They were beautiful, they were fashionable, they were influential, and out of sheer necessity,

most of them were skilled, shrewd, entrepreneurial business women who took what they had and

created lives of extraordinary wealth and power at a time when roles of more, shall we say,

proper women were extremely limited.

They were painted by the greatest artists from Caravaggio in the Renaissance to Manet and Descartes in the Bel-Epoch.

Writers from Amil Zola to Marcel Pust captured their mystery, allure, and intrigue.

And composer Giuseppe Verdi wrote one of his most famous and enduring operas based on one of them.

They were the great courtesans of 19th century Paris, and they've all now disappeared.

But just what really was a cortisone, and just who were they?

The most famous had beauty in style that seduced not only men, but the press,

and were emulated by all levels of society.

But they often had a trail of scandal and hidden sadness trailing behind their

satin gowns and concealed behind their peacock feather fans.

Cortisans were among societies accepted businesswomen, so to speak.

And just to be clear here, we are really talking, in one way or another, about the world's

oldest profession.

But the courtesans were much more than rough ladies of the streets.

In fact, they were not that at all.

Although for some, it was the squalor and the danger of the sidewalks and alleys from which

they rose to their towering notoriety and fame.

Nor were they merely mistresses or kept women.

The benefactors, patrons, lovers, or protectors, however one chooses to call their clients,

...