A Venetian Affair
Page 34
Chapter One
Gianfranco Torcellan, Una figura della Venezia settecentesca: Andrea Memmo (Venice: 1963), 23 and n. 2. In 1740 the Memmos’ income had been 10,000 ducats a year, according to the official census of that year. See Georgelin, Venise au siècle des lumières, 521.
Marco Foscarini, Della letteratura veneziana, vol. 1 (Padua: 1752), 258, n. 99.
Elogio di Andrea Memmo Cavalier Procuratore di S. Marco (Venice: 1793), 5–6.
Andrea Memmo, Elementi dell’architettura Lodoliana (Zara: Battara, 1833), 77–78.
Pierre Jean Grosley, Nouveaux Mémoires ou observations sur l’Italie et sur les italiens, vol. 2 (London: Jean Nourse, 1764), 10.
Carlo Goldoni, Il filosofo inglese, in Opere, vol. 5 (Milan: Mondadori, 1959), 261.
Smith entered into negotiations with the Crown during the last years of King George II’s reign. But it was not until after King George III’s accession to the throne in 1760 that the talks accelerated. The deal was finally sealed in 1763. Smith’s paintings and drawings became the cornerstone of the Windsor collection, and the Bibliotheca Smithiana is part of the Royal Library at the British Museum. On the sale of Consul Smith’s collection to George III, see in particular Frances Vivian, Il Console Smith, mercante e collezionista (Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 1971), 69–93; Francis Haskell, Patrons and Painters, Art and Society in Baroque Italy (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1980), 310; Anthony Blunt and Edward Croft-Murray, Venetian Drawings of the XVII and XVIII Centuries in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle (London: Phaidon Press, 1957).
Quoted in Torcellan, Una figura, p. 42. For a more detailed description of Andrea’s ideas about the theater and his admiration for French culture and language, see his report “Storia della Deputazione Straordinaria alle Arti” in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia, “Inquisitorato alle arti,” envelope 2, bundle 4, 33–36.
From Goldoni’s dedication to Andrea in L’Uomo di mondo, previously published in Opere, vol. 1, 777–778.
“Appunti sul Giovan Battista Mannuzzi (1750–59),” in Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Inquisitori di Stato, referta del 22 marzo 1755. On the general topic of secret informers see Giovanni Comisso, Agenti segreti veneziani nel ’700 (Milan: Bompiani, 1945). Giovan Battista Mannuzzi was the best-known spy operating in Venice at the time, and he kept a close eye on Casanova. In an earlier report he described him as “a man with a tendency to hyperbole who manages to live at the expense of this or that person on the strength of his lies and his ability to cheat.” Another insightful report by a lesser-known informer stated that Andrea’s brother Bernardo was somewhat torn by his relationship with Casanova: “he is often with him, and he alternatively loves him and thrashes him.” In general the government’s once formidable system of informers suffered a steady decline in the eighteenth century. By 1760 the budget had dwindled to 4,000 ducats and only three spies were receiving full pay. One official deplored the fact that they were “so few and so mediocre.”
De Biase, “Vincoli nunziali,” 319–367.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to her daughter, Lady Bute, October 3, 1758, The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, vol. 3, ed. Robert Halsband (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), 179.
Quoted in Brunelli, Un’amica del Casanova, 4.
Wynne, Pièces morales, 195.
Ibid., 34.
Giacomo Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 3 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 172.
Wynne, Pièces morales, 35.
Letters of Andrea Memmo to Giustiniana Wynne (author’s collection).
Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 5 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 171‒172.
Wynne, Pièces morales, 35–36.
Ibid., 36.
Letters of Andrea Memmo to Giustiniana Wynne (author’s collection).
Chapter Two
Pompeo Molmenti, La storia di Venezia nella vita privata, vol. 3 (Bergamo: Istituto italiano di artigrafiche, 1908), 175.
Giacoma Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 4 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 75.
Ibid., 191, 249.
Chapter Three
From the diary of Johannes Heinzelmann (December 10, 1755), quoted in Vivian, Il console Smith, 52.
Lady Montagu to Lady Bute, Complete Letters, vol. 3, 127.
Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 4, 136.
Murray to Holderness, August 15, 1755, British Museum, Egerton Papers, 3464, f. 272.
Lady Montagu to Lady Bute, May 13, 1758, Complete Letters, vol. 3, 145.
John Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle (London: John Murray, 1962), 171.
Murray to Holderness, October 1, 1756, British Museum, Egerton Papers, 3464, f. 274.
Chapter Four
“Matrimoni Segreti,” Anno 1757, n. 47, Archivio della Curia Patriarcale di Venezia.
John Eglin, Venice Transfigured: The Myth of Venice in British Culture 1660–1797 (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 57.
Vivian, Il console Smith, 55.
