Here are some resources on the various areas and types of historical sex work. I suggest picking one area that interests you as it can be a bit overwhelming. These resources were collected by the Knowne World Courtesans.

Photography by Antonia Reeve
(Creative Commons – CC by NC)
English
Before Pornography: Erotic Writing in Early Modern England
by Ian Frederick Moulton
New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England
by Ruth Mazo Karras
New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Kyd and the Courtesan
by Duncan Salkeld
Citation: Notes and Queries [Great Britain] 2000 47(1): 43-48.
Abstract: Considers the innovatory nature of Thomas Kyd’s play The Spanish Tragedy (ca. 1590), in particular the character of its heroine, Bel-imperia, who was modeled on the Italian courtesan Lucrezia Cognati (1481-1512), who was also called Imperia.
Regulation of Brothels in Later Medieval England, The
by Ruth Mazo Karras
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Working Together in the Middle Ages: Perspectives on Women’s Communities 14.2. Winter 1989: 399-433.
Sex Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, The: An Irreverent Exposé of the Monarchs from Henry VIII to the Present Day
by Nigel Cawthorne
London: Prion 1994.
Sing Againe Syren: The Female Musician and Sexual Enchantment in Elizabethan Life and Literature
by Linda Phyllis Austern
Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 3. (Autumn, 1989), pp. 420-448.
Flemish
Some Flemish Popular Prints from Hieronymus Cock and His Contemporaries
by Walter S. Gibson
The Art Bulletin, Vol. 60, No. 4. (Dec., 1978), pp. 673-681.
French
Institution of the Royal Mistress and the Iconography of Nude Portraiture in Sixteenth Century France, The
by Ann Rose Plogsterth
Citation: DAI 1992 53(1): 4-A. DA9202728
Publication: Columbia U. 1991. 572 pp.
Period: 16c.
German
Ladies’ Tournament, The: Marriage, Sex, and Honor in Thirteenth-Century Germany
by Sarah Westphal-Wihl
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Working Together in the Middle Ages: Perspectives on Women’s Communities 14.2 Winter 1989: 371-398.
Italian Renaissance
Academy of Domenico Venier, Music’s Literary Muse in Mid-Cinquecento Venice, The
by Martha Feldman
Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 3. (Autumn, 1991), pp. 476-512.
Agnolo Firenzuola on Female Sexuality and Women’s Equality
by Jacqueline Murray
Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2. (Summer, 1991), pp. 199-213.
Abstract: In the dialogue Delle bellezze delle donne (Florence, 1548) Agnolo Firenzuola develops a discussion of human nature and human sexuality based on Plato’s Symposium. Firenzuola proposes a philosophy of sexual equality that far exceeds the beliefs of many of his fellow humanists and his explicit assertion of the equality of men and women serves to highlight the rather conventional opinions of more prominent humanist commentators. Given the popular audience for which Firenzuola wrote, it may be that this view was more widely accepted at this level of society than in the courtly societies frequented by many other humanists.
Alessandro Farnese, Giovanni della Casa and Titian’s Danae in Naples
by Roberto Zapperi
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 54. (1991), pp. 159-171.
Ambiguous Artists: Music-Making among Italian Renaissance Courtesans (with Particular Reference to Tullia of Aragon, Gaspara Stampa, and Veronica Franco)
by Sheila Schonbrun
Citation: DAI 1999 59(9): 3281-A. DA9908360 Publication: City U. of New York 1998. 258 pp.
Art and Life in Renaissance Venice
by Patricia Fortini Brown
Prentice Hall (1997)
Aspiring Saints: Pretense of Holiness, Inquisition and Gender in the Republic of Venice 1618-1750
by Anne Jacobson Schutte
John Hopkins University Press (2000)
Boundaries of Eros, The: Sex Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice (Studies in the History of Sexuality)
by Guido Ruggiero
New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
ISBN: 0195056965
Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist (Other Voice in Early Modern Europe)
by Laura Cereta (Author), Diana Robin (Editor)
Publisher: University of Chicago Press; (May 1997)
ISBN: 0226100138
Convents and the Body Politic in Renaissance Venice (Women in Culture and Society)
by Jutta Gisela Sperling
Publisher: University of Chicago Press; (January 2000)
ISBN: 0226769364
Courtesan in Art, The: Historical Fact or Modern Fantasy?
by Carol M. Schuler
Citation: Women’s Studies [Great Britain] 1991 19(2): 209-222.
Abstract: Discusses the often dubious identification by art scholars of women portrayed in several Italian Renaissance paintings as courtesans, and the difficulty of determining the realism of such portraits that partake of a tradition of standardized erotic iconography.
Period: 16c-17c.
Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance
by Georgina Masson
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975.
