Histoire de ma vie
Encyclopedia
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
and autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
of Giacomo Casanova
Giacomo Casanova
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie , is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century...
, a famous 18th century Italian adventurer. A previous, bowdlerized version was originally known in English as The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova (from the French Mémoires de Jacques Casanova) until the original version was published in 1960.
Although Casanova was Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
(born April 2, 1725, in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, died June 4, 1798, in Dux
Duchcov
Duchcov is a town in the Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has a population exceeding 9,000 and is located at the foot of the Ore Mountains....
, Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, now Duchcov
Duchcov
Duchcov is a town in the Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has a population exceeding 9,000 and is located at the foot of the Ore Mountains....
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
), the book is written in French, which was the dominant language in the upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
at the time. The book covers Casanova's life only through 1774, although the full title of the book is Histoire de ma vie jusqu'à l'an 1797, (History of my Life until the year 1797).
On February 18, 2010, the National Library of France purchased a 3,700 page manuscript of Histoire de ma vie for approximately €7 million. The manuscript is believed to have been given to Casanova's nephew, Carlo Angiolini, in 1798. The manuscript is believed to contain pages not previously read or published.
Contents of the book
The book comprises 12 volumes and approximately 3500 pages, covering Casanova's life from his birth to 1774.Story of the manuscript
Casanova allegedly wrote the first chapters of the book in 1789, during a profound illness.In 1794, Casanova met Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne. The two of them established a mutual friendship. The Prince expressed a desire to read Casanova's memoirs, and Casanova decided to polish the manuscript before sending it to the Prince. After reading at least the first three tomes of the manuscript, Charles Joseph suggested that the memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
be shown to an editor in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
to publish in exchange for an annuity. Casanova was convinced to publish the manuscript, but chose another route. In 1797, he asked Marcolini Di Fano, minister at the Cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
of the Saxon
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
Court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
, to help him with the publication.
In May 1798, Casanova was alone in Dux
Duchcov
Duchcov is a town in the Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has a population exceeding 9,000 and is located at the foot of the Ore Mountains....
. He foresaw his death and asked for members of his family currently residing in Dresden to come and support him in his last moments. Carlo Angiolini, the husband of Casanova's niece, traveled without delay from Dresden to Dux. After Casanova's death, he returned to Dresden with the manuscript. Carlo himself died in 1808 and the manuscript passed to his daughter Camilla. Because of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, the climate was not favorable for publishing the memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
s of a character belonging to a past age. After the Battle of Leipzig (1813), Marcolini remembered the manuscript and offered 2500 Thaler
Thaler
The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, where some of the first such...
s to Camilla's tutor, who judged the offer too modest and refused.
After some years, the recession compromised the wealth of Camilla's family. She asked her brother Carlo to quickly sell the manuscript. In 1821, it was sold to the publisher Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus
Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus
Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus was a German encyclopedia publisher and editor, famed for publishing the Conversations-Lexikon, which is now published as the Brockhaus encyclopedia.-Biography:...
. Brockhaus asked Wilhelm von Schütz
Wilhelm von Schütz
Christian Wilhelm von Schütz, was a German author.-Biography:Schütz was, among other things, a minor romantic writer, who first became famous as a playwright . A friend of Ludwig Tieck, he translated from 1822 Casanova's Histoire de ma vie for the 12-volume German edition of the famous memoirs...
to translate the book into German. Some extracts of the translation and the first volume were published as early as 1822. The collaboration between Brockhaus and Schütz stopped in 1824, after the publication of the fifth volume. The other volumes were then translated by another unknown translator.
Due to the success of the German edition, the French editor Tournachon decided to publish the book in France. Tournachon had no access to the original manuscript, and so the French text of his edition was translated from the German translation. The text was heavily censored
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
. In response to the piracy Brockhaus brought out a second edition in French, edited by Jean Laforgue
Jean Laforgue
Jean Laforgue was a French scholar living in Dresden, mainly known for having edited and censored the first edition of Giacomo Casanovas memoirs, Histoire de ma vie....
(1782–1852) which was very unreliable as Laforgue altered Casanova's religious and political views as well as censoring sexual references. The French volumes were published from 1826 to 1838. These editions were also successful, and another French pirate edition was prepared with another translation from the German edition. As the German edition was not entirely published at this time, this edition allegedly contains passages invented by the translator.
From 1838 to 1960, all the editions of the memoirs were derived from one of these editions. Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...
used one of these inaccurate versions for his English translation published in 1894 which remained the standard English edition for many years.
The original manuscript was stored in the editor's head office in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
until 1943, when after the closure of the office, Brockhaus himself secured them in a bank, saving them just before the 1943 bombings of Leipzig. In June 1945, it was moved to the new head office in Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
by the American troops. In 1960, a collaboration between Brockhaus and the French editor Plon
Plon (publisher)
Plon is a French book publishing company, founded in 1852 by Henri Plon and his two brothers.The Plon family were Walloons coming from Nivelle, France. One of their ancestors is probably the Danish typographer Jehan Plon who lived at the end of the 16th century.-History:The Editions Plon were...
led to the first original edition of the manuscript.
The manuscript was purchased in 2010 by the French Bibliothèque nationale
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
for the equivalent of over $9 million.
Schütz translation (1822-1828)
This first edition is a censored German translation for BrockhausFriedrich Arnold Brockhaus
Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus was a German encyclopedia publisher and editor, famed for publishing the Conversations-Lexikon, which is now published as the Brockhaus encyclopedia.-Biography:...
