He’s been called the world’s greatest lover. He was certainly a major womanizer, having over a hundred affairs with different women. In many cases his partners were what would be considered underage by today’s standards, and some of his liaisons involved women who were emotionally or psychologically unstable. He was an adventurer looking for pleasure everywhere he went, often being run out of town for his involvement in scandals. But he also was an important author in that his thorough memoirs provided a major insight into the social mores of Italy and France of the period in which he lived, 1725-1798.
Early Life: Giacomo Casanova was the son of two theater actors in 1725 in Venice, that was at the time the Republic of Venice on the Italian Peninsula. The parents were often out of town with their acting troupe leaving him to be raised primarily by his maternal grandmother, Marizia Farussi. Growing up with the theater in his life helped develop his skill of improvisation and his ability to think on his feet. He graduated from the University of Padua at age seventeen with a law degree. He learned to gamble while at the University, a habit that he kept throughout his life. When gambling debts mounted, he returned to Venice and began his clerical law career. At that stage in his life, he had his first complete sexual experience with two sisters, aged fourteen and sixteen. From that point forward he made living with pleasure the cornerstone of his life.
Many Different Occupations: His career with the church did not last long as he was embroiled in a scandal while working as a scribe for Cardinal Acquaviva in Rome. He was the scapegoat for a love tryst, and was dismissed from his job. He next attempted to further his fortunes in the army, but the gambling bug took most of his pay, so he resigned from the army and returned to Venice. He thought he could succeed as a professional gambler, but after attempting it for a while he lost all he had. An old benefactor from earlier in his life helped him into a job as a violinist for the San Samuele Theater in his old neighborhood. After a time, he lost interest and instead got into major mischief with his fellow musicians.
Senator Bragadin as a Benefactor: His lucky card turned up one day when he saved the life of a Matteo Bragadin, a senator from the aristocratic Bragadin family, who had a heart attack. Casanova hurried to his aid and helped him home, even staying on to watch over him. The grateful senator thought that Casanova had the brains and maturity far beyond his youthful age. He invited Casanova into his household and became his lifelong benefactor. Employed by Bragadin as a legal assistant, Casanova impressed those in Bragadin’s social circle with his knowledge and charm, and he advanced into the upper strata of Venetian society.
Many Loves: In those days, Venice was noted for its promiscuity and debauchery. Casanova spent substantial time in and around the theaters where his comfort zone was strong. He met and intermixed with nobility and commoners alike, and found himself carrying on with all sorts of willing females. The Republic’s annual Carnival would last for over five months, where people often wore masks and costumes while reveling in the streets. His disguises emboldened him to mix with strange women whom he would later seduce. Gambling was also very large in Venice at the time, and Casanova often went all in and came away with nothing. His gambling debts multiplied, and he even solicited money to gamble from some of the women he seduced. After being accused of rape, but being acquitted for lack of evidence, he decided to leave Venice.
The Love That Got Away: His adventures lead him to Cesena, Italy, where his fortunes turned up again. He met a Frenchwoman who was on the run from an abusive husband. They both fell deeply in love with each other, and carried on for three months before she broke it off. He called her Henriette, and for him it was probably the deepest love he ever felt for any woman in his life. She was intelligent and was able to see through him early in the relationship by penetrating his protective shell. It isn’t clear why she left him, but both were on the run and traveling incognito. She was astute enough to discover his volatile temperament and precarious finances along with his lack of social background. It could easily be dismissed as just a terrific, but brief love experience for either one of them. But when she left, he was heartbroken.
A Stint in Prison: His travels took him to Paris for few years, and then to Dresden in what is now Germany. His mother, brother, and sister lived there, and a play he had written was performed at the Royal Theater, where his mother often performed. He disliked the tighter moral standards, however, and eventually returned to Venice, where his escapades got him into trouble with the law. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Leads, a local prison for less violent prisoners of higher social status. Several months later he made a daring escape out to the roof of the next building, Doge’s Palace, and got away by gondola. He turned up in Paris where he reconnected with his old friend, de Bernis, who now was France’s Foreign Minister. He was advised to do what he could to help bring money into the Treasury, so he became a trustee of the first state lottery in France. He rebounded financially and soon was back into high society in Paris, and in bed with a number of socialite women.
On the Run from the Authorities: He turned down an opportunity to receive a title in France, but made some bad investments and fell deep into debt again. His patron, de Bernis, was dismissed as Foreign Minister, so he left on the run to Holland. His project there failed and he was on to Cologne, Stuttgart, Switzerland, Marseille, Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples, Modena, and Turin. In each place he enjoyed one fling after another until the debts rang up and he was on the run again. Then it was off to England, Austria, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Breslau, and Spain. In Russia he obtained a twelve-year-old girl as a sex slave. While on the run he twice he encountered venereal disease, and was wounded in a dual with a Polish army officer over an Italian actress. He escaped an assassination attempt while in Spain, but landed in jail for six weeks. Finally, he returned to Italy.
His Memoirs: In his later years his life and romantic escapades slowed down considerably. He wound up working as the librarian for Count Joseph Karl von Waldstein in the Castle of Dux in Bohemia, or present-day Czech Republic. He was cared for, but bored, so he turned to writing his memoirs. He wrote in the French language that he spoke fluently, since he thought that French was more widely read than Italian. He only reached to 1774 in his life’s chronology before he died in 1798 at age seventy-three. His memoirs were retained by his family until 1822, when the manuscript was sold to a German publisher who printed a heavily redacted version. Other pirated versions were printed and distributed, but the complete text in French, the language it was originally written in, was finally published in 1960. The National Library of France acquired the rights in 2010, and digitalized it for all posterity.
Conclusions: Casanova’s life was filled with ups and downs. He would do well with an opportunity presented to him only to squander it with gambling and debauchery. His motto in life was to pleasure himself as much as possible without bearing any true responsibilities for it. Although tall and handsome, his best human trait probably was his likability, as he got along with commoners, aristocrats, clergy, and nobility alike. At least twelve movies have been made with stories taken from his life.
Sources: Casanova’s Venice, Giorgio Pirazzini, National Geographic History, January/February, 2023.
Wikipedia, Giacomo Casanova.