Events

The exhibition “Translations, Translators and Adaptations of Casanova” (Ca’ Foscari Zattere CFZ – Linguistic Area Library, 3 June – 20 July 2025) presented, for the first time in the world, a selection of translations of Giacomo Casanova’s “Memoirs” published in 53 different languages. This undertaking led to censorship, adaptations, manipulations and misrepresentations, particularly in illiberal and authoritarian contexts. Casanova’s nonconformism often became a reflection of the nonconformism of his translators and editors, who were found to have been exiles, dissidents and critics of the political regimes under which they lived. An important finding of the research was the discovery that many translations of Casanova were actually the work of women translators: anarchists and socialists in the late nineteenth century, feminists in the first half of the twentieth century, and anti-fascists in Germany and Italy during the Second World War. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are the result of a collaboration between the DSLCC (MUR Project of Excellence 2023-2027), the Linguistic Area Library (BALI), the University Library System, Finarte Auctions and Libreria Antiquaria Drogheria 28 in Trieste.

Exhibition catalogue: "Translations, Translators and Adaptations of Giacomo Casanova" [ITA]