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Casanova
Giacomo
Girolamo Casanova (aka Jacques Casanova; born April
2, 1725, in Venice – died June 4, 1798, in Dux,
Bohemia, now Duchcov, Czech Republic) was a famous
Venetian adventurer, writer and womanizer.
Although
he is often associated with Don Juan because both
of them seduced many women, Casanova is in fact very
different from his fictitious counterpart. While Don
Juan is a legend, Casanova is an historical character.
Unlike Don Juan, Casanova genuinely loved the women
he seduced, often remaining friends with them long
after their affair ended. His numerous love affairs
are only one aspect of Casanova's life.
Casanova
is universally known for his ability to seduce and
conquer many a woman's heart. According to his autobiography
Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life), regarded as
one of the most authentic sources of the customs and
norms of social life during the 18th century, he slept
with 122 women during his lifetime.
Casanova
was born in Venice in 1725 to actress Zanetta Farussi,
wife of actor Gaetano Giuseppe Casanova. His biological
father is generally believed to have been Michele
Grimani, a member of the patrician family who owned
the San Samuele theatre where Zanetta and Gaetano
worked for a time. Casanova was the first of six children.
Giovanni Alvise (1730-1795), Faustina Maddalena (1731-1736),
Maria Maddalena Antonia Stella (1732-1800) and Gaetano
Alvise (1734-1783) were likely fathered by Gaetano,
while Francesco (1727-1803) may have been the son
of another man. Neither parent paid much attention
to any of the children, and Casanova never had a chance
of developing a close bond to either of them. Casanova
would himself sire many children outside of wedlock,
but like his own parents he never paid them any serious
attention.
Before
Gaetano died in 1733 he appealed to the Grimanis to
take care of his family, which resulted in Casanova
being sent to boarding school in Padua to be educated,
something which at this time only a son of a middle
or upperclass family could have expected. He showed
great promise as a student and quickly became his
teacher's favourite, naturally quick-witted, with
an intense appetite for knowledge and a perpetually
inquisitive mind. It was also here that he came into
contact with the opposite sex for the first time in
his life when his teacher's younger sister apparently
gave him his first orgasm at the age of 11. At the
age of 16 he obtained his doctorate in Law from the
University of Padua, where he had studied moral philosophy,
chemistry, mathematics and law. He was keenly interested
in medicine and later in life regretted not having
made a career out of it, although he became an eager
and often instinctively good amateur doctor.
In
1740 Casanova was back in Venice where he started
his clerical law career in the church as an abate.
By now he had become something of a dandy – tall
(1.91 m or 6 ft 3.25 in, according to his passport
of 1757) and dark, his long hair powdered, scented
and elaborately curled. He quickly ingratiated himself
(something he was to do all his life) with a 76-year
old Venetian senator, Alvise Gasparo Malipiero. Malipiero
moved in the best circles and taught young Casanova
a great deal about good food and wine and how to behave
in society. He never spent much time on his church
career, due to his his restles nature and preoccupation
with sex. According to his memoirs, he lost his virginity
at the age of 16 in a threesome.
His
career in the church was short and tainted by scandals.
After he left the church, he bought a commission to
become a low ranked military officer for the Republic
of Venice, and went to Constantinople after which
he was stationed a short period on Corfu. He found
his advancement too slow and boring and soon abandoned
his military career. Back in Venice, he became a violinist
in the San Samuele theatre, which was still owned
by his probable biological father Michele Grimani.
At the age of 21, he saved the life of a Venetian
nobleman from the Bragadin family, who became his
life-long patron and raised Casanova to the status
of a wealthy gentleman. Due to another scandal, this
time about a freshly buried corpse dug up in order
to play a practical joke - the victim went into a
coma never to recover - and charges of rape against
a young girl, of which he was later aqquitted, Casanova
left Venice in 1748.
