Casanova - who is this? History of Giacomo Casanova. The modern meaning of the word "casanova. For everyone and about everything Entry into adulthood

At the mere sound of this person's name, memory immediately pulls the label "adventurer" from its bowels and adds the stereotypical adjective "famous." Still, after all, the name of Casanova has become a household name, like the names of Don Juan and Lovelas!

Back in 1967, an international congress of Casanova's descendants took place in Italy. The main purpose of the meeting was to restore good name their ancestor. All the speakers spoke with such pathos that, as journalists wrote in their reports, there was a danger not only of Casanova's rehabilitation, but of turning him into a downright puritan. Fortunately for the truth, things did not go that far.

Casanova, especially the young one, with all the desire, cannot be called, of course, an ascetic. He convinced himself very early that his true calling was love affairs. But, perhaps, such a reputation of Casanova, exaggerated by rumor, completely overshadowed other features of his appearance. Everyone knows that he was a Don Juan.

But, in addition, he was an abbot, an officer, a musician, a diplomat, a doctor of law, an engineer, an economist, a manufacturer, a philosopher, a writer, a historian, an art critic, an astronomer, an impresario, a librarian, a freemason, a secret agent, a soothsayer, a forger, a gambler - it’s difficult list all professions and "professions" that Casanova tried. And the most amazing thing: no matter what he undertook, he always looked like a professional, in which he was helped by versatile erudition and unparalleled arrogance.

He was interested in pedagogy and agronomy, medicine and linguistics; he made himself a source of income from the occult sciences, considering it by no means reprehensible to profit from the stupidity of his neighbors. He was engaged in the history of cards, bondage and compiling the Dictionary of Cheeses.

Having visited Poland, he began to publish the history of Polish uprisings (three volumes out of the planned seven were published); also discovered was his "Project for the Construction of a Soap Factory in Warsaw". In Paris, he is the organizer of the royal lottery and the owner of a workshop for the production of silk-printed fabrics (he developed new technology), in Spain he is a land reformer, in Courland he tours the mines with the air of a specialist, in Venice he offers new way matter colors.

Thousands of plans and projects are constantly swarming in his head. He composes a political dialogue with Robespierre, publishes a pamphlet against Cagliostro, with which he needed to settle old scores.

As one of his biographers jokingly noted, Casanova extended his courtship of women to nine muses. He was accepted as a member of the Roman literary academy "Arcadia". He translated the Iliad and wrote poetry, although here he did not disdain cheating tricks: he often dedicated the same poem to different ladies. Plays, opera and ballet librettos came out from under his pen.

With the voluminous novel Ikosameron, he anticipated J. Verne, describing in it how two Englishmen, a brother and a sister, having descended underground, find themselves in a utopian country. Drawing a picture of a developed civilization, he predicted the appearance of cars, airplanes, telegraph, television and even poison gases, thereby far ahead of his era in his thoughts.

Giacomo Casanova was born in Venice in 1725. His mother was the actress Giovanna Farussi, he wrote a comedy for her and commemorated her in his memoirs Carlo Goldoni. By the way, for two years she performed with the Italian troupe at the court of the Russian Empress Anna Ioannovna. Casanova's father was, according to biographers, the owner of the theater "San Samuele" nobleman Michele Grimani.

Several reliable portraits of Giacomo Casanova and many descriptions of his appearance made by contemporaries have survived. In his swarthy, olive-tinted face - contradictory, like the rest of Casanova - there was some kind of demonic ferocity and at the same time soft good nature. He was tall and athletic. Always carefully and tastefully dressed. His sword certainly had a precious handle; rings, snuffboxes and pistols are of the finest workmanship. After 1760, another detail was added to his toilet - the Order of the Golden Spur, which gave him the right to nobility, which was granted to him by Pope Clement XIII.

