iP Prostitution in Medieval Society Women in Culture and Society A Series Edited by Catharine R. Stimpson Prostitution in Medieval Society The Hi.Jtory ofan Urban Indtitutinn in Languedoc ~ Leah Lydia Otis The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London LEAH LYDIA OTIS currently lectures in economic history at the University of Montpellier I, and in southern French history and civilization for the University of Minnesota's Montpellier Program. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1985 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1985 Printed in the United States of America 94 93 92 91 90 89 88 87 86 85 54321 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Otis, Leah Lydia. Prostitution in medieval society. (Women in culture and society) An adaptation of the author's thesis (Ph.D.)-Columbia University, 1980. Bibliography: p. Includes index. I. Prostitution-Europe-History. 2. Social history­ Medieval, 500-1500. 3. Prostitution-France-Languedoc­ History. I. Title. II. Series. HQ184·A5085 1985 306·7'4'094 84- 161 84 ISBN 0-226-64032-9 To my brother, and to the memory ofour mother andfather II faut que l'histoire cesse de vous apparaitre comme une necropole endormie, ou passent seules des ombres depouillees de substance. II faut que dans Ie vieux palais silencieux ou elle sommeille, vous penetriez, tout anirnes de la lutte, tout couverts de Ia poussiere du combat, du sang coagule du rnonstre vaincu-et qu'ouvrant les fenetres toutes grandes, ranirnant les lurnieres et rappelant Ie bruit, vous reveilliez de votre vie avous, de votre vie chaude et jeune, la vie glacee de la Princesse endormie. Lucien Febvre, Combats pour l' histoire ~ Contents Foreword by Catharine R. Stimpson ix Preface xi Abbreviations xv Approximate Money Equivalences xvii Introduction Part One: Prostitution and Public Authority: An Evolution Prologue to Part One: Toward a Chronology of Medieval Prostitution 9 I. The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: Prostitution Accepted 15 2. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: Prostitution Institutionalized 25 Epilogue to Part One: The Sixteenth Century: The Institution Dismantled 40 Part Two: Structures and Dynamics of Institutionalized Prostitution Prologue to Part Two: The Language of Prostitution 49 3. Public Houses: Physical Plant, Ownership, and Exploitation 5 I 4. Public Women: Geographical Origins; Economic, Legal, and Social Status; and the Problem of Repentance/Retirement 63 5. Controlling the System: "Police" of Prostitution and "Government" of Houses 77 6. Eliminating Competition: The Prosecution of Procurers, Illicit Prostitutes, and Keepers of Illegal Houses 89 Epilogue to Part Two: Institutionalized Prostitution: Demography, Public Utility, and Sexual Morality 100 Conclusions and Perspectives III vii Contents Appendix A: Published Documents 115 Appendix B: Lists of Prostitutes 131 Appendix C: Brothel Farms and Farmers 135 Appendix D: Graphs of Brothel Farm Prices 141 Appendix E: Easter Week Expenses, AM Toulouse 147 Map I: The Word Postribulum in Archival Documents in Languedoc 149 Map 2: Privately and Publicly Owned Brothels in Languedoc 150 Illustration 15 1 Notes 153 Essay on Bibliography and Sources 21 7 Manuscript Sources 223 Bibliography 227 Index 233 viii ~ Foreword Prostitution in Medieval Society, a monograph about Languedoc between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, is also much more than that: it is a compelling narrative about the social construction of sexuality. Leah Lydia Otis uses the implements of scholarship to reveal profound changes in prostitution, that trade in women's bodies. At first more or less tolerated, prostitution later became institutionalized. Various authorities sought to regulate, and to profit from, brothels. In so doing, such powers dis­ tinguished legal houses from illegal competition. Arguments against competi­ tion became models for a more general assault on prostitution that character­ ized a third stage: active repression by an increasingly misogynistic sixteenth century. During this period the prostitute became the marginal, criminal fig­ ure that haunts the modern imagination. Dr. Otis reminds us of the limits of her evidence. Preferring silence to heedless speculation, she judiciously refuses to say more than the leavings of history permit her to say. Her archives are too mute to give us more than shad­ owy outlines of the prostitutes themselves. "Property," she writes, "in this case was far better documented than people." Despite this, Prostitution in Medieval Society weaves the history of women with the histories of several vast phenomena: sexuality; the growth of urban economies; the contest among municipal, state, and religious authorities for the power to define public morality and order; and the struggle within Christi­ anity between Catholicism and an emerging Protestantism. Although this story of the prostitute can be little more than an outline, it is bold enough, in its telling here, to picture that of early