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{{Short description|Venetian nobleman, architect and landowner (1731–1809)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
[[File: Edward Tiretta in The Bengal Levee. (BM 1851,0901.622) (cropped).jpg|right|thumb|upright|Caricature of Tiretta in ''The Bengal Levee'', by [[James Gilray]], 1792]]

Count '''Edoardo Tiretta''' (August 1731 – 15 March 1809<ref>
{{Citation |last=Filesi |first=Teobaldo |title=Archivio di Stato di Salerno |date=1973-01-01 |work=Gli archivi pubblici della campania e in particolare l'archivio di stato di Napoli dalle origini al 1922 |pages=277–278 |url=https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004590724_046 |access-date=2025-01-14 |publisher=BRILL |doi=10.1163/9789004590724_046 |isbn=978-90-04-59072-4|url-access=subscription }}</ref>), often anglicized to '''Edward Tiretta''', was a [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] nobleman, [[architect]] and landowner. Part of [[Giacomo Casanova]]'s set in [[Paris]], he moved to [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] in his forties, where he worked as a civil architect, building superintendent and land surveyor. He notably built [[Tiretta Bazaar]], which became India's first [[Chinatown]].

== Early life ==
Edoardo Tiretta was born in August 1731 in [[Trebaseleghe]], in the modern-day [[Province of Padua]], to a wealthy land-owning family. They owned a palace in [[Treviso]], a villa in [[Montello (hill)|Montello]], and numerous other properties in the countryside. He was educated as a mathematician and architect.<ref name=":6" />

Having been discovered embezzling money from the [[mount of piety]] in his hometown of Treviso, he took refuge in France in order to escape the police, where he found himself nearly destitute. Tiretta arrived in [[Paris]] in 1757 at the age of twenty-five and was introduced to the infamous [[Giacomo Casanova]], who described him thus:<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Casanova |first=Giacomo |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2981 |title=The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725–1798 |publisher=Putnam |location=New York |publication-date=1902 |translator-last=Machen |translator-first=Arthur}}</ref>

{{Quote|text=In the beginning of March, 1757, I received a letter from my friend Madame Manzoni, which she sent to me by a young man of good appearance, with a frank and high-born air, whom I recognized as a Venetian by his accent. He was young Count Tiretta de Trevisa, recommended to my care by Madame Manzoni, who said that he would tell me his story, which I might be sure would be a true one.|author=Giacomo Casanova|title=''The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725–1798''|source=Volume III: ''The Eternal Quest'', "Episode XI: Paris and Holland", Chapter I}}

Casanova took Tiretta under his protection, offering him room and board; over the next few years, Tiretta would become his close friend and confidant. He shared Casanova's [[libertine]] lifestyle, seducing women for money; one of his many lovers nicknamed him "Count Six-Times" based on the number of times they had made love in one night.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Summers |first=Judith |title=Casanova's Women: The Great Seducer and the Women He Loved |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2006 |isbn=9781596911222 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=210 |language=EN}}</ref>

== Life in Calcutta ==
Following the loss of a favoured mistress, Tiretta decided to pursue his fortune in the [[East Indies]].<ref name=":5" /> Sometime in the early 1770s, Tiretta acquired a clerical job in [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia in the Dutch East Indies]] through Casanova's recommendation.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Chakraborty |first=Trinanjan |date=24 July 2023 |title=Tiretta Bazaar: Calcutta's Casanova connection |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/places/tiretta-bazaar-edward-tiretta-and-calcuttas-connection-with-casanova/cid/1954238 |access-date=18 November 2024 |website=[[The Telegraph (India)|The Telegraph]]}}</ref> However, Tiretta got involved in a scandal and fled to [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], then a prominent [[East India Company]] city and capital of the [[Bengal Presidency]]. The details of the scandal are not known,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Banka |first=Neha |date=20 December 2019 |title=Streetwise Kolkata: Tiretta Bazaar, a Chinatown named after an Italian |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/streetwise-kolkata-tiretta-bazaar-a-chinatown-names-after-an-italian-6176952/ |access-date=19 November 2024 |website=The Indian Express |language=en}}</ref> although Casanova refers to it as "a revolt at Batavia" and that "[Tiretta] had only escaped the gallows by flight."<ref name=":5" />

