Curiosa: The whores must walk!
Jul. 23rd, 2009 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nebroadweOn April 16, 1603, the subordinates of Philip II of Naples (otherwise Philip III of Spain, for those of you keeping score at home) had a busy day, issuing in their monarch's name no less than seven orders forbidding the carrying of daggers, long swords, clubs, crossbows, blunderbusses and other arms in public; forbidding the wearing of certain sorts of sleeves and gloves and the commission of other sumptuary faux pas; forbidding the use (or possibly importation -- my Italian's not that great) of lead, iron, gravel and certain other kinds of stone; and forbidding prostitutes from riding in carriages. The good order of the city must be maintained -- if it means denying the populace their weapons or the whores their wheels, so be it.
I suppose the Conde de Venevente (under whose signature these orders were promulgated) and his secretary Andrea de Salazar went to dinner quite satisfied with their day's work, and Domenico Tabbanelli, printer, rubbed his hands together at the prospect of another fat fee for his services. Nobody thinks of the poor meretrices, dragging their illegal sleeves in the dust as they rest their aching feet, while their sfruttatori try to look menacing without swords or clubs or even lead shot to heave at gawkers.
Nobody thinks of the cataloger, either, forced four centuries later to figure out how to anatomize this stuff.
ETA: Two weeks earlier, on 31 March, Don Francisco de Castro issued an order forbidding the use of mules to draw coaches. This order was reaffirmed by the Conde de Venevente on 30 September. Coincidence?
I suppose the Conde de Venevente (under whose signature these orders were promulgated) and his secretary Andrea de Salazar went to dinner quite satisfied with their day's work, and Domenico Tabbanelli, printer, rubbed his hands together at the prospect of another fat fee for his services. Nobody thinks of the poor meretrices, dragging their illegal sleeves in the dust as they rest their aching feet, while their sfruttatori try to look menacing without swords or clubs or even lead shot to heave at gawkers.
Nobody thinks of the cataloger, either, forced four centuries later to figure out how to anatomize this stuff.
ETA: Two weeks earlier, on 31 March, Don Francisco de Castro issued an order forbidding the use of mules to draw coaches. This order was reaffirmed by the Conde de Venevente on 30 September. Coincidence?