14 - Palazzo Loredan dell'Ambasciatore
Home to Giustiniana Wynne
On leaving the Ca’ Rezzonico.
Turn left over the first bridge, Ponte San Barnarba.
Take the first left into Campo San Barnarba.
Here you can visit the Museo Leonardo Di Vinci, or leave the square on Calle Lombardo.
Cross the Ponte Lombardo
Cross the first bridge on your left, Ponte Del Squero, and turn left alongside the canal.
Follow the narrow Calle dei Cerchieri all the way down to the Grand Canal.
The last door on your right is the somewhat unexceptional side entrance to the stunning Palazzo Loredan dell'Ambasciatore, which you previously admired from the Corte Del Duca Sforza opposite.
By 1761, this building, best viewed here from the waterside, was home to Count Filippo Giuseppe Orsini-Rosenberg, the Ambassador to Rome, and his wife Giustiniana Wynne, a longtime friend of Casanova, who would trick her into sleeping with him.
Born out of wedlock in Venice, in 1737, to English Protestant baronet Sir Richard Wynne and Greek-born Venetian courtesan Anna Gazini, who would later marry, Giustiniana was said to be a great beauty and at the age of sixteen, began a romance with Andrea Memmo, the 24-year-old son of one of Venice's ruling families whose lives were closely supervised and regulated by the state to protect the future of the Doge and its voting system. Indeed, it was Casanova’s friendship with Memmo and his two brothers, which would later see him imprisoned, in 1755, as a result of their mother, Lucia, being convinced that he would corrupt her sons.
Giustiniana and Andrea fell madly in love but, due to the difference in their social classes, marriage did not appear to be possible and, to protect her daughter's virtue and reputation, the recently widowed Anna forbade them to see each other (she also forbade her to meet with Casanova, who was also infatuated with the young girl). As a result, the young lovers began a clandestine affair which lasted nearly seven years with hundreds of surreptitious letters exchanged, some written in a secret code invented by Memmo.
“When I was at Padua, I fell in love with the eldest daughter, but a few months after, when we were at Venice, Madame X. C. V. [Anna Wynne] thought good to exclude me from her family circle. The insult which the mother put upon me was softened by the daughter, who wrote me a charming letter, which I love to read even now. I may as well confess that my grief was the easier to bear as my time was taken up by my fair nun, M—— M——, and my dear C—— C——. Nevertheless, Mdlle. X. C. V. [Giustiniana Wynne], though only fifteen, was of a perfect beauty, and was all the more charming in that to her physical advantages she joined those of a cultured mind.”
This was in 1753, the same year in a 29 year old Giacomo Casanova was visiting his old love, Teresa Imer, in her family home on the opposite side of the Grand Canal - to the right of the Palazzo Malipiero and Chiesa di San Samuele, which you now overlook. It was this three hour rendezvous which would produce their illegitimate daughter, Sophia.
After four years of secret meetings, stolen moments and public hand signals, Andrea Memmo finally urged his family to petition the Venetian authorities for permission to marry Giustiniana. As the process dragged on, the lovers grew hopeful that they would indeed be united; but just as the request was about to be approved, evidence surfaced about the dishonorable past of Giustiniana's mother, Anna. The ensuing scandal left the Wynnes no choice but to leave Venice.
Anna and her five children then made their way to Paris with the hope of continuing to London where they aimed to start a new life in her husband's native land. It was while in Paris, in January 1759, that a secretly pregnant Giustiniana bumped into Casanova unexpectedly at a Comedie Italienne performance.
“My surprise at seeing this family at such a time and place may be imagined. Mdlle. X. C. V. [Giustiniana] saw me directly, and pointed me out to her mother, who made a sign to me with her fan to come to their box … Mdlle. X. C. V. struck me as prettier than ever; and my love, after sleeping for five years, awoke to fresh strength and vigour.”
While she may have been hiding the truth to her lover, in a letter to Andrea Memmo, Giustiniana painted a less than favourable account of the same encounter with their mutual friend:
“He is with us every day even though his company does not please me …He is quite full of himself and stupidly pompous.”
Desperate to rid herself of the baby, she was tricked into having sex three or four times with Casanova when he convinced her that doing so (with saffron and honey smeared on his penis) would discharge her unwanted fetus.
Casanova's “remedy” was not successful however, and Giustiniana gave birth to an unnamed son in a convent outside of Paris. The baby was given up to a family capable of raising him and Giustiniana's disappearance during this time sparked many rumours throughout Paris and Venice.
After a year in London, the Wynnes returned to Padua in 1760 but, despite the two continuing to write to each other throughout their time apart, Giustiniana forbade Andrea Memmo to come to her. When eventually they did meet again, it was only as fond friends.
Scholars had been able to study the letters from Giustiniana Wynne to Andrea Memmo for many years, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that the other side of the story was able to told when stacks of Andrea's letters to Giustiniana were found bundled in the attic of Palazzo Mocenigo on the Grand Canal. These helped influence the brilliant 2003 book, “A Venetian Affair; A true story of impossible love in the eighteenth century.”
~ Buy Here ~
Settled again in Venice, Giustiniana accepted the hand of the Austrian ambassador to Venice, Philip Josef, Count Rosenberg-Orsini, and married him in a secret ceremony (probably) at the Embassy. Giustiniana lived with him, here, in Palazzo Loredan, until their return to Austria. By 1786, she was considered a successful author with her works published (in French) in London and Venice.
Much later, in 1774, a 49 year old Casanova would visit his friend, Giacomo Durazzo (Orsini-Rosenberg's successor as Ambassador to Vienna), at the same residence and Mozart would also play at the venue.
You can actually stay inside the Palazzo Loredan dell'Ambasciatore at:
Ca' Cerchieri Terrace ~ Book Here ~
the cheaper Ca' Cerchieri Mezzanine ~ Book Here ~
or, if money is no object, Ca' Cerchieri Piano Nobile ~ Book Here ~