=== Public life ===
Tiretta would hold many roles in Calcutta over the years, including [[Cartography|map-maker]],<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Gupta |first=Abhijit |date=20 February 2011 |title=A Venetian in Calcutta |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/a-venetian-in-calcutta/cid/1189346 |access-date=19 November 2024 |website=[[The Telegraph (India)|The Telegraph]]}}</ref> Civil Architect of Calcutta, Superintendent of Roads,<ref name=":3" /> and building inspector.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Marzo Magno |first=Alessandro |date=5 April 2022 |title=Il conte Edoardo Tiretta, grande seduttore trevigiano di Calcutta (che gli dedica un mercato) |url=https://www.ilgazzettino.it/nordest/treviso/edoardo_tiretta_conte_seduttore_calcutta_mercato_bazar_trebaseleghe-6609381.html#?refresh_ce |access-date=19 November 2024 |website=Il Gazzettino |language=it}}</ref> He also became a land-owner and businessman, earning a degree of affluence and prominence in the city.<ref name=":1" /> Systematic [[land registration]] was introduced in the Bengal Presidency by legislation of the [[Supreme Council of Bengal]] on 9 January 1781 and registered in the [[Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William]] on 1 February 1781. Tiretta was appointed the first surveyor and registrar under this legislation, at a salary of 1000 [[Indian rupee|sicca rupees]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://wbregistration.gov.in/(S(acpify2ps1ajf1hfxgjo2jo5))/history.aspx |access-date=19 November 2024 |website=Directorate of Registration and Stamp Revenue, Government of West Bengal}}</ref>

Diarist [[William Hickey (memoirist)|William Hickey]] left the following account of Tiretta: "By birth he was an Italian, but had spent considerable portion of his life in France and Germany{{nbsp}}... he had made no great proficiency in the English language{{nbsp}}... it being perfectly ridiculous to hear the strange mélange had made when speaking{{nbsp}}... a compound of English, French, Portuguese and [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]], interlarded with the most uncouth and ''outré'' oaths in each language."<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dubbini |first=Gianni |date=1 January 2015 |title=Una "vita globale". Il nobile Edoardo Tiretta di Treviso (1731–1809). Dall'Europa all'India britannica |trans-title=A "Global Life". The Noble Edoardo Tiretta of Treviso (1731–1809). From Europe to British India |url=https://iris.unive.it/handle/10278/3678745 |journal=Ateneo Veneto |language=IT |volume=14/2 |pages=9–36}}</ref> [[James Augustus Hicky]], the founder of [[Hicky's Bengal Gazette]], gave him the nickname of "Nosey Jargon" owing to his habit of prying into others' affairs.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Chakraborty |first=Trinanjan |title=Tiretta Bazaar: Calcutta's Casanova connection |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/places/tiretta-bazaar-edward-tiretta-and-calcuttas-connection-with-casanova/cid/1954238 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241208235900/https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/places/tiretta-bazaar-edward-tiretta-and-calcuttas-connection-with-casanova/cid/1954238 |archive-date=2024-12-08 |access-date=2025-09-02 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Tiretta Bazaar ===
{{Main|Tiretta Bazaar}}
Around 1783, Tiretta was given permission to construct a "[[Pucca housing|puckabazaar]]" in central Calcutta of an area comprising around nine [[Bigha|''bighas'']] and eight [[Katha (unit)|''cottahs'']] of land, "with convenient shops, surrounded with a colonnade [[veranda]]": this is the eponymous Tiretta Bazaar.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Javed |first=Zeeshan |date=6 April 2019 |title=Bowing Out? |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/bowing-out/articleshow/68747124.cms |access-date=19 November 2024 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}</ref> The bazaar became the nucleus of India's first Chinatown.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Paul |first=Trinetra |date=1 November 2024 |title=Chinatown in Kolkata: Experience the roots of Indian Chinese at Tiretta Bazaar and Tangra |url=https://www.lifestyleasia.com/ind/travel/chinatown-in-kolkata-tiretta-bazaar-and-tangra-best-restaurants-to-visit/ |access-date=19 November 2024 |website=Lifestyle Asia India |language=en-IN}}</ref> However, Tiretta had a reversal of fortune over the next three years, verging on bankruptcy. He announced the sale of his bazaar as well as several other properties by [[lottery]] in the ''[[Calcutta Gazette]]'' on 2 December 1788. This "Tiretta's Lottery" consisted of six prizes; the bazaar was the first prize with a valuation of nearly two [[lakh]] sicca rupees.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 December 1788 |title=Plan of a Lottery, Submitted to the Public, Consisting of Six Valuable Prizes |url=https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0002676/17881204/012/0002 |access-date=18 November 2024 |work=[[Calcutta Gazette]] |pages=2}}</ref> A gentleman by the name Charles Watson won the lottery for Tiretta Bazaar but opted to retain the old name.<ref name=":0" />

