What is Courtesan?
[[File:VeronicaFranco.jpg|thumb|right|[[Veronica Franco]], famous Venetian poet and courtesan. Portrait by [[Paolo Veronese]].]] [[File:Pompadour6.jpg|thumb|230px|right|Madame de Pompadour, by Maurice Quentin de La Tour]] A '''courtesan''' was often a high-class [[prostitute]] or [[Mistress (lover)|mistress]], especially one associated with [[wikt:rich|rich]], powerful, or [[nobility|noble]] men who gave [[:wikt:luxury|luxuries]] and [[status]] in exchange for her services. In [[Renaissance|Renaissance Europe]], courtesans had an important role in high class [[society]], sometimes taking the place of [[wife|wives]] at social roles requiring diplomacy. Courtesans usually enjoyed more freedom than was typical of women at the time. For example, they did not have money problems, and were more independent. [[Madame de Pompadour]] (1721–1764), the famous mistress and favorite of King [[Louis XV of France]], was a courtesan. Courtesans also existed in many countries outside [[Europe]], such as [[India]] and [[Japan]]. ==Related pages== *[[Geisha]] *[[Oiran]] *[[Geji]] ==References== * [http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=27006 Freundschuh, Aaron. The Courtesan and the Gigolo: The Murders in the Rue Montaigne and the Dark Side of Empire in Nineteenth-Century Paris. Stanford University Press, 2017]. *Griffin, Susan. ''The Book of the Courtesans: A Catalogue of Their Virtues''. New York: Broadway Books, 2001. *Hickman, Katie. ''Courtesans: Money, Sex, and Fame in the Nineteenth Century''. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. *Lawner, Lynne. ''Lives of the Courtesans: Portraits of the Renaissance.'' New York: Rizzoli, 1987. *Rounding, Virginia. ''Grandes Horizontales: The Lives and Legends of Four Nineteenth-Century Courtesans''. London: Bloomsbury, 2003. ==Other websites== *[http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255-s01/courtesans/defining-the-courtesan.htm Defining the Courtesan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814120758/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255-s01/courtesans/defining