It is commonly known that in the courts of Europe, particularly Versailles and Whitehall in the 17th and 18th centuries, the wealthy and powerful men kept a mistress. Alexander VI is just one example of a Pope who kept mistresses. A king might hold numerous mistresses but have a single "favourite mistress" or "official mistress" (in French, "maîtresse en titre"), as with Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour.
Less known is that the wealthy women of the 18th- and 19th-century Italy, had their own "open secret." The cicisbeo was the companion of a married woman who attended her at public entertainments, to church, and other occasions and had other "privileges." This arrangement, called the cicisbeatura or cicisbeismo, was widely practiced, with knowledge and consent of the husband, especially among the nobility of the cities of Genoa, Nice, Venice, Florence and Rome.
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