(the first half was translated by Wilhelm von Schütz
Wilhelm von Schütz
Christian Wilhelm von Schütz, was a German author.-Biography:Schütz was, among other things, a minor romantic writer, who first became famous as a playwright . A friend of Ludwig Tieck, he translated from 1822 Casanova's Histoire de ma vie for the 12-volume German edition of the famous memoirs...
, the remaining parts by an unknown translator). Its "original" title is: Aus den Memoiren des Venetianers Jacob Casanova de Seingalt, oder sein Leben, wie er es zu Dux in Böhmen niederschried. Nach dem Original-Manuscript bearbeitet von Wilhelm von Schütz.
Tournachon-Molin translation (1825-1829)
The success of the first German edition spawns a pirate edition, without access to the original manuscript. The first French edition is a German to French translation from the French to German SchützWilhelm von Schütz
Christian Wilhelm von Schütz, was a German author.-Biography:Schütz was, among other things, a minor romantic writer, who first became famous as a playwright . A friend of Ludwig Tieck, he translated from 1822 Casanova's Histoire de ma vie for the 12-volume German edition of the famous memoirs...
translation, which results in a very approximate and imperfect text.
Laforgue adaptation (1826-1838)
In reaction to the pirate edition, BrockhausFriedrich Arnold Brockhaus
Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus was a German encyclopedia publisher and editor, famed for publishing the Conversations-Lexikon, which is now published as the Brockhaus encyclopedia.-Biography:...
decides to publish its own French edition. This edition is done with the original manuscript, but still censored and "arranged" by Jean Laforgue
Jean Laforgue
Jean Laforgue was a French scholar living in Dresden, mainly known for having edited and censored the first edition of Giacomo Casanovas memoirs, Histoire de ma vie....
. Laforgue rewrites parts of the text, and even add some others of his own. Furthermore, four chapters of the manuscript are not returned to the publisher. The edition was prepared from 1825 to 1831, but difficulties with the censors will slow the publishing of the volumes, especially after the book has been put in the list of Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. A first version was promulgated by Pope Paul IV in 1559, and a revised and somewhat relaxed form was authorized at the Council of Trent...
in 1834.
Several editions are in fact reeditions of this Laforgue edition:
- Garnier edition (1880). Its a popular and cheap edition.
- The La Sirène edition (1924–1935).
- The PleiadeBibliothèque de la PléiadeThe Bibliothèque de la Pléiade is a French series of books which was created in the 1930s by Jacques Schiffrin, an independent young editor. . Schiffrin wanted to provide the public with reference editions of the complete works of classic authors in a pocket format...
edition (1958–1960).
Busoni pirate edition (1833-1837)
The Laforgue edition success spawn a new pirate edition in France. First this new edition is a copy of the eight first published volumes of the Laforgue edition, but because the other volumes of the Laforgue edition are slow to be published because of censorship, the publisher Paulin ask a journalist, Philippe Busoni, to write them. Busoni writes the two remaining volumes using the Tournachon-Molin translation, adding new episodes coming from himself.Several reeditions of the Busoni edition are:
- The Rozez reedition (1860).
- The FlammarionGroupe FlammarionGroupe Flammarion is the fourth largest publishing group in France, comprising many units, including its namesake, founded in 1876 by Ernest Flammarion, as well as units in distribution, sales, printing and bookshops . Flammarion became part of the Italian media conglomerate RCS MediaGroup in 2000...
reedition (1871–1872).
The Brockhaus-Plon reference (1960-1962)
The manuscript remained hidden for a lot of time because BrockhausFriedrich Arnold Brockhaus
Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus was a German encyclopedia publisher and editor, famed for publishing the Conversations-Lexikon, which is now published as the Brockhaus encyclopedia.-Biography:...
didn't want to be pirated anymore. Then wars and economics crisis slowed their edition projects until the end of the 1950s.
The first complete and authentic edition of the text was published between 1960 and 1962 (minus the four lost chapters, replaced by their Laforgue version, with the annotations by Schütz
Wilhelm von Schütz
Christian Wilhelm von Schütz, was a German author.-Biography:Schütz was, among other things, a minor romantic writer, who first became famous as a playwright . A friend of Ludwig Tieck, he translated from 1822 Casanova's Histoire de ma vie for the 12-volume German edition of the famous memoirs...
).
The Bouquins
Éditions Robert Laffont
Éditions Robert Laffont is a book publishing company in France founded in 1941 by Robert Laffont. Its publications are distributed in almost all francophone countries, but mainly in France, Canada and in Belgium....
reedition (1993) has since become the French reference edition.
Translations
Casanova's memoirs have been published in more than 20 languages and 400 editions, mostly in French, English, and German. The main translations are now all based on the Brockhaus-Plon reference. The only unabridged English translation so based is that by Willard R. Trask, cited below.German: The Wilhelm von Schütz censored translation of the original manuscript. Regularly reedited beginning in 1850.
Heinz von Sauter complete translation of the Brockhaus-Plon edition of the original manuscript. Reedited in 1985.
English: Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...
complete translation of the censored Laforgue text. Regularly reedited, including the revised Arthur Symons translation, in 1902, then in 1940.
Willard R. Trask complete translation of the Brockhaus-Plon reference.
External links
- The original manuscript can be viewed in the site of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France
- History of Casanova's Manuscripts
- Gutenberg etexts
- Memoirs
- Memoirs of Jacques Casanova, Arthur Machen 1894 edition
- Memoirs, French Laforgue reprinted 1880 edition