Women prosecuted for the crime of clandestine prostitution (1479-1518)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:20 +0000

In the 15th century, the city of Valencia was a commercial emporium and a cosmopolitan location in the Mediterranean. The commercial boom of the city, accentuated in the 15th century, also implied an increase in social and economic inequalities and therefore an increase in the population on the threshold of misery. Prostitution also obeyed these general dynamics of misery, but also an opportunity for enrichment, given that the city was a continuous flow of travellers and merchandise, as Pablo Pérez García says. Prostitution was regulated by the kings of the Crown of Aragon, creating an institutionalised building, the brothel, which was under the authority of the cities. For the study of prostitution in Valencia, we have the Llibres de Cédules and the accounting books of the urban court. However, these sources have a number of problems, such as their preservation and the lack of precision of the actors in question (Pablo Pérez García). The practice of prostitution outside the legal channels was punishable and in this sense, records are kept of women who had problems with the justice system, where they were often fined and even imprisoned. The social profile of these women who practised clandestine prostitution, according to Pablo Pérez García, was that of single/widowed women who carried out other secondary jobs such as maids, seamstresses, maids, etc.

The post Women prosecuted for the crime of clandestine prostitution (1479-1518) first appeared on History Lab.

Surveillance of sexuality. The prison for adulteresses. Calle de Atocha, 87 (Madrid)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:41 +0000

The video, 4.33 minutes long, is part of “Madrid, Ciudad de las Mujeres”, a cultural and touristic application where the traces of women in the city of Madrid are recovered http://madridciudaddelasmujeres.es/. As the video recounts, the galleys and hospices of Madrid have, since the beginning of modern times, been a place of reclusion and torture for a whole series of women who did not comply with the established rules. These included poor women, “rogues”, “fortune tellers”, prostitutes and adulteresses. As we entered the 18th century and under enlightened and charitable precepts, the quality and diversity of places of confinement for women diversified, with houses of seclusion and repentance where many women who practised prostitution would end up apart from society and subjected to a regime of beatitudes. Touched, veiled and living under a strict rule that they would only leave to get married or take religious vows. They were also places of confinement for a wide variety of petty crimes such as stealing clothes or vagrancy, and moral offences such as adultery or the highly punishable female adultery. A hospice was founded in the building at Calle de Atocha, 97, in Madrid, which also housed the Colegio de San Nicolás de Bari at the beginning of the 18th century, an institution for women who, “forgetful of their honour or conjugal fidelity, incurred in some crime of impurity”. The video tells the story of some of these condemned women.

The post Surveillance of sexuality. The prison for adulteresses. Calle de Atocha, 87 (Madrid) first appeared on History Lab.

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Women prosecuted for the crime of clandestine prostitution (1479-1518)

Surveillance of sexuality. The prison for adulteresses. Calle de Atocha, 87 (Madrid)