2024-03-26 11:55:20
Bolzano. Womanizer, all right. But Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) was much more than an unrepentant Don Juan. Venetian first of all, and in the 18th century it is not a detail: the Serenissima no longer has the political and military role of a couple of centuries earlier but maintains its cultural prestige, also thanks to other illustrious figures such as Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793). And then: man of letters (he wrote about forty works and in 1788 he published Icosameron, a novel that today we would consider science fiction), gambler, good foodie. Traveller: there are around a hundred cities that Casanova visits in Europe offering his very personal version of the Grand Tour. And he also knows how to tell his story. He does it, as an influencer ante litteram, in Histoire de ma vie, written in French because that language is more usable than his. Not just an autobiography (among the first in Europe): «Histoire is one of the most important historical sources of the 18th century», he underlines Alexander March the Great in Casanova, published by Laterza (319 pp., 20 euros), a robust biography, as well as a very enjoyable essay, which shows us the famous Venetian character in all his facets and strips the 18th century of its serious aura. Casanova’s is certainly the century of reason, but it can also be pleasure-loving and is imbued with a more playful love than that of subsequent centuries.
March Magno, is it like this or is there a risk of exaggerating?
«No, Casanova is one of the most interesting figures of the entire 18th century. He was also a decent mathematician and had such in-depth medical knowledge – we don’t know how he acquired it – that he was able to heal himself and others, for example saving his right hand which had been pierced by a bullet due to a duel that four doctors they wanted to amputate him. The aspect of the seducer, which undoubtedly exists in his memoirs, was emphasized in the nineteenth century to better sell his work.”
What character is Casanova?
«If we have to use just one word, the one that best describes him is: melancholic. Despite the glitter of an often brilliant life, led among the courts and aristocratic palaces of half of Europe, the character Casanova is imbued with sadness and melancholy. Throughout his life he pines for not being accepted into the social class of which he felt he belonged and with which he had intense acquaintances, namely the nobility. The person who understood this dimension more than anyone was Federico Fellini: in his cinematic transposition of Casanova’s life he outlines an extremely melancholy character.”
Casanova traveled extensively. Could a tourist guide be made from his travels?
«The Venetian visits over a hundred locations 213 times, as he returns to many places one or more times. He sees cities, castles, and many spa places which in Europe of the time constituted somewhat of a summer meeting place for good society. He talks about hotels, inns, some of which still exist today, such as the Hotel de Balances, in Geneva, today a modest two stars; but at the time it had been the place where the only true love of her life, the French Henriette, before leaving him forever she wrote with a diamond on a glass “You will also forget about Henriette”. But no, she will never forget it.”
His essay offers an interesting insight into the places where Casanova lived. Starting from Venice…
«Despite the fact that he lived there for a short time, his hometown is always present in the work of Casanova, who until the end of his days defined himself as “Venetian”. It is a libertine city, the one that Giacomo describes to us, where sex, both hetero and homo, was freely practiced, where the boundaries between prostitution and sex for pure pleasure were much more blurred than today, often non-existent. A city where there is a lot of gambling, like almost everywhere else in Europe at the time, but with a peculiarity: the Serenissima was the first to equip itself, as early as 1638, with a public gaming hall: the Ridotto, in fact the first example of a casino, closed in 1774, when Casanova returned to his hometown after eighteen years of forced absence caused by his escape from prison, the prison located in the attic of the Palazzo Ducale”.
2024-03-26 11:55:20