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To complement our new edition of Gautier's 'Travels in Italy' which predominantly concerns Venice, our new complete translation of Goethe's 'Venetian Epigrams' is now available on the website here.

 Goethe was in Italy, and Sicily, from 1786 to 1788. He revisited Venice in 1790, on a quasi-official mission, and the Epigrams which resulted from his visit give a more cynical and disillusioned, some might say realistic, view of Italy, and the city, prompted to a great extent by his personal life and circumstances at the time. His frankness regarding the erotic life, and his expressions of intense dislike with regard to fundamental aspects of Christianity, and contemporary religion, led to much criticism and disapproval of these Venetian Epigrams in his day, and some may still find them offensive. Many of the epigrams contain erotic double-entendres. Let the reader beware!