Danaë: the Renaissance Courtesan’s Alter Ego
by Cathy Santore
Citation: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte [Germany] 1991 54(3): 412-427.
Abstract: Renaissance paintings and illustrations of the mythological Danaë reflect the progression of Danaë’s image since antiquity and the contemporary status of courtesans. While medieval images of Danaë ranged from a prefiguration of the Virgin Mary to a greedy prostitute, images of Danaë in the Renaissance, while frequently suggesting pecuniary morals, did so without excessive condemnation.
Documentation: 46 notes. Period: 15c-16c.
Discourse to Lady Lavina His Daughter
by Annibal Guasco
University of Chicago Press (2003)
Education of Italian Renaissance Women
by Melinda K. Blade
Ide House Inc. (1983)
Florentine Onesta and the Control of Prostitution, 1403-1680, The
by John K. Brackett
Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2. (Summer, 1993), pp. 273-300.
Abstract: This article examines the structure and operation of the Onesta (Office of Decency) from its inception in 1403 in Florence to its absorption by the city’s chief criminal court in 1680. The Office was created ostensibly to control prostitution but ultimately became more interested in exploiting prostitutes to support the convent of the Convertite, established paradoxically as a refuge for repentant single prostitutes. The Office failed because of resistance to the process of registration, which conferred a particular negative public identity on women designated as prostitutes and, by the sixteenth century, on some of their powerful clients.
Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence
by Gene Brucker
University of California Press (2005)
Honest Courtesan, The
by Margaret Rosenthal
Publisher: University of Chicago Press; 1 edition (February 1, 1993)
ISBN-10: 0226728129
How to Do It: Guide to Good Living for Renaissance Italians
by Rudolph M. Bell
The University of Chicago Press (1999)
I Modi: The Sixteen Pleasures
by Lynn Lawner
Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1988.
Il bel sesso, e l’austero Senato: The Coronation of Dogaressa Morosina Morosini Grimani
by Bronwen Wilson
Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 1. (Spring, 1999), pp. 73-139.
In the Flower of Their Youth: “Portraits” of Venetian Beauties ca. 1500
by Brian D. Steele
Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2. (Summer, 1997), pp. 481-502
Julia Lombardo, “Somtuosa Meretrize”: a Portrait by Property
by Cathy Santore
Citation: Renaissance Quarterly 1988 41(1): 44-83.
Abstract: Examines the life and times of Julia Lombardo, a 16th-century Venetian courtesan, by analyzing the inventories of her possessions.
Documentation: 65 notes, 3 appendixes.
Kyd and the Courtesan
by Duncan Salkeld
Citation: Notes and Queries [Great Britain] 2000 47(1): 43-48.
Abstract: Considers the innovatory nature of Thomas Kyd’s play The Spanish Tragedy (ca. 1590), in particular the character of its heroine, Bel-imperia, who was modeled on the Italian courtesan Lucrezia Cognati (1481-1512), who was also called Imperia.
La Bella, the Painted Venetian Beauty in Renaissance Art and Society
by Cathy Santore
Citation: DAI 1991 51(12): 3931-A. DA9113044
Publication: New York U. 1990. 542 pp.
Period: ca 16c.
Le ‘Rime’ e le ‘Lettere’ di Veronica Franco, Cortigiana Veneziana
by Marcella Diberti-Leigh
Transl/Info: [The poetry and letters of Veronica Franco, a Venetian courtesan].
Citation: DAI 1989 49(8): 2241-A. DA8821490
Publication: U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 1987. 295 pp.
Language: Italian
Period: 16c.
Les Courtisanes de Montaigne
by Nerina Clerici Balmas
Transl/Info: [Montaigne’s courtesans].
Citation: Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 1995 25(3): 501-509.
Abstract: In both his Essays (1572-88) and his Journal de Voyage, which recounts his European travels of 1580-81, Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) discussed courtesans within the context of his reflection on pleasure. He noted two courtesans of antiquity, Laïs and Flora, who served to present his own views. He also described Venetian, Roman, and Florentine courtesans whom he met as part of his continual, but detached, interest in human nature.
Documentation: Based on Montaigne’s writings and secondary sources; 30 notes.
Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice, The
by Joanne M. Ferraro
Oxford University Press (2001)
Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men, The
by Lucrezia Marinella
University of Chicago Press, (1999)
On Beautiful Women, Parmigianino, Petrarchismo, and the Vernacular Style
by Elizabeth Cropper
The Art Bulletin, Vol. 58, No. 3. (Sep., 1976), pp. 374-394.
Parental Tyranny
by Arcangela Tarabotti
University of Chicago Press (2004)
Ragionamenti, The: the lives of nuns, the lives of married women, the lives of courtesans
by Pietro Aretino
Publisher: Odyssey Press; (1970)
ASIN: 0850950309
Tools of Venus, The
by Cathy Santore
Citation: Renaissance Studies [Great Britain] 1997 11(3): 179-207.