“Atti di morte,” Archivio di San Marcuola, Curia Patriarcale. Curiously, Andrea Memmo’s biographer, Gianfranco Torcellan, states that Pietro “died prematurely” and was therefore unable to exert on his son an influence comparable to that of his older brother Andrea, the family patriarch. Torcellan, Una figura della Venezia settecentesca, 27. In reality Pietro died long after his older brother, so it appears his lesser influence on young Andrea was related more to character than to age.
For Antonio Maria Zanetti’s dealings with Smith, see in particular Vivian, Il console Smith, and Haskell, Patrons and Painters.
Chapter Five
Vivian, Il console Smith, 210. The painting was eventually sold to George III. As for The Woman with Dropsy, it was taken to Paris by French troops in 1798 after Napoleon’s invasion of northern Italy. Today it hangs in the Musée du Louvre, where it is registered as “the first gift to the Louvre.”
Ralph Woodford was secretary to the British delegation in Turin. When Giustiniana met him, he was acting chargé d’affaires as Lord Bristol, the outgoing ambassador, had left in August, and the new ambassador, John Stuart MacKenzie, would not arrive until November 14, 1758. See John Ingamells, A Dictionary of English and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701–1800 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997), 1017.
Chapter Six
The Duc de Luynes died on November 2, 1758; Gazette de France, November 1758.
Gazette de France, December 1758.
Mercure de France, February 1759.
Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 5, 170.
Ibid., 172.
Ibid., 196.
Jean-François Marmontel, Mémoires, ed. John Renwick (Paris: Clermont-Ferrand, G. de Bussac, 1972), 104.
Niccolò Erizzo to Antonio Grimani, April 1, 1759, James Rives Childs Collection, Randolph Macon College, Ashland, Va.
Tommaso Farsetti to Andrea Memmo, March 26, 1759, James Rives Childs Collection.
Chapter Seven
In describing Giustiniana’s escape from Paris I have used the information contained in her letter to Andrea dated June 24, 1759. The facts coincide roughly with those provided by Casanova in his History of My Life (see vol. 5, p. 212). Giustiniana wrote to Andrea that she had left Paris for Conflans on the morning of April 5. However, Mother Eustachia declared in a notarized statement that Giustiniana arrived at the convent on April 4 (see Francis L. Mars, “Pour le dossier de Miss XCV,” Casanova Gleanings 5 [1962]: 25), and I have used that date.
Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 5, 182.
Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 5, 188.
Ibid., 187.
Déposition de Reine Demay au commissaire Thiéron. Archives Nationales (Châtelet), 10873, liasse 154. First quoted in Charles Henry, “Jacques Casanove de Seingalt et la critique historique,” Revue Historique 41 (novembre– décembre 1889), 314.
Ibid., 315.
Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 5, 192.
“Mémoire de
Emmanuel Jean de la Coste à Monsieur de Sartine, maître des requêtes et lieutenant général de la police de la Ville de Paris,” May 2, 1760, Archives de la Bastille, Ravaisson-Mollien, 12099.
Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 5, 196.
Ibid., vol. 5, 198.
Ibid., 206.
“Naturalité à Justine Françoise Antoine Wynne . . . , Par le Roy, Versailles, 13 mars, 1759.” The document, which also spells out in detail all of Giustiniana’s rights as a French citizen, was published in its entirety in Mars, “Pour le dossier de Miss XCV,” 27.
Casanova, History of My Life,vol. 5, 185.
Ibid., 238.
Ibid., 240.
Ibid., 242.
Anonymous letter to Andrea Memmo, July 10, 1759, James Rives Childs Collection.
Tommaso Farsetti to Andrea Memmo, September 3, 1759, James Rives Childs Collection.
Niccolò Erizzo to Andrea Memmo, May 27, 1759, James Rives Childs Collection.
Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 5, 242.
“Alexandre Fortier, notaire au coin de la rue de Richelieu et de la rue Neuve des Petits Champs,” Archives Nationales, Minutier Central, Etude XXXI. Quoted in Mars, “Pour le dossier de Miss XCV,” 24.
Mars, “Pour le dossier de Miss XCV,” 25.
Anonymous letter to Andrea Memmo, July 10, 1759, James Rives Childs Collection.
Giustiniana Wynne to Andrea Memmo, Conflans, June 24, 1759, James Rives Childs Collection.
Anonymous letter to Andrea Memmo, July 10, 1759, James Rives Childs Collection.
Ibid.
Chapter Eight
Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George II, vol. 1, ed. John Brooke, (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985) 132.
Ibid.
Lord Newcastle to the Earl of Hardwick, January 2, 1760, British Library, Manuscripts, Additionals 35406.
Walpole, Memoirs, vol. 1, 132.
Lady Montagu to Lady Bute, October 3, 1758, Complete Letters, vol. 3, 179.
“The Year Fifty-Nine. A New Song,” The Gentleman’s Magazine XXIX (December 1759), 595.
