Following the success of the Raoult edition of Arétin’s Les ragionamenti a year earlier, Germaine Raoult commissioned Bécat to produce illustrations for a luxury edition of the selected memoirs of one of the most infamous lovers of all time, Giacomo Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt (pronounced Saint-Galle in the French fashion) – after his exile from Venice to France in 1757 he often signed his works Jacques Casanova de Seingalt.

As well as chronicling Casanova’s exploits, this selection has a distinct emphasis on the various lesbian encounters described in the memoirs. Bécat’s etchings for this and the other books he illustrated towards the end of his life present a more modern and less stylised set of women’s faces and bodies than some of his earlier work.

The Raoult edition of Mes amours à Venise was produced in a limited numbered and boxed edition of 390 copies.

We are very grateful to Philippe Isoard of Librairie In Quarto, Marseille, for these illustrations. The In Quarto catalogue can be found here; where you can buy the book if it is still in stock.