In his endless wanderings, Casanova did not forget Russia, where he visited in 1764-1765 (among his papers is a passport issued to him in St. Petersburg on September 1, 1765 and signed by Vice-Chancellor Prince Alexander Golitsyn). Of course, here, too, he remained true to himself: before Catherine II, he acts as a reformer of the calendar, convincing her to adopt the Gregorian style. His ode in Italian in honor of Catherine was also found.

The report also survived, apparently written in St. Petersburg, outlining his thoughts on the development of agriculture and breeding silkworms. Casanova met with the favorite of the Empress Grigory Orlov, with Chancellor Nikita Panin and with Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, later Director of the Academy of Sciences and President of the Russian Academy.

Venetian, who had seen almost everything by that time European capitals, struck Petersburg - a city "improvised by Tsar Peter", as he put it. Casanova writes in her Memoirs about Russian frosts and white nights: “At midnight you can read a letter without a candle. The phenomenon is amazing, isn't it? .. "

He also visited Tsarskoye Selo, Peterhof, Kronstadt. “He who has not seen Moscow has not seen Russia,” he wrote. “Holy Moscow will be the true capital of the Russians for a long time to come.” His apt remarks indicate that he sought to get to know Russia as best as possible.
There was something about this man that drew the attention of his most enlightened contemporaries to him. He visited Rousseau and Voltaire (with whom he argued in print), sat at the same table with the "immortal" Fontenelle, the editor of the Encyclopedia d'Alembert and Franklin. Charles de Lin was proud of his friendship, thanks to which many details about recent years Casanova's life...

Ludmila Zadorozhnaya

: marya-iskysnica.livejournal.com

Most of our contemporaries associate the name of Giacomo Casanova with numerous amorous adventures. Meanwhile, this is not entirely true. First of all, Casanova was one of the most educated and mysterious people of his time.

Son of actress and aristocrat

It is known that Casanova was born on April 2, 1725 in Venice. His real name is Giacomo Girolamo. The boy's parents were actors Gaetano Giuseppe Casanova and Zanetta Farussi. But according to one version, Giacomo's father was his mother's lover, the Venetian patrician Michele Grimani.

The child was raised by her maternal grandmother, Marcia Faroussi. The boy turned out to be capable of science and by the age of sixteen had already graduated from the University of Padua, and with two doctoral degrees - in theology and law. After that, the young man went on a journey: first to the Greek island of Corfu, and then to Constantinople.

Handyman

Not having special means, Casanova labored in a wide variety of fields. The Encyclopædia Britannica says of him: "Preacher, writer, warrior, spy and diplomat." He also studied mathematics, history, finance, music, served as a librarian with Count Waldstein in the Czech castle of Dux, and even was a member of the Masonic Order.

Giacomo traveled all over Europe. He visited France, Holland, Spain, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, Prussia, Poland. At the same time, among his acquaintances were the most prominent people of that time - Rousseau, Voltaire, Mozart, Saint-Germain. He communicated with monarchs, ministers, cardinals and even the Pope.

From the hands of Pope Clement XIII, our hero received the Order of the Golden Spur - for services in the field of diplomacy. At the same time, the Venetian inquisitors sentenced Casanova to five years in Piombi prison for allegedly engaging in witchcraft. Giacomo was the first who managed to escape from there, and even with a prisoner from a neighboring cell!

In France, Casanova was in the service of King Louis XV. One of the missions entrusted to him was a secret inspection navy. He also negotiated with Dutch bankers on behalf of the Ministry of Finance. In Spain, he promoted the plan to populate the Sierra Morena with Swiss and Bavarian peasants. Russian empress Catherine II offered to hold agrarian reform, colonize the Volga region and Siberia, breed silkworms near Saratov ...

However, his the main objective- to take a high position at one of the European courts - was never achieved. All his projects gave only a temporary result, and then he had to look for something new. More than once Casanova tried to organize own enterprises- but burned out every time. True, the nobility accepted him as an equal. No one guessed that the "Chevalier de Sengalt" or "Count Jacob Casanova de Farussi" was actually the grandson of a Venetian shoemaker.

