Spie, ambasciatori e politica internazionale: un memoriale inedito di Giacomo Casanova sull’Exposition raisonné e la figura di Sebastiano d’Ayala a Vienna nel 1788

This contribution examines, on the basis of new sources from the archives of Venice, Vienna and Dubrovnik, an unpublished memorial presented to the State Inquisitor in Venice on behalf of Giacomo Casanova by Sebastiano d’Ayala. The analysis of the text and of the context in which it was formed highlights the relationship between Casanova, Sebastiano Foscarini (the Venetian ambassador in Vienna) and d’Ayala as a former Jesuit and diplomatic agent of the Republic of Ragusa. In particular, this article investigates the role of these actors in writing political pamphlets in favor of the Republic of Venice in the long dispute with the United Provinces (1772–1785), with the aim of obtaining the intervention by Joseph II as international arbiter