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Catterina Vizzani
(1718 - 16 June 1743) Italy

Catterina Vizzani

Retainer

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Vizzani was born in Rome, the daughter of a carpenter. At the age of 14, she fell in love with - and her sentiments were reciprocated by - Malgherita, a girl to whom she went each day to learn embroidery. Already she liked to dress in men's clothing, which also allowed her to pay court to her beloved at night by standing under her window.

The relationship between the two girls lasted more than two years, until Malgherita's father confronted Vizzani and threatened to denounce her to the courts. Vizzani thereupon decided to move to Viterbo and definitively take on men's dress and identity, under the name of Giovanni Bordoni.

Catterina VizzaniForced to return to Rome because of lack of money, she found work as a (male) retainer for a vicar in Perugia through the intermediary of a priest whom she had met near a Roman church. The vicar declared himself completely satisfied with the services of "Giovanni" except for one thing for which he always reprimanded "him": Giovanni ran after women too much.

Vizzani's cross-dressing extended to wearing an artificial leather penis; claims of a venereal disease were used to justify to washerwomen the stains for menstrual blood on her clothing.

Giovanni's reputation as a great seducer spread rapidly. After the "dissolute retainer" received a serious wound from a rival for one woman, the vicar decided to write to the Roman priest who had recommended Giovanni to him to complain about his intemperate behaviour. The priest spoke with Giovanni's father, Pietro Vizzani, and learned the truth, but decided to remain silent in order to protect the girl.

After three or four years, Vizzani left the vicar's employ and moved to Monte Pulciano, to the estate of Cavalier Francesco Maria Pucci. There she fell in love with the niece of the local priest; the girl was kept under strict surveillance by her uncle, but she found a way to escape and accept Giovanni's courtship, deciding to flee with her suitor to Rome, where Givanni promised to marry her.

But during the journey, Giovanny had a bad wound on a leg, that became infected and proved fatal. On her death-bed, Vizzani revealed her real sex to a nun and expressed a desire to be buried in women's clothes and garlanded as virgin.

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excerpts from: Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History, from Antiquity to WWII, Routledge, London, 2001

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