Lucia - Andrea Di Robilant [0]
Title Page
Dedication
List of Plates
Acknowledgements
Maps
PROLOGUE
1 ROME
2 PALAZZO MOCENIGO
3 VIENNA
4 THE FALL OF VENICE
5 COLONEL PLUNKETT
PHOTO INSERT
6 VIENNESE CAROUSEL
7 THE EDUCATION OF ALVISETTO
8 LADY-IN-WAITING
9 A YEAR IN PARIS
10 BYRON’S LANDLADY
Epilogue
Sources
Select Bibliography
A Note About the Author
Also By Andrea di Robilant
Footnotes
Copyright
For Alessandra
Plates
1. Portrait of Andrea Memmo by Mar. Caricchio, 1788 © Tristano di Robilant
2. Portrait of Sebastiano Mocenigo (Alvise’s father) by A. Longhi © Museo Correr, Venezia
3. An ivory miniature of Lucia and Paolina c.1775 © Alvise Memmo
4. Portrait of Lucia © Simon Houfe collection
5. Portrait of Paolina © The Faringdon Collection Trust
6. Letter from Lucia to Alvise in response to his offer of marriage © Andrea di Robilant
7. Palazzo San Marco © Archivio Fotografico Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Romano
8. Palazzo Mocenigo
9. The bronze horses of Saint Mark © Museo Correr, Venezia
10. Anti-aircraft defence of Venice © Museo Correr, Venezia
11. Statue of Napoleon by Angelo Pizzi, 1812–1814 © Andrea di Robilant, courtesy of Mark Smith
12. Etching of Napoleon and Joséphine
13. The Liberty Tree, Saint Mark’s Square, 1797 © Museo Correr, Venezia
14. Alvisopoli © Biblioteca comunale di Fossalta
15. Pencil drawing of Joséphine by Jacques-Louis David © Photo RMN Droits réservés
16. Portrait of Eugène de Beauharnais by Andrea Appiani © Photo RMN Daniel Arnaudet / Jean Schormans
17. Joséphine’s bedroom at Malmaison © Photo RMN Gérard Blot
18. Malmaison by Auguste Garneray © Photo RMN Bulloz
19. Lord Byron at Palazzo Mocenigo © Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library
Acknowledgements
The decisive impulse to write about Lucia came from Nancy Isenberg, Professor of Literature at Rome University; this book would not have seen the light without her persistent encouragement. A number of other friends offered their generous and sometimes crucial help along the way. Giulia Barberini, director of the Museo di Palazzo Venezia, shared with me her knowledge of the extraordinary palazzo where Lucia lived when her father was the Venetian ambassador in Rome. Wendy Roworth, professor of art history at the University of Rhode Island, helped me locate the long-lost portrait of Lucia by Angelica Kauffmann in Buckinghamshire. Benedetta Piccolomini proved a most enthusiastic guide during our exploration of what remains of Alvisopoli. In Austria, the kind and tenacious Clarisse Maylunas led me to Margarethen Am Moos during a rainy excursion in the countryside south of Vienna. My research took an entirely unexpected direction with the discovery of Lucia’s secret lover, Maximilian Plunkett—a discovery which would certainly have eluded me but for the steady prodding of Anne-Claude de Plunkett in Paris. A final tassel in the reconstruction of Lucia’s affair came from the ever generous Marco Leeflang in Utrecht. Iain Brown and his staff could not have been kinder in helping me with the Byron papers at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. And I am very grateful to Simon Houfe and Alvise Memmo for allowing me to reproduce Angelica Kauffmann’s portrait of Lucia and the miniature of Lucia and Paolina as young girls.
Maps
The Venetian Republic, which had developed over the course of a thousand years, came to an end with the Treaty of Campo Formio, signed on 17 October 1797 by the French and the Austrians. Venice passed under Austrian rule, but in 1805 it became part of the Kingdom of Italy, a pro-French puppet state. Austrian rule was re-established after Napoleon’s fall in 1814.
The families of Lucia and her husband were firmly rooted in the heartland of Venice and the Venetian terraferma. The key locations mentioned in the text are shown here.
Prologue
When I was growing up I sometimes heard my grandfather mention Lucia Mocenigo, my Venetian great-great-great-great-grandmother, who was known in the family as Lucietta. Her name