Prostitution, jeunesse et société dans les villes du Sud-Est au XVe siècle

Prostitution, flourishing and official, sexual violence in the form of collective rapes committed by young men of the town, such were the two apparently contradictory phenomena which affected urban life in south eastern France in the 15th century. The present study is an attempt to explain such behavior by an analysis of the matrimonial structures : middle-aged men, successful rivals of the younger men on the marriage market, provided the latter with municipally controlled fornication the sexual needs of fellow bachelors were well understood). They accepted and supervised the noisy but socialized functions of the young men's fraternities. Thus, until the beginning of the 16th century, prostitutes were not excluded from society : they acted as mediators for clerics as well as for persons of distinction, bearing witness to humanity's sad condition but helping in the fight against vice and violenceRossiaud Jacques. Prostitution, jeunesse et société dans les villes du Sud-Est au XVe siècle. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 31ᵉ année, N. 2, 1976. pp. 289-325