Profile of Giacomo Casanova on Famous Like Me

Casanova is the name of a film from 2005.

Casanova is also the name of a commune of the Haute-Corse département of France, on the island of Corsica.

Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (April 2, 1725–June 4, 1798) was a famous Venetian adventurer and writer.

Casanova led an extraordinary life and memorialized his exploits in his autobiography "Histoire de Ma Vie", which is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of social life during the 18th century. During his numerous travels Casanova made and lost fortunes, and encountered historical figures such as the Pope Clement XIII, Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great, Madame de Pompadour, Crebillon who was also his French teacher, Voltaire, and many others. In the musical realm he was present at the premiere of Mozart's Don Giovanni and possibly made last minute revisions to Da Ponte's libretto.

Casanova was born in Venice in 1725, the first child of two actors. He was a sick child, and suffered from constant nosebleeds until the age of eight when, according to his account, a witch cured him through a series of rituals. Soon after, he was sent to a boarding school near Padua, where, belatedly, his intellect began to develop: he learned how to read within a month, and showed other promising signs of cleverness. At the age of 17, he obtained his doctorate in Law from the University of Padua and embarked on a clerical career. His early travels took him to southern Italy and to Rome where he became a secretary in the service of the cardinal. His career in the church was short, as it was tainted by scandals to which Casanova seemed to be naturally attracted throughout all his life. Soon after, he bought the commission to become a low ranked military officer for the Republic of Venice, and was stationed on Corfu. He laid his military ambitions aside when he found his advancement in the military too slow, and became a violinist out of necessity back in Venice. At the age of 21, he saved the life of a Venetian nobleman from the Bragadin family, who became his life-long patron, raising Casanova to the status of a wealthy gentleman.

Until his old age, Casanova led a frivolous lifestyle throughout Italy and France and, in fact, frequented all major capitals of Europe. His talent as a speaker earned him the reputation as a great conversationalist within the diverse social circles that he visited, and he often succeeded in duping wealthy socialites by claiming to be a magician. In 1755, at age 30, he was convicted of witchcraft by the Inquisitori di Stato in Venice, and imprisoned in "I piombi" ("The Leads"), a famous prison attached to the Doge's palace. He managed an extraordinary escape from what was one of the most secure prisons of his time (see "Histoire de ma fuite des prisons de la République de Venise qu'on appelle les Plombs"), and fled to Paris, where he arrived on the same day that Damiens made an attempt on the life of Louis XV. In Paris he made a fortune by starting a lottery, but lost it all when he poorly reinvested his money in a silk factory. His exile from the Republic of Venice and his banishment from France led him to many curious adventures in other countries, from most of which he ended up being banished as well. Later in his life he also took on the roles of spy, diplomat, and writer. Casanova retired in 1785 and became the librarian to the Count of Waldstein in the castle of Dux, Bohemia (now Duchcov, Czech Republic) where he died at age 73.

Modern View

On his deathbed, Casanova gave the manuscript of his autobiography "Histoire de ma vie" to a relative. It is from a somewhat fictionalized adaptation of this work that our modern view of Casanova is largely derived. An accurate version of the manuscript was not published until 1960.

Casanova (and the archetype that he has come to represent) has appeared in a significant number of both regular and "adult" movies. The first was the 1918 Hungarian movie of that name by Alfréd Deésy in which the director also played the title role. (Also featuring an early film performance by Bela Lugosi). One well known representation was in 1976 by Donald Sutherland in Il Casanova di Federico Fellini. BBC television in the United Kingdom has twice produced dramas named Casanova based on his life - once in 1971, written by Dennis Potter, and again in 2005, written by Russell T. Davies (starring David Tennant and Peter O'Toole as the young and old Casanova, respectively). The most recent (and only current) biography is Derek Parker: Casanova (London, Sutton, 2002).

Works

• 1752 - Zoroastro, tragedia tradotta dal Francese, da rappresentarsi nel Regio Elettoral Teatro di Dresda, dalla compagnia de' comici italiani in attuale servizio di Sua Maestà nel carnevale dell'anno MDCCLII. Dresda.
• 1753 - La Moluccheide, o sia i gemelli rivali. Dresda
• 1769 - Confutazione della Storia del Governo Veneto d'Amelot de la Houssaie, Amsterdam (Lugano).
• 1772 - Lana caprina. Epistola di un licantropo. Bologna.
• 1774 - Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia. Gorizia.
• 1775 - Dell'Iliade di Omero tradotta in ottava rima. Venezia.
• 1779 - Scrutinio del libro "Eloges de M. de Voltaire par différents auteurs". Venezia.
• 1780 - Opuscoli miscellanei - Il duello - Lettere della nobil donna Silvia Belegno alla nobildonzella Laura Gussoni. Venezia.
• 1781 - Le messager de Thalie. Venezia.
• 1782 - Di aneddoti viniziani militari ed amorosi del secolo decimoquarto sotto i dogadi di Giovanni Gradenigo e di Giovanni Dolfin. Venezia.
• 1782 - Né amori né donne ovvero la stalla ripulita. Venezia.
• 1786 - Soliloque d'un penseur, Prague chez Jean Ferdinande noble de Shonfeld imprimeur et libraire.
• 1787 - Histoire de ma fuite des prisons de la République de Venise qu'on appelle les Plombs. Ecrite a Dux en Boheme l'année 1787, Leipzig chez le noble de Shonfeld.
• 1788 - Icosameron ou histoire d'Edouard, et d'Elisabeth qui passèrent quatre-vingts ans chez les Mégramicres habitantes aborigènes du Protocosme dans l'interieur de notre globe, traduite de l'anglois par Jacques Casanova de Seingalt Vénitien Docteur en lois Bibliothécaire de Monsieur le Comte de Waldstein seigneur de Dux Chambellan de S.M.I.R.A., Prague à l'imprimerie de l'école normale.
• 1790 - Solution du probleme deliaque démontrée par Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, Bibliothécaire de Monsieur le Comte de Waldstein, seigneur de Dux en Boheme e c., Dresde, De l'imprimerie de C.C. Meinhold.
• 1790 - Corollaire à la duplication de l'Hexaedre donée à Dux en Boheme, par Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, Dresda.
• 1790 - Démonstration géometrique de la duplicaton du cube. Corollaire second, Dresda.
• 1797 - A Leonard Snetlage, Docteur en droit de l'Université de Gottingue, Jacques Casanova, docteur en droit de l'Universitè de Padoue.
• 1960-1961 - Histoire de ma vie, F.A. Brockhaus, Wiesbaden and Plon, Paris.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Giacomo Casanova