The Lame Devil, printed in Venice in 1733, is the Italian translation of the famous French novel Le Diable boiteux by Alain-René Lesage, originally published in 1707 and inspired by the Spanish story El diablo cojuelo by Luis Vélez de Guevara. The 1733 Venetian edition was translated into Italian by Abbot Nicola Felletti and printed by Giovanni Battista Recurti. The protagonist is a student, Don Cleofa (or Cleofas), who frees the devil Asmodeus from a magical prison. In gratitude, the devil flies him above the city and grants him the power to see inside houses, as if the roofs were lifted. From this privileged position, the two observe the secrets, hypocrisies, romantic intrigues, scams, and ambitions of the inhabitants. The work is above all a satire of manners . Although the action is nominally set in Madrid, French readers of the time easily recognized many exponents of contemporary Parisian society in the characters. This contributed enormously to the book's success. The novel belongs to the tradition of the picaresque and satirical novel and anticipates many aspects of the European Enlightenment.