Having
spent time in Paris, Dresden, Prague and Vienna he
returned to his home town of Venice in 1753. In July
1755, at age 30, he was arrested and convicted for
his interest in magic/witchcraft by the Inquisitori
di Stato in Venice, and imprisoned in "I piombi"
("The Leads"), a famous prison attached
to the Doge's palace. Casanova was given 5 years but
was neither informed of trial nor sentence. On the
first of November 1756 he managed an extraordinary
escape from what was one of the most secure prisons
of his time. No inmate before Casanova had managed
to escape (see "Histoire de ma fuite des prisons
de la République de Venise qu'on appelle les
Plombs"). He fled to Paris, where he arrived
on the same day (January 5, 1757) that Robert-Francois
Damiens made an attempt on the life of Louis XV -
some sources say literally minutes afterwards, though
others argue the time of day.
In
1760 Casanova started styling himself the Chevalier
de Seingalt, a name he would increasingly use for
the rest of his life. On occasion he would also call
himself Count de Farussi (using his mother's maiden
name). When Pope Clement XIII presented Casanova with
the Papal Order of the Eperon d'Òr, Casanova
was overjoyed that he could at last honestly could
call himself a Chevalier. In 1761 Casanova represented
Portugal at the Augsburg Congress, which France had
organized in an attempt to end the Seven Years' War.
During
his lifetime Casanova travelled extensively over Europe
and managed to visit all its capitals, from many of
which he was expelled due to various scandals. In
1766 he was expelled from Warsaw due to a duel with
Count Colonel Xavier Branicki with pistols over a
ladyfriend of theirs. Both were wounded. It was not
the first duel Casanova had fought, neither would
it be his last.
Casanova
retired in 1785 and became the librarian to Count
Joseph Karl von Waldstein, a chamberlain of the emperor,
in the castle of Dux, Bohemia (now Duchcov, Czech
Republic) where he died at age 73. It was at the Castle
of Dux that he wrote his autobiography. His last years
were dull, painful, boring, and frustrating for Casanova.
Although he got on well with the Count, the Count
had his own preoccupations and had little time for
his librarian, often ignoring him at meals and failing
to introduce him to important visiting guests. Casanova
was thoroughly disliked by most of the other inhabitants
of the Castle of Dux and the servants were often spiteful
to the old man, though many were reported to harbour
deep attraction for him.
One
of the reasons for Casanova's success as a lover was
that he, unlike most eighteenth-century men, paid
a great deal of attention to the other gender's pleasure
as much as he did his own. He also delighted in being
seduced; though he is often thought of as the great
seducer, he much preferred to consider himself the
object of female desire. He believed himself in love
with many of the beautiful women he pursued, and,
unusually for his time, often treated them as his
equal and remained dear friends with them long after
the affairs ended. He slept with a few men for the
experience of it, and throughout his life he had an
interest in transvestism. Venereal disease and gambling
were two other major features of his life. The latter
was a passion which almost, but not quite, equalled
that for women. He won and lost many fortunes due
to gambling; in Paris he made a fortune by starting
a state lottery, but lost it all when he invested
his money in a silk factory.
Although
best known for his prowess in bed, he was recognised
by his contemporaries as an extraordinary person.
Prince Charles de Ligne, a great Austrian statesman
who knew most of the prominent individuals of the
age, thought that Casanova was the most interesting
man he had ever met and said of him, "there is
nothing in the world of which he is not capable".
Count Lamberg wrote that he knew "few persons
who can equal him in the range of knowledge and, in
general, of his intelligence and imagination".
During
Casanova's numerous travels he encountered historical
figures such as Pope Clement XIII, Catherine the Great,
Frederick the Great (who afterwards commented on his
good looks), Madame de Pompadour, Crebillon, who was
also his French teacher, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin,
and many others. He was present at the premiere of
Mozart's Don Giovanni and possibly made last minute
revisions to Lorenzo Da Ponte's libretto. Although
Casanova took the role of businessman, diplomat, spy,
politician, philosopher, magician, and writer, with
over 20 books and several plays credited to his name
(including a translation of the Iliad and a history
of Poland – "Istoria della turbolenze della
Polonia") – most of which were generally
admired – for the greater part of his life he
was a stranger to work, living largely on his quick
wits, luck, social charm, and the money freely given
to him by others. Few who gave him money regretted
their benevolence. Credit:
Wikipedia
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