HomeBlog / Latest Newseurope

  • Voltaire, Frederick and Maupertuis

    • April 9, 2022
    • Posted by:
    • Category: Flashbacks
    No Comments
    A lovely parody of Voltaire appeared in ‘The Gentleman’s and London Magazine’ and can be found, courtesy of Geri Walton, here. The parody was published anonymously in London in 1756, apparently penned by ‘a great prince’ and forwarded by an ‘ingenious Correspondent of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin’.  If this is so, the
    read more

  • Castrati

    • March 5, 2022
    • Posted by:
    • Category: Flashbacks
    No Comments
    Casanova had a number of encounters with castrati during his life, most notably Bellino.  Amongst castrati, Farinelli was regarded as one of the greatest.  Here’s a very readable article about Farinelli and the world of the castrati by Ivan Hewett from ‘The Daily Telegraph’. 'Casanova in Paris: The Shadows of the King' is now freely
    read more

  • ‘Broken on the wheel’

    • January 29, 2022
    • Posted by:
    • Category: Flashbacks
    No Comments
      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
    read more