The correspondence between Giacomo Casanova and Pietro Zaguri is one of the most valuable testimonies of Venetian life in the late eighteenth century. After his final departure from Venice in 1783, Casanova maintained a regular exchange of letters with the Venetian patrician, sharing news, personal feelings, irony and reflections on a changing world.
Their correspondence offers not only an intimate account of their friendship but also a vivid portrait of Venetian society during the final decades of the Serenissima.
The friendship between Casanova and Zaguri began in the autumn of 1772 in Trieste, where the two men first met. A few months earlier, Zaguri himself, together with the patricians Marco Dandolo and Francesco Grimani, had worked to secure the revocation of the banishment imposed on Casanova in 1755.
The bond between the two men grew stronger after Casanova returned to Venice in November 1774, when he stayed for a time at the magnificent Palazzo Zaguri in Campo San Maurizio.
his was a significant moment in Casanova’s life in Venice: it was at Zaguri’s residence in 1777 that he probably met Lorenzo Da Ponte, who was serving as Zaguri’s secretary at the time and whom Zaguri described as his “fellow student”, as Da Ponte himself recounts in his memoirs.
The connection between these three men illustrates the importance of Palazzo Zaguri as a meeting place for intellectual exchange and influential relationships within Venetian cultural life.
Following Casanova’s final departure from Venice in 1783, the two men maintained a regular correspondence: approximately 120 letters written in Italian, dating from 1772 to 1798. Their contents range from politics to gossip, from cultural life to personal confidences.
The letters paint a vivid picture of Venetian life and society. Zaguri kept Casanova informed about elections and appointments to the Senate, internal disputes among the patrician class and the city’s social gatherings. The two friends exchanged books, writings, literary opinions and reflections on the theatre.
Everyday life, the management of Palazzo Zaguri, their personal encounters and their shared circle of acquaintances emerge naturally from these letters, rich in detail and keen observations.
The correspondence is also remarkably personal. The two friends discuss health problems — porcelain false teeth, recurring bouts of gout and ear ailments — and speak openly about their romantic relationships, jealousies and minor perceived betrayals.
One particularly revealing episode dates back to 1784, when Zaguri informed Casanova that Francesca Buschini had been seen at the Casino dei Mongolfisti. The news upset Casanova so deeply that he broke off correspondence with the young woman for nearly two years.
The letters are often characterised by irony, sometimes biting. Aware of how freely he expresses himself, Zaguri warns Casanova not to share his letters with others, fearing embarrassment or political repercussions in Venice, where public and private expression remained closely monitored.
In a letter dated 16 March 1792, he even jokes about Casanova’s disagreements with the staff at Dux Castle:
“I’m surprised he didn’t kill any of them!”
The historical value of this correspondence is exceptional. On the one hand, Zaguri witnessed the gradual decline of the Serenissima from within Venetian society, commenting with clarity — and sometimes resignation — on the signs of political and social collapse. On the other, Casanova emerges in a more reflective and contemplative phase of his life, striving to preserve his dignity, pursue his intellectual ambitions and maintain his ties with the Venetian nobility.
The correspondence is also of considerable linguistic importance: it preserves colloquial expressions, sarcasm, Venetian idioms, French linguistic influences and a spontaneity that early editions often softened or censored.
Read today, these letters offer not only a portrait of a deep friendship but also a glimpse of a world in transition: two men, separated by distance but united by their memories of Venice, observing and reflecting on an era rapidly drawing to a close.
Would you like to discover the palace where Casanova actually lived? Visit the Permanent Museum dedicated to Giacomo Casanova at Palazzo Zaguri.
