[2] Franco received a respectable humanistic education at a young age from her brother's tutor, an unusual opportunity for Venetian women.

[4] Franco learned additional skills from her mother, Paola Fracassa, who had an interest in finding suitable clients for her, as well as marrying her off.

[6] In 1565, when she was about 20 years old, Veronica Franco was listed in the Catalogo de tutte le principal et più honorate cortigiane di Venetia (Catalog of all the Principal and most Honored Courtesans of Venice), which gave the names, addresses, and fees of Venice's most prominent prostitutes; her mother was listed as the person to whom the fee should be paid (her "go-between").

[7] From extant records, we know that, by the time she was 18, Franco had been briefly married and had given birth to her first child; she would eventually have six children, three of whom died in infancy.

[8] As one of the più honorate cortigiane in a wealthy and cosmopolitan city, Franco lived well for much of her working life, but without the automatic protection accorded to "respectable" women, she had to make her own way.

[9][10] In 1575, during the epidemic of plague that ravaged the city, Franco was forced to leave Venice and lost much of her wealth when her house and possessions were looted.

[8] In 1575, Franco's first volume of poetry was published, her Terze rime, containing 18 capitoli (verse epistles) by her and 7 by men writing in her praise.

In the 1974 film "Sex Through the Ages" (originally titled "On the Game"), Louise Pajo played the part of Veronica Franca, a 16th century Venetian prostitute.

[11] Catherine McCormack portrayed Veronica Franco in the 1998 movie Dangerous Beauty, released as A Destiny of Her Own in some countries, based on Rosenthal's book.

"[14] Franco's literary work demonstrates her ability to defend women, as a whole, in a format that can be studied and understood as ahead of her time.

[15] In 2013, her work was interpreted as adopting "a position of public authority that calls attention to her education, her rhetorical skill, and the solidarity she feels with women.