By the way, Casanova was quite a prolific author. In addition to his twelve-volume autobiography, The Story of My Life, he wrote fantasy novel"Ikozameron", the book "History of Troubles in Poland" and others works of art. He also translated Homer's Iliad into Italian and wrote a number of mathematical treatises.

Knight of love

Although love affairs Indeed, there was a lot in Casanova's life, he still cannot be called a 100% Don Juan. In my memoirs great adventurer mentions only 144 ladies with whom he had an affair. True, in one of Giacomo's letters he admits that in fact he had about three times more women than described in his autobiography.

Well, even if there were about five hundred of them. If we take into account that the described period of sexual adventures covers approximately forty-five years, then it turns out that on average Casanova twisted eleven novels per year. The number, of course, is impressive, but not astronomical.

It is worth adding that Casanova treated women quite nobly, was always generous to them, trying to fulfill any whims of another lover. He could sacrifice for the lady of the heart important things, and in love he tried not so much to take as to give. In addition, you will not find bad reviews about any of the women in his memoirs. Although there were reasons: mistresses often sought to use Giacomo in their own interests or even rob to the skin.

There is a legend that women who come to look at Casanova's grave in a quiet cemetery in Czech Duchcov will certainly cling to the hem of their clothes for an iron cross set there. It seems that a great adventurer and after death maintains his reputation.

The famous Venetian adventurer, "citizen of the world", as he assessed himself, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725 - 1798), whose name became a household name, was not only one of interesting people of his era, but also its symbol, its reflection. Before his contemporaries and descendants, his readers, he appeared as a truly versatile person, encyclopedically educated: a poet, prose writer, playwright, translator, philologist, chemist, mathematician, historian, financier, lawyer, diplomat, musician. And also a gambler, a libertine, a duelist, a secret agent, a Rosicrucian, an alchemist who penetrated the secret of the philosopher's stone, who knows how to make gold, heal, predict the future, consult with the spirits of the elements. But - what is true in the myth that he created about himself?

Casanova's memoirs were published at the beginning of the 19th century, when the literature of romanticism began to incessantly refer to the legend of Don Juan. The eternal image of the Seducer appears in Byron and Pushkin, Hoffmann and Merimee, Heiberg and Musset, Lenau and Dumas. It was in this tradition that Casanova's notes, which for many years were considered the height of indecency, were perceived. They were forbidden to print, hidden from readers.

There were even purely biographical grounds for such an interpretation - Casanova was keenly interested in his literary predecessor, helped his adventurer friend Da Ponte write the libretto of the opera Don Juan (1787) for Mozart. But Casanova's "Don Juan list" can only strike the imagination exemplary family man: 122 women in thirty-nine years. Of course, Stendhal’s and Pushkin’s lists are shorter, and in the famous novels of those years that were labeled “erotic” (as, for example, in the fascinating “Foblas” by Louvet de Couvre, 1787 - 1790), there are fewer heroines, but is it is that a lot - three love affairs a year?

The identity of Casanova was hidden under many masks. He put on some himself - a native of Venice, where the carnival lasts six months, a hereditary comedian, a performer in life. Another masquerade costume was put on him by an era, a literary tradition that inscribed memoirs in its context. Moreover, the traditions (the one in which the notes were created and the one in which they were perceived) were directly opposite - what seemed the norm for the 18th century became an exception in the 19th century.

