engleski

Prostitutes and urban communities of medieval Slavonia

The paper tries to give insight into position of prostitutes in the urban settlements of medieval Slavonia (present-day north-western Croatia), which was a part of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. My research primarily focuses on the free royal city of Gradec (part of Zagreb), because the source material for it is more abundant and diversified than for the other settlements in this area. In the first place, I have approached my subject by analyzing the judicial records, but I have also taken into account the other written sources that reflect the everyday life (i.e. city protocols, property documents). I try to answer on the following questions: from which social group prostitutes came, which were possible reasons for becoming a prostitute, was prostitution for the women in question a main profession or just an additional source of income, were prostitutes involved in the other types of criminal activity, in which way prostitution were organized, were there brothels and if yes, in which part of the city they were situated, what we know about their customers. The attitude of the urban community towards prostitutes, as well as punishments for prostitution are analyzed. In order to get clearer picture the judicial practice and legal regulations are compared. The sources show that prostitution has been punished by severe punishments, but often there were also pardons or minimising of punishments, as well as that in the eyes of the urban community it was worse to be a procuress than to be a prostitute.

prostitutes, urban settlements, medieval Slavonia

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