The manuscript commences at the start of section II, with the first leaf numbered '5'. The pagination of the succeeding leaves indicates the original drafting began with at that point since each leaf is repaginated. The typescript appears with a 3pp introductory chapter which presumably was composed between the first draft and the typed version.

The essay in which Symons discusses Casanova and his memoirs, and his arrest (Casanova and Venice) was first published in the Anglo Dublin Review (July 1918) and then reprinted under the title Memoirs of Casanova in Vanity Fair. Symons wrote an introduction to Machen's 12 volume translation of the Works of Casanova published in the 1920s.

The manuscript (exactly as it is now) was lot 9914 in the Anderson Galleries sale of John Quinn's library in 1924.

Holograph manuscript, black ink, 22 sides on 21 leaves of lined paper, many corrections and deletions with several additions. one section pasted in, [together with] 16pp typescript in blue on laid paper, some light authorial corrections throughout, enclosed together in a blue cloth folding case and blue quarter morocco slipcase. Typescript folded once, some foxing and minor edgewear to the manuscript leaves.