Dîners à Deux: Intimate Dinners with Casanova

Meredith Chilton, C.M. Curator Emerita, Gardiner Museum, Toronto
Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) is now best known as a womanizer and a libertine, but his History of My Life also reveals he is an acute and vital witness of daily life in the 1700s. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Casanova records details of the meals he ate, and even talks about the rituals of dining. This lecture will focus on the intimate dinners for two that Casanova savoured in Venice with his lover “M.M.” It will include a look at the food and wines they relished, the private apartments where these meals were served, and the ceramics and silver on the table… along with a few comments on the aphrodisiacs that enhanced the lovers’ pleasure.