The main wealth of an adventurer is his reputation, and Casanova carefully supported her all his life. He immediately turned his adventures into fascinating stories with which he occupied society (“I spent two weeks driving around for lunches and dinners, where everyone wanted to hear my account of the duel in detail”). He treated his oral "novellas" as works of art, even for the sake of the all-powerful Duke de Choiseul, he did not want to shorten the two-hour story about the escape from Piombi prison. These stories, partially written down and published by him, naturally developed into memoirs, in many ways keeping the intonation alive. oral speech, representations in faces, played out in front of the listener. Casanova created "The Story of My Life" in his declining years (1789 - 1798), when few people remembered him, when his friend Prince de Ligne presented him as the brother of a famous battle painter. Casanova was unbearable thought that the descendants would not know about him, because he was so eager to make people talk about him, to become famous. Having created memories, he won the duel with Eternity, the approach of which he almost physically felt (“My neighbor, eternity, learns that by publishing this modest work, I had the honor to be in your service,” he wrote, dedicating his last essay to Count Waldstein ). The man-legend arose exactly when the memoirs were printed.

But, recreating his life anew, transferring it to paper, Casanova moved into the space of culture, where other, artistic laws already operate. Each era creates its own patterns of behavior, which we can reconstruct from memoirs and novels. In his everyday behavior, a person involuntarily, and more often consciously, focuses on patterns known to him (for example, French politicians XVII - XVIII centuries. diligently imitated the heroes of Plutarch, especially in times of social upheaval: the Fronde, the Revolution, the Napoleonic Empire; this tradition survived until the Paris Commune). Moreover, when the old society perishes (in 1789, when Casanova began his memoirs, the French monarchy fell, in 1795, after the third partition, Poland ceased to exist, and in 1798, the year of his death, disappeared with political map Republic of Venice, conquered by the troops of Napoleon), it is literature that retains the memory of behavioral norms, offers them to the reader.

Giacomo Casanova belonged to two cultures - Italian and French, to enter which he spent most life. Casanova wrote his first literary creations in mother tongue, but at the end of his life he completely switched to French (although he continued to sin with Italianisms). At that time it was true international language, it was spoken in all countries of Europe, and Casanova wanted it to be read and understood everywhere. "The Story of My Life" has become a phenomenon of French culture. It is from this perspective, it seems to us, that it is most fruitful to consider Casanova's memoirs, although, of course, there was a strong memoir tradition in Italy as well. Suffice it to recall the "Life of Benvenuto Cellini" (1558 - 1566), the great artist and adventurer who escaped from prison, who spent many years in France, like our hero.

Casanova's memoirs, which at first aroused both readers and researchers doubts about their authenticity (the bibliophile Paul Lacroix even considered them to be the author of Stendhal, who really appreciated the notes of the Venetian), in general, are very truthful. For many episodes, they found documentary evidence already in the 20th century. Of course, Casanova tries to present himself in the most favorable light, is silent about what denigrates him, but in many cases he violates the chronology, rearranges events, combines the same type (for example, he turns two trips to the East into one), following the laws of narration, the requirements compositions. The logic of the plot, the actions of the character he draws on the pages of his memoirs, can subdue the truth of life. So, when the benefactor and victim of Casanova, the Marquise d'Urfe, broke off relations with him, he informs the reader that she died - for him she ceased to exist.

In The Story of My Life, several plot traditions are clearly visible: an adventurous and picaresque novel, a psychological story coming from the 17th century, a career novel and a “list” novel of love victories that developed in France during the Enlightenment, and memoirs. It is against their background that the true originality of Casanova's notes manifests itself.

In France, as is often the case, interest in memoirs arose after periods of great social upheaval: religious wars(1562 - 1594), Fronde (1648 - 1653). Prose was then dominated by multi-volume baroque novels, where the heroic and gallant adventures of centuries ago were sung in a sublime style - as in Artamen, or the Great Cyrus (1649 - 1653) by Madeleine de Scuderi. Memoirs describing the recent past brought to literature genuine and cruel events, bloody dramas, love affairs, military exploits, examples of high nobility and prudent meanness. It was under the influence of memoirs that psychological stories began to emerge at the end of the 17th century (The Princess of Cleves by Madame de Lafayette, 1678), which supplanted the baroque epic and paved the way for the “plausible” novel of the 18th century.