=== Marriage and family ===
Tiretta married a teenaged French girl named Angelique Carrion (1778–1796), the orphaned daughter of a French officer from [[Chandannagar|Chandernagore]],<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last1=Simeoni |first1=Gianluca |last2=Hauc |first2=Jean-Claude |date=2022 |title=A propos de Edoardo Tiretta |url=https://pric.unive.it/fileadmin/user_upload/Giacomo-Casanova/doc/CASANOVIANA5.pdf |journal=Casanoviana |language=FR |volume=5 |pages=43–52}}</ref> at the age of 59.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Robb |first=Peter |date=2006 |title=Children, Emotion, Identity and Empire: Views from the Blechyndens' Calcutta Diaries (1790–1822) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3876604 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=175–201 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X06001946 |jstor=3876604 |issn=0026-749X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> She died at the age of 18<ref name=":1" /> giving birth to their daughter.<ref name=":0" /> Their daughter's name is recorded variously as Angelique{{Emdash}}like her mother<ref name=":4" />{{Emdash}} and as Josephine.<ref name=":6" />

In March 1797, he bought a plot of land on [[Park Street, Kolkata|Park Street]], and had his wife's remains reinterred there. This new cemetery was presented by Tiretta to the Roman Catholic community of Calcutta.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blechynden |first=Kathleen |url=https://ia800908.us.archive.org/18/items/calcuttapastpres00blec/calcuttapastpres00blec.pdf |title=Calcutta: Past and Present |publisher=W. Thacker & Co. |year=1905 |location=London |pages=177 |language=EN}}</ref> This cemetery was razed in 1977<ref>{{Cite web |last=Das |first=Soumitra |date=2024-02-26 |title=Untold stories of Park Street cemeteries disinterred |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/news/untold-stories-of-park-street-cemeteries-disinterred/cid/2002969 |access-date=2025-09-02 |website=[[The Telegraph (India)|The Telegraph]]}}</ref> and Angelique's tomb was lost, although several other tombs were relocated to the [[South Park Street Cemetery]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=Ghosh |first=Dipayan |date=2022-07-20 |title=The Invisible Cemeteries of Calcutta |url=https://qz.com/india/883891/the-invisible-cemeteries-of-kolkata |access-date=2025-09-02 |website=[[Quartz (publication)|Quartz]]}}</ref> The land is occupied by a school.<ref name=":7" />

The writer [[Giovanni Comisso]] wrote about his own ancestry: "Edoardo Tiretta from Treviso, my maternal ancestor, had participated in Casanova's life. I went to my grandmother, who was a Tiretta and was born in 1824 and I asked her if she remembered anything about this ancestor [...] My grandmother remembered in her childhood a relative of hers, called "the Indian", who went around Treviso dressed in green and must have been the daughter of [...] Edoardo."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Comisso |first=Giovanni |date=2020-06-12 |title="Il nuovo Casanova" di Giovanni Comisso – La rivisitazione della vita di un libertino del Settecento {{!}} Premio letterario Giovanni Comisso |url=https://www.premiocomisso.it/il-nuovo-casanova-di-giovanni-comisso-la-rivisitazione-della-vita-di-un-libertino-del-settecento/ |access-date=2025-01-15 |language=it-IT}}</ref>

== Retirement and death ==
On 31 August 1802, Tiretta wrote to [[Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley|Lord Wellesley, Governor-General of India]], requesting permission to retire.<ref name=":6" /> His request was granted around October 1803, and he was also provided a pension of 532 rupees per month for life. Tiretta's assistant Richard Blechynden (great-grandfather of tea trader [[Richard Blechynden]]) succeeded him as land surveyor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robb |first=Peter |title=Sentiment and Self: Richard Blechynden's Calcutta Diaries, 1791–1822 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-19-908860-7 |edition=1st |location=New Delhi |pages=36–37}}</ref>

In 1807, Tiretta returned to Treviso with his daughter; his youthful crime was either forgotten or overlooked.<ref name=":4" /> He died there in March 1809 at the age of 77.<ref name=":4" /> His place of burial is unknown.<ref name=":0" /> Tiretta's will, written in London in 1806, is held at the [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|UK National Archives]].<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Will of Edward Tiretta of Treviso, Kingdom of Italy |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D912048 |access-date=2025-07-07 |website=The National Archives}}</ref>
== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1731 births]]
[[Category:1809 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century people from the Republic of Venice]]
[[Category:People from the Bengal Presidency]]
[[Category:Surveyors]]
[[Category:Builders]]
[[Category:19th-century Italian architects]]
[[Category:Europeans in India]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian architects]]

Edoardo Tiretta - Revision history

DwainKilgore21: Made article