiters. ⁹⁶

Forms of indoor prostitution have also been observed with increasing frequency in the last fifteen years. This form of prostitution is carried out in rented apartments and hotels with the complicity of the landlords, hotel managers, and receptionists, and it is mainly advertised in print, via the internet, or by word of mouth. ⁹⁷ Occasionally, anonymous tips or neighbours’ protests against the unusual comings and goings of people lead to the discovery of illegal activities in apartments where one or more sex workers take their clients in succession during the day. The hidden character of indoor prostitution, however, makes it impossible for us to know more about these women’s profiles and their relationships with the urban context. Non-profit organizations that deal with sex work find it difficult to create and maintain stable contacts because of the high turnover rate, which is even higher in indoor prostitution than in street prostitution.

In comparison to streetwalkers, indoor prostitutes appear to be more independent and less exploited, and they often have a residence permit and enjoy more control over their money and rhythms of work. ⁹⁸ Most of them are South American transgender individuals, Italians, eastern Europeans, and, more recently, Chinese women, while high-class escorts seem to be mostly from eastern Europe. However, according to non-profit organizations working in Florence, the picture is often far from idyllic and is even more complex. Indoor Chinese prostitution, for instance, seems to range from sex work in old-fashioned clandestine brothels in the Chinese community to self-entrepreneurial work, and from servile subjection to economic exploitation at the hands of Chinese or Italian-Chinese organizations. ⁹⁹

Conclusion

This paper has illustrated some aspects of the sex trade in Florence and some of the changes that have taken place in the city during the period taken into consideration. The lack of information regarding prostitutes’ clients is notable for these time periods, which is hardly surprising. Clients simply disappear from police records, media accounts, and sociological studies, as the stigma and criminalization has usually been heaped on prostitutes. By virtue of a tacit agreement, clients’ presence has been merely taken for granted and rarely investigated. Only very recently have Italian researchers turned their attention to the buyers of sexual services, in particular as regards the demand for trafficked women. ¹⁰⁰ At the same time, the legal framework has limited, or even blocked, an exhaustive exploration of questions related to the social profiles of female (and male) prostitutes and their families, the mediation of sex work, and the working conditions of prostitutes.

On the other hand, both the legislative approach and the demographics of prostitution have undergone several transformations, in particular since Italian unification in 1861. The introduction of the regulation of prostitution was a dramatic turning point for Italian women in the sex industry regardless of their standard of living. Its abrogation in 1958 was a milestone for women’s rights. The closure of the brothels, however, brought about as a consequence a drastic increase in street prostitution, which is now a feature of the Florentine urban scene both day and night. Nonetheless, illegal indoor sex work is believed to be increasing, and it is carried out in hotels and rented apartments. Both indoor and outdoor prostitution have spread well beyond the city centre and the Cascine Park towards the periphery and other areas.

The geographical composition of Florentine prostitution and the gender of the individuals engaged in sex work have greatly changed in the last forty years. By the early 1970s, male and transvestite prostitutes had taken on an increasingly stable and visible presence in the city followed later on by West African women and South American transsexuals. After the fall of the communist regimes, women from eastern and central Europe started to work the streets, replacing transsexual and Italian sex workers who now work mainly indoors. Recent statistics show that Nigerian women, together with Romanians, are the most conspicuous, while Italian sex workers seem to represent a small minority among street walkers. Moreover, outdoor and in particular indoor prostitution carried out by Chinese women appears to be a phenomenon that has become well-established despite its newness.

It is commonly thought that the majority of the women involved in prostitution are victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation rather than autonomous migrants, thus emphasising the so-called “victimhood” narrative. ¹⁰¹ However, as non-profit and sex work organizations have argued, it is also true that this phenomenon co-exists with other forms of “self-entrepreneurial” sex work. Despite their claims, the media, politicians, and institutional feminists have firmly repositioned (some) prostitutes as victims and clandestine migrants as criminals, together with or in a strategic shift away from a civil rights discourse. As a consequence, contradictory local policies regarding commercial sex may very likely contribute to a worsening of the living and working conditions of prostitutes, in particular for street-based sex workers. In Florence, for instance, mediation and harm-reduction projects led by non-profit local organizations and mainly financed by the regional government are constantly undermined by the so-called “incisive action of the police force.” ¹⁰²