Abstract: The women depicted primping in front of mirrors in Titian’s and other Venetian examples of the Lady at Her Toilet were actually courtesans. Often their tables were littered with combs, perfume, and cosmetic vases and jars, the “tools of Venus.” The article discusses these items, the symbolism of the mirror, and other recurring themes in numerous Renaissance paintings of women by Titian, Bordone, Palma Vecchio, Licinio, and Giovanni Bellini.
Documentation: 20 fig., 76 notes.
Veronica Franco, Courtesan and Poet
by Dacia Mariani, J. Douglas Campbell (Translator), Leonard G. Sbrocchi (Translator)
Publisher: Legas; (January 2003)
ISBN: 189450822X
Veronica Franco: Poems and Selected Letters
Edited and Translated by Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal
University of Chicago Press (1998)
Veronica Franco’s Terze Rime: the Venetian Courtesan’s Defense
by Margaret F. Rosenthal
Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 2. (Summer, 1989), pp. 227-257.
Virgins of Venice: Broken Vows and Cloistered Lives in the Renaissance Convent
by Mary Laven
Publisher: Viking Press; 1st American Edition edition (March 10, 2003)
ISBN: 0670031836
Women and Men in Renaissance Venice: Twelve Essays on Patrician Society
by Stanley Chojnacki
Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr; (April 2000)
ISBN: 0801863953
Women in the Streets: Essays on Sex and Power in Renaissance Italy
by Samuel K. Cohn Jr
Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr; (December 1996)
ISBN: 0801853095
Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans
by Laura Anna Stortoni (Editor), Mary Prentice Lillie (Editor)
Publisher: Italica Press, Inc.; (June 1997)
ISBN: 0934977437
Working Women in Early Modern Venice
by Monica Chojnacka
The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, No 118, Pt 3
Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr; (March 2001)
ISBN: 0801864852
Worth of Women, The: Wherein Is Clearly Revealed Their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men
by Moderata Fonte
University of Chicago Press; 1 edition (August 18, 1997)
Roman
Les Courtisanes de Montaigne
by Nerina Clerici Balmas
Transl/Info: [Montaigne’s courtesans].
Citation: Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 1995 25(3): 501-509.
Abstract: In both his Essays (1572-88) and his Journal de Voyage, which recounts his European travels of 1580-81, Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) discussed courtesans within the context of his reflection on pleasure. He noted two courtesans of antiquity, Laïs and Flora, who served to present his own views. He also described Venetian, Roman, and Florentine courtesans whom he met as part of his continual, but detached, interest in human nature.
Documentation: Based on Montaigne’s writings and secondary sources; 30 notes.
History
Beauty
Risqué Beauty: Beauty Secrets of History’s Most Notorious Courtesans
by Daniela Turudich
Publisher: Streamline Press; (January 2004)
ISBN: 1930064098
Contraception
Contraception: A History
by Robert Jütte
Publisher: Polity; 1 edition (May 12, 2008)
ISBN: 0745632718
Curious History of Contraception, The
by Shirley Green
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1971.
History of Contraception, A: From Antiquity to the Present Day
by Angus McLaren
Publisher: WileyBlackwell; New Ed edition (1992)
ISBN: 0631187294
Humble Little Condom, The: A History
by Aine Collier
Publisher: Prometheus Books (October 30, 2007)
ISBN: 1591025567
Courtesans
Book of the Courtesans, The: A Catalogue of Their Virtues
by Susan Griffin
Publisher: Broadway; (September 11, 2001) 288 pp.
ISBN: 0767904508
Period: 5c BC-20c.
Lives of the Courtesans: Portraits of the Renaissance
by Lynne Lawner
Publisher: Rizzoli; (May 1991) 224 pp.
ASIN: 084780738X
Period: 15c-17c.
Genitalia
Book of the Penis, The
by Maggie Paley
New York: Grove Press, 1999.
Medieval Vagina, The: An Historical and Hysterical Look at All Things Vaginal During the Middle Ages
by Karen L Harris & Lori Caskey-Sigety
U.S.A: Snark Publishing, 2014.
Mind of Its Own, A: A Cultural History of the Penis
by David M Friedman
New York: The Free Press, 2001.
LGBTQIAP+
Same-Sex Unions: In Premodern Europe
by John Boswell
New York: Villard Books, 1994.
Pornography
Erotica Universalis, Volume 1
by Gilles Néret
Germany: Taschen, 2000.
Pornography: The Secret History of Civilization
by Isabel Tang
London: Channel 4 Books, 1999.