modern history itself. Catharine R. Stimpson ix ~ Preface This book is an adaptation of a doctoral thesis in medieval history presented at Columbia University in 1980. It was originally conceived in 1975, first as an article, then-at the urging of my friend Daniele Neirinck, who knew well the archival potential involved-as a thesis. The book, like the thesis, has a dual orientation. It is both a regional study of medieval prostitution and an attempt to place this regional example in the context of the development of prostitution in western Europe as a whole. As the regional study is based on original archival research, the "case history" of Languedocian prostitution forms the nucleus of the book. The comparative material, gleaned largely from bibliographical research, assumes a secondary role, complementing, confirming, or qualifying the regional study. Hence, a word of advice to the general reader; You may wish to keep an eye on the notes. Although they often contain scholarly apparatus for the use of specialists, many are devoted to comparing Languedocian prostitution with its Italian, German, and English counterparts and are therefore of as much potential interest to the general reader as is the text itself. A second caveat may be added for nonmedievalists. Some of the chapters, especially those dealing with the earlier centuries, proceed by a careful analy­ sis of a series of individual documents, conclusions and generalizations being kept to a minimum. This method has been adopted not out of love of pedantry but out of the concern not to deform, by "filling in the blanks" between exist­ ing documents, what little we know of the truth-and our knowledge is lim­ ited indeed. Errors in past studies of the history of prostitution have often been due to a rather too wild extrapolation from one or two documents. Hy­ potheses are presented in this book, but always cautiously, with the awareness xi Preface that they are subject to confirmation or invalidation in the light of future re­ gional studies. This process is sometimes a flustrating one, for author as well as reader, but it is the only valid approach in a domain suffering from scant documentation, where the discovery ofjust one new document can lay to rest even the most plausible and seductive of theories. To the medievalist, I should like to specify that all translations of original texts are mine unless otherwise indicated. From you I must beg indulgence for any lacunae you may discover. This book was written entirely in France, and I have not always been able to consult the best critical edition of the non­ Languedocian texts cited and may well be ignorant of some recent relevant article in an English-language periodical. Vocabulary is often a stumbling block for writers on prostitution; one can­ not use a varied and colorful vocabulary without employing terms generally considered to be vulgar or, from the point of view of the prostitute, insulting. If the words used in this book are measured and neutral, it is not only to avoid a pejorative connotation, however, but also to reflect the vocabulary used in medieval legislative and administrative texts; hence, public ~vomell and pub­ lic house are used frequently, not out of prudery but because they are direct translations of medieval Latin, Occitanian, and French terms. Prostitute is usually a more appropriate translation of meretrix than whore; lvhore, on the other hand, is probably the best translation of bagassa, putain, garce, and other pejorative epithets used in the late Middle Ages. Similarly, when I use the term "honest" women to refer to nonprostitutes, I do not intend to imply that prostitutes are dishonest, nor to indicate skepticism, via quotation marks, about the honesty of nonprostitutes, but simply to render the term used in me­ dieval texts, more evocative and less cumbersome than any contemporary cir­ cumlocutional equivalent. Indispensable to the realization of this book were the efforts of many people-professors, colleagues, archivists, librarians, and others-whom I thank collectively for their contribution. I am particularly grateful to Professor Andre Gouron, who made it possible for me to research and write this essay during an extended stay in France as a lecturer at the Faculte de Droit de Montpellier and its branch campus in Nimes, and to the municipality of Nimes for its generosity. Special thanks go to MIle Galceran and Mme Siraudin of the Inter-Library Loan Service in Montpellier for procuring much of the bibliography and to Barbara Beckerman Davis, who provided an indispensable lifeline with the archives of Toulouse. I am also grateful to Ian Dengler, to Professors Jean­ Marie Carbasse, Michel Lacave, and Kathryn Reyerson, and to Alison Klair­ mont Lingo for sharing their knowledge and advice with me; to Gerry Moran for his wise counsel and moral support; and to my husband, Patrice Cour, who provided a confidence and enthusiasm that I myself often lacked. xii Preface Some contributions are nonetheless important for having been indirect.