The memoirs were written (or, more rarely, composed for them by the secretaries) of the queen (Marguerite of Valois, Henriette of England), ministers (Sully, Richelieu, Mazarin), nobles, ladies of the court, military leaders, judges, prelates (Dukes of Bouillon, Angouleme, Guise, de Rogan , Mademoiselle de Montpensier, Marshal Bassompierre, the first President of Parliament Mathieu Mole, Cardinal de Retz and others), aristocratic writers (Agrippa d'Aubigne, Francois de La Rochefoucauld). The popularity of memoirs was so great that at the turn of the 17th - 18th centuries, the interpenetration of "artistic" and "documentary" prose began. Fake memories of genuine historical figures have appeared. Many of them were made by the gifted writer Gaetan Curtil de Sandra, the most famous of them are “Memoirs of Mr. d'Artagnan” (1700), where military exploits, espionage, trickery, political intrigues and, most importantly, successes with women bring luck to the musketeer.

Giacomo Casanova lived in the eighteenth century, but the fame of his deeds and life still haunts our minds.

The eighteenth century gave us many great people, their discoveries are also great, who was the greatest lover not only of dissolute Venice, but of all of Italy, of the whole world? Casanova was not only a great lover, a cunning fellow, but also a curious traveler, a talented writer and translator. The first impetus for long wanderings and escape from his native Venice was his disorderly fornication, for which he was put behind bars. Casanova was a schemer and a cheat, a swindler and a deceiver, but he never resorted to rape. Women themselves went crazy with his athletic body, swarthy velvety skin, wit and natural liveliness of mind. For most of the women he wanted, this explosive mixture was enough, but there were those who refused him. As soon as a woman refused to be intimate with him, Casanova began to feverishly weave a network of intrigues, his pressure and signs of attention to a woman did not decrease, on the contrary, they increased. He always tried, by all means, to achieve what he wanted. He liked the competitive, promising gamut of emotions and adventures, the process of courtship. Among all the greatest lovers of history and literature, Casanova must be given her due. They never thought first of all about their pleasure, he fulfilled the most secret female desires. His art of seduction became famous thanks to his insight, he foresaw most of the female desires, and only then translated into reality. He knew how, what and how much a woman wants. Very often, Casanova himself was in love with his women until he lost his pulse. Reading his memoirs, you can be sure that he remembers a lot of people, reliably describes the events, through the lines one can see not only subtle sadness, but also devoted tenderness for each of them. It can be said that he not only received passion and love from women, but also gave it in equal measure.

Casanova was born in Venice on April 2, 1725. His mother worked on the stage of the Venetian theater, and Casanova himself could already guess about his father. At that time, Zanetta Faroussi was the wife of the dancer Casanova, who denied the child, pointing to other actors and men. Such parents would not only never be able to raise a worthy and intelligent person, they would not be able to give an elementary one, and the boy was sent to be raised by his grandmother. A little later, two younger brothers repeated his fate. The middle one, Francesco Casanova, became a famous painter who studied under the best craftsmen Venice of that time. Casanova's paintings are in the Hermitage and the Louvre, England and Italy, in best museums Europe. If Francesco was crazy about painting landscapes, and painted portraits insofar as, then his younger brother Giovanni, the famous archaeologist, considered portraiture as his hobby.

Male lust awakened early enough in a teenager under the age of eleven. In all its glory, this crazy desire made itself felt next to the sister of the owner of the house in which the grandmother lived with her grandson. Despite this, the first time Giacomo made love was only at the age of seventeen or eighteen. In twelve volumes of his memoirs, Casanova wrote a lot not so much about his life, women, but about the very pleasure that they gave him. During his long and very colorful life, he knew very young girls and respectable matrons, nuns and courtesans, widows, aristocrats and peasant women, he did not disdain men either.

Exactly. Giacomo Casanova gave his love