2023-07-31 09:02:37
“It was at the beginning of November that I formed the project of leaving by force a place where I was held by force: this thought became my only one”. On July 26, 1755, Giacomo Casanova was arrested by around forty archers and taken to the famous lead prison of Venice. At just 30 years old, the adventurer is not yet “the man with 122 conquests”, but he already leads a life of debauchery.
Son of a modest family of actors, the Venetian quickly abandoned his ecclesiastical career to travel across Europe, from Corfu to Paris, and as far as Constantinople. Already, his sulphurous reputation creates enmities in the Serenissima.
“Icy cold in winter, unbearable heat in summer”
“One fine day, he is arrested and does not really know why. He would have made blasphemous remarks, he wonders about his interest in the occult. Magic, impiety, licentiousness… certain noble families accuse him of having a bad influence on youth”, assures Jean-Christophe Igalens, lecturer in French literature (Sorbonne University). “At that time, the Venetian inquisition, a sort of omnipotent tribunal, could lock up almost anyone, without trial, for state security,” adds the author of Casanova. The writer in his fictions (Garnier Classics, 2011). The young man therefore finds himself put in irons in difficult conditions.
“It was a very harsh prison, because it was located in the attic of the Doge’s Palace. Under the leaden roofs, it is freezing cold in winter and unbearably hot in summer. In his first cell, Casanova can barely stand, has little light, and almost goes crazy,” says the researcher. This experience of the dungeon and his escape are recounted, in a probably fictionalized way, in his famous “Memoirs”, published after his death in 1822. Barely locked up, the adventurer assures us that he only has one idea left. head: to find his freedom. “Not having my mind occupied with any extraneous thought, I constantly fell back on that of my escape,” he wrote.
One fine day, he steals a “lock” during one of his daily outings and brings it back to his cell. He files it for days to make it sharp. Casanova also makes himself an oil lamp with a bowl and a steel buckle from his own belt. He can now dig a hole in the floor under his bed at night, lit by his makeshift lamp. But as it comes to an end, the unfortunate is finally changed cell. “I would have liked to be able to take away my beautiful hole, the object of so much trouble and lost hopes. I can say that on leaving this horrible place of pain, my soul remained there entirely,” laments Casanova, who has to start from scratch.
Hole dug and escape through the roofs
In his new dungeon, the libertine conceives a new escape plan with another prisoner, the monk Balbi. They exchange by letters hidden in books, under the nose and the beard of the jailer. Now heavily guarded, Casanova convinces his neighbor to dig a hole in the ceiling of his own cell, and another in the wall that separates them. He gives her his tool hidden in a bible and advises her to line the walls of her dungeon with icons of saints, stuck to the crumb of bread, to hide the progress of the work. All Saints’ Day is the day of the great departure. “We couldn’t see the moon anymore. I fastened half the ropes on one side to Father Balbi’s neck, and the bundle of his clothes on his other shoulder. I did the same on myself; and both of us in waistcoats, our hats on our heads, we went to the opening,” wrote Casanova.
“The two men escaped through the roofs but found themselves trapped there, and had to re-enter the Doge’s Palace through a small skylight. They make their way inside by breaking down several doors, are forced to spend the night there and wait for the early morning for us to open the doors, ”explains Jean-Christophe Igalens. The concierge, seeing Casanova through a window, finally frees the two fugitives, who clear off via Saint Mark’s Square and leave the city of the Doges in a gondola.
“This romantic escape arouses the curiosity of his contemporaries”
Casanova describes his relief at finding freedom after 15 months in prison. “I then looked behind me at the whole beautiful canal, [admirant] the first rays of a superb Sun coming out of the horizon, the two young barcarols rowing in forced vogue, and reflecting at the same time on the cruel night I had passed, at the place where I was in the previous day, and to all the combinations that were favorable to me […] I was sobbing, I was crying like a child being dragged to school”.
In exile, Casanova will then travel in the Europe of the Enlightenment for fifteen years, according to adventures and scandals. “Everywhere, he is asked to tell the episode aloud. This romantic escape aroused the curiosity of his contemporaries. He will use this story to attract attention, to captivate his audience, especially at the court in Paris. And that earned him fame, ”says Jean-Christophe Igalens. To the point of adding more? Wouldn’t he have been helped by outside support? “Historians agree that his escape story is credible, replies the specialist. This fascinating and mysterious episode will participate in the Casanova myth, in this image of the man who thirsts for freedom”.
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