History blog archive

Tag: Italy

  • A Sexual Tour of Venice: Mapping a Sixteenth-Century Catalogue of Courtesans

    A Sexual Tour of Venice: Mapping a Sixteenth-Century Catalogue of Courtesans

    By Hannah Johnston Sometime around 1565, a price-list of Venice’s cortigiane oneste, or “honest courtesans,” who served the city’s upper echelons, was published in Venice.[1] Titled Il catalogo di tutte le principali et più honorate cortigiane di Venezia (“The Catalogue of All the Principal and Most Honored Courtesans of Venice,” hereafter “the catalogue”), the catalogue…

  • A History of Argument: Teaching Students Critical Analysis

    A History of Argument: Teaching Students Critical Analysis

    By Andrew Struan Writing in 1808 when in office as President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson told his grandson: ‘I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument’. Continuing this line of thought in his letter, Jefferson explained that his fellow Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, was ‘the…