Bagnio is a loan word into several languages (from it, bagno). In English, French, and so on, it has developed varying meanings: typically a brothel, bath-house, or prison for slaves.

In reference to the Ottoman Empire

The origin of this sense seems to be a prison in

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

, built on former baths, or a prison for hostages near a bath-house in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

.''Definition of "bagnio" from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary''
Accessed 23 February 2015. Thereafter it was extended to all the slave quarters in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

and the Barbary regencies. The hostages of the

Barbary pirates The Barbary pirates, or Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. This area was known in Europe ...

slept in the prisons at night, leaving during the day to work as laborers, galley slaves, or domestic servants. The communication between master and slave and between slaves of different origins was made in a ''

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

'' known as ''Sabir'' or Mediterranean Lingua Franca, a Mediterranean

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...

language with Romance and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

vocabulary. The

Slaves' Prison The Slaves' Prison ( it, Bagni degli Schiavi, mt, Il-Ħabs tal-Iskjavi) officially known as the Grand Prison ( it, Gran Prigione; mt, il-Ħabs il-Kbir) and colloquially as the ''bagnio'', was a prison in Valletta, Malta. It was established in t ...

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, which was both a prison and a place where Muslim slaves slept at night, was known as the ''bagnio'' or ''bagno''.

In English

''Bagnio'' was a term for a

bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

or bath-house. In England, it was originally used to name

coffeehouse A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...

s that offered

Turkish baths A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited f ...

, but by 1740 it signified a boarding house where rooms could be hired with no questions asked, or a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub p ...

.article from Saint Cloud (Minnesota) Journal, Thursday June 24, 1869.

In French

''Bagne'' became the word for the prisons of the galley slaves in the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

; after galley service was abolished, the word continued to be used as a generic term for any hard labour prison. The last one in European France, the ''

Bagne de Toulon The Bagne of Toulon was the notorious prison in Toulon, France, made famous as the place of imprisonment of the fictional Jean Valjean, the hero of Victor Hugo's novel ''Les Misérables''. It was opened in 1748 and closed in 1873. Origins: t ...

'', was closed in 1873. The penal colony on

Devil's Island The penal colony of Cayenne (French: ''Bagne de Cayenne''), commonly known as Devil's Island (''Île du Diable''), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953 in the Salvation Island ...

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label= French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas ...

, which was not shut down until 1953, was also called a ''bagne'', and features in the famous bestseller '' Papillon''.

In fiction

''El trato de Argel'' (''Life in Algiers'', 1580), ''Los baños de Argel'' (''The Bagnios of Algiers'', 1615), ''El gallardo español'' (''The Gallard Spaniard'', 1615) and ''La gran sultana'' (''The Great Sultana'', 1615) were four comedies by Miguel de Cervantes about the life of the galley slaves, called "caitiffs". Cervantes himself had been imprisoned in

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...

(1575–1580). His novel '' Don Quixote'' also features a subplot with the story of a caitiff (chapters 39-41 of the first part). A bagnio, in reference to a

or boarding house, is mentioned in ''

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner ''The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself: With a detail of curious traditionary facts and other evidence by the editor'' is a novel by the Scottish author James Hogg, published anonymously in 1824. The p ...

'' (1824) by James Hogg as the location of a quarrel between two young

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

nobleman that precedes one of them being murdered and the other arrested for the crime. In ''

The Day of the Locust ''The Day of the Locust'' is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West set in Hollywood, California. The novel follows a young artist from the Yale School of Fine Arts named Tod Hackett, who has been hired by a Hollywood studio to do scen ...

'' (1939) by Nathanael West, Claude Estee's wife, Alice, says "Nothing like a good ''bagnio'' to set a fellow up." Frequent mention of a bagnio is made in ''

A Maggot ''A Maggot'' (1985) is a novel by British author John Fowles. It is Fowles' sixth major novel, following ''The Collector, The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Daniel Martin,'' and '' Mantissa.'' Its title, as the author explains in the ...

'' (1985) by John Fowles, set in 1736 and mainly written in the English of that time. In Fowles' novel, the term denotes a brothel, specifically the one run by 'Mistress Claiborne'.

References

Bibliography

*
"Bagnio"
in Chamber's ''Cyclopaedia'', 1728 {{Authority control Ottoman baths Defunct prisons in Turkey History of slavery Types of coffeehouses and cafés Slave cabins and quarters Slavery in the Ottoman Empire