Horace Walpole, The Letters of Horace Walpole, vol. 3, ed. Peter Cunningham (London: Richard Bentley, 1857), 263.
Lady Montagu to Lady Bute, November 9, 1759, Complete Letters, vol. 3, 227.
Ibid.
Lord Newcastle to the Earl of Hardwick, January 2, 1760, British Library, Manuscripts, Additionals 35406.
The Gentleman’s Magazine XXX (February 1760), 44.
“Account of Lord Ferrers,” The Gentleman’s Magazine XXX (May 1760), 230‒236.
Chapter Nine
Georges Cucuel, La Pouplinière et la musique de chambre au XVIIIème siècle (Paris: Fishbacher, 1913), 242.
Epilogue
Ingamells, A Dictionary of English and Irish Travellers, 672.
John Murray to Lord Holderness, December 1760, British Library, Manuscripts, Egremont 3464, ff. 272–286.
John Murray to William Pitt, July 10, 1761, British Library, Manuscripts, SP 99/68, ff., 184–185.
Chiara Michiel to Lady Montagu, March 10, 1762, Complete Letters, vol. 3, 288, n. 2.
Lady Montagu to Chiara Michiel, April 1762, Complete Letters, vol. 3, 288.
Count de Rosenberg to Prince von Kaunitz, Venice, March 21, 1762, quoted in Gugitz, Giacomo Casanova, 250.
Lady Montagu to Chiara Michiel, London, May 8, 1762, Complete Letters, vol. 3, 292.
Annotazioni n. 537, January 9, 1763, Inquisitori di Stato, Archivio di Stato di Venezia.
Ibid.
Statement by Lord Sandwich, London, May 21, 1764; quoted in Gugitz, Giacomo Casanova, 252.
Giustiniana Wynne to Prince Von Kaunitz, Klagenfurt, July 30, 1764; quoted in Gugitz, Giacomo Casanova, 254.
William Beckford, Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents, ed. Robert Gemmett (Rutherford, 1971), 118.
Casanova’s letter and Giustiniana’s reply, dated March 18, 1782, appear in Aldo Ravà, Lettere di donne a Casanova (Milan: Treves, 1912), 227–228.
Wynne, Pièces morales et sentimentales, pp. 112–113.
Giustiniana Wynne, Alticchiero (Padua: 1787), 2.
Casanova, History of My Life, vol. 3, 172.
Elizabeth Wynne, diary entry June 23, 1791, The Wynne Diaries, ed. Anne Fremantle, vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1935), 67.
The description of Andrea at Giustiniana’s deathbed is in a letter by his daughter Lucietta to her husband, Alvise Mocenigo, dated June 17, 1791. The author’s private collection.
Angelo Querini to Clemente Sibiliato, August 24, 1791, in Alcune lettere inedite di illustri veneziani a Clemente Sibiliato (Padua: 1839).
Abate Gennari, “Notizie giornaliere,” ms. in the Biblioteca del Seminario, Padua, cod. 551.
Andrea Memmo to Giacomo Casanova, July 9, 1788, Epistolari veneziani del secolo XVIII, ed. Pompeo Molmenti (Milan: Remo Sandron, 1914).
Gianfranco Torcellan, “Andrea Memmo,” in Illuministi italiani, vol. 7. (Milan: Ricciardi, 1965).
Brunelli, Un’amica del Casanova, 277.
Andrea Memmo to Giulio Perini, September 17, 1783, Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Acquisti e Doni, 94, bundle 146.
Biblioteca civica, Correr Manuscripts, Misc. IX, 1138.
Andrea Memmo to Giulio Perini, November 2, 1784, Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Acquisti e Doni 94, bundle 146.
Andrea Memmo to Giulio Perini, April 30, 1785, Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Acquisti e Doni 94, bundle 146.
Andrea Memmo, Elementi dell’ architettura Lodoliana, 166.
Andrea Memmo to Giacomo Casanova, July 26, 1788, Carteggi casanoviani (Florence: Archivio Storico Italiano, 1911), 330.
Giustiniana Wynne, Countess Rosenberg, À André Memmo Chevalier de l’Étole d’Or et procurateur de Saint Marc, à l’occasion du mariage de sa fille aînée avec Louis Mocenigo (Venice: Rosa, 1787).
Andrea Memmo to Giacomo Casanova, July 9, 1788, Epistolari veneziani del secolo XVIII, ed. Pompeo Molmenti, 192.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Andrea Memmo to Giulio Perini, Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Acquisti e Doni, 94, bundle 146.
Andrea Memmo to Giacomo Casanova, March 29, 1787, Epistolari veneziani del secolo XVIII, 185.
Pietro Zaguri to Giacomo Casanova, January 15, 1791, Epistolari veneziani del secolo XVIII, 119.
Dominique-Vivant Denon, Lettres à Bettine, ed. Piergiorgio Brigliadori et al., (Arles: Actes Sud, 1999), 126, 129, 137, 142.
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