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  • Bewildering Bellino

    • March 24, 2018
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    • Category: Casanova
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    Extract from an article written by Dave on one of Casanova’s first great loves. “Casanova came across Bellino at an inn in Ancona on 25th February, 1744 along with his mother, a brother (Petronio, ‘the first female dancer at the opera’, i.e., a female impersonator) and two sisters, Marina and Cecilia.  The family were performers
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  • ‘Broken on the wheel’

    • March 21, 2018
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    • Category: Flashbacks
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      Of the complaints against the Ancien Regime from those in the vanguard of the Enlightenment, very high on the list was the cruel and arbitrary nature of the legal system.   In his memoirs, Casanova describes the notorious execution of Robert Damiens as an ‘offence to our common humanity’.  A case that in some ways
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  • The Encyclopédie

    • March 17, 2018
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    • Category: Venice and Paris
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      A fascinating Melvyn Bragg BBC podcast on the Encyclopédie, that embodiment of the Enlightenment and product of the intellectual hothouse that was Paris at the time (and which supposedly inspired Robert Damiens to attempt to assassinate Louis XV). However, good as it is, the podcast was broadcast in 2006 and does contain comments on
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