Castel Nuovo, Italy A light follows Casanova — 31 August 1743
Casanova saw a “pyramid-shaped flame” 50 cm high, 1.2 m above ground, 3 meters away.
It followed him all day: “An hour after I had left Castel Nuovo, the atmosphere being calm and the sky clear, I perceived on my right, and within ten paces of me, a pyramidal flame about two feet long and four or five feet above the ground. This apparition surprised me, because it seemed to accompany me. Anxious to examine it, I endeavoured to get nearer to it, but the more I advanced towards if, the further it went from me. It would stop when I stood still, and when the road along which I was travelling happened to be lined with trees, I no longer saw it, but it was sure to reappear as soon as I reached a portion of the road without trees. I several times retraced my steps purposely, but, every time I did so, the flame disappeared, and would not shew itself again until I proceeded towards Rome. This extraordinary beacon left me when daylight chased darkness from the sky.” Casanova’s reaction is interesting. First he dismisses the event as a skeptical scientist: “What a splendid field for ignorant superstition, if there had been any witnesses to that phenomenon, and if I had chanced to make a great name in Rome! History is full of such trifles, and the world is full of people who attach great importance to them in spite of the so-called light of science.” But then he adds, more humbly: “I must candidly confess that, although somewhat versed in physics, the sight of that small meteor gave me singular ideas.” And he concludes with the same words as so many witnesses of unusual phenomena: “I was prudent enough not to mention the circumstances to anyone.” Fig. 55: Giacomo Casanova
Source: Giacomo Casanova, The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, trans. Arthur Machen (New York: Putnam’s, 1959), Vol. I, 222. Case: W515