Orsini di Rosenberg, Giustina.

8vo (210 x 140mm.), paper boards, manuscript title to spine, page edges speckled blue, spine slightly worn, boards rather sunned

This volume possesses a double mystery. It describes the incognito visit of the future Paul I (emperor of Russia 1796-1801) to Venice in 1782. There is also some doubt about the book's authorship. It is supposedly written by Justine Wynne, Countess of Roseberg-Orsini (1737-1791) to her brother Richard Wynne. The Countess, author of Alticchiero (1787), was one of Casanova's many lovers. However, it is thought in some quarters that the piece was in fact the work of Elisabetta Caminer Turra (1751-1796), one of Italy's first female journalists. Her periodical, the Giornale enciclopedico, offered reviews, extracts, and announcements of the latest literary, scientific, philosophical and historical works published across Europe.