Satan in the Groin: Exhibitionist Carvings in Medieval Churches
by Anthony Weir
Secret Museum, The: Pornography in Modern Culture
by Walter Kendrick
Berkley: University of California Press, 1987.
Sex Work
Harlots, Whores & Hookers: A History of Prostitution
by Hilary Evans
New York: Taplinger Pub., 1979.
Love for Sale: a World History of Prostitution
by Johan Nil Ringdal
Denmark. Grove Press, 2004.
Medieval Prostitution
by Jacques Rossiaud
New York, New York: Blackwell, 1988.
Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World
by Christopher A. Faraone (Author, Editor), Laura K. McClure (Editor)
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (February 6, 2006)
ASIN: B005UXTI0U
Prostitutes in History: From Parables of Pornography to Metaphors of Modernity
by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
The American Historical Review, Vol. 104, No. 1. (Feb., 1999), pp. 117-141.
Prostitution in Medieval Society: The History of an Urban Institution in Languedoc
by Leah L. Otis-Cour
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Sexuality
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality, and the Catholic Church
by Uta Ranke-Heineman
New York: Doubleday, 1927.
Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, science and culture
by Joan Cadden
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Sex & Gender in Historical Perspective: Selections From Quaderni Storici
by Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero, eds.
Trans. Margaret A. Gallucci with Mary M. Gallucci and Corle C. Gallucci.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire
by Eric Berkowitz
Berkley, California; Counterpoint Press, 2012.
Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others
by Ruth Mazo Karras
New York: Routledge, 2005.
Technology of Orgasm, The: “Histeria,” the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction
by Rachel P. Maines
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
Women
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality, and the Catholic Church
by Uta Ranke-Heineman
New York: Doubleday, 1927.
History of Their Own, A: Women in Europe From Prehistory to the Present, v1
by Bonnie S. Anderson and Judity P. Zinsser
New York: Harper and Row, 1988.
Women at Work in Medieval Europe
by Madeleine Pelner Cosman
New York: Facts on File, 2000.
Women’s Medical Practice and Health Care in Medieval Europe
by Monica Green
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Working Together in the Middle Ages: Perspectives on Women’s Communities 14.2. Winter 1989: 434-473.
Cultures
Greek Courtesans (Hetairae)
- Courtesans in Ancient Rome – slideshow
- Hetaira entry – Encyclopaedia Romana
- Hetaira entry – Wikipedia
- How Phyllis (Alexander’s Mistress) outwitted Artistotle: story, art
- Mimes of the Courtesans
- Pallakae entry – Wikipedia
- Prostitution in ancient Greece entry – Wikipedia
- Symposium by Plato – ebook
- Women in Classical Athens – essay
Indian Courtesans (Ganika)
- Docu-drama “The Courtesans of Bombay” made by Merchant Ivory (1983). This scene shows a performance by one of the best women in the building performing traditional Kathak
- Kama Sutra entry – Wikipedia
- Karene Jade – Kama Sutra: Eastern Philosophy of Art & Love
- Lalita Dasa (SCA Persona)’s site
Italian Courtesans (Cortigiane)
- Bella Donna Courtesans (performers)
- Chopines: Renaissance platform shoes popularly worn in Venice by both courtesans and patrician women
- Dyes, Diets and Deodorants: Venetian Beauty Secrets Revealed
- The Female Condition in Venice Through the Centuries (archived)
- Franco, Veronica (1546-1591), Venetian Courtesan Poet
- Life Imitates Myth: The Renaissance Cortigiana by Giata Magdalena Alberti
- Tullia d’Aragona – Sunshine for Women (archived)
- Venetian Chopines: Material culture keys to understanding similarities and differences between China and Venice, noble women and courtesans [abridged version]
- Veronica Franco – biography at The Honest Courtesan (blog)
- Veronica Franco and First Wave Feminism: Reaching From the Past, Building Towards the Future
- Veronica Franco and Venetian Courtesans
Japanese Courtesans (Geisha, Oiran, Tayu)
- Geta entry – Wikipedia – footwear worn by Oiran
- Oiran entry – Wikipedia
- Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha
- Heian Era Courtesan @ The Rebirth of the Tale of Genji Costume Museum Website
- The Kamakura Period -The Azuchi -Momoyama Period Courtesan @ The Rebirth of the Tale of Genji Costume Museum Website
Korean Courtesans (Kisaeng)
Middle Eastern Courtesans (Almeh, Odalisque)
- Harem: the Favourites
- Structure of the Ottoman Harem and Personal Recollections of Life in the Harem of Sultan Abdülhamid II
Roman Courtesans (Meretrices)
History
Contraception
- Contraceptive or protective? The slow rise of the condom
- History of Contraception – Global Library of Women’s Medicine
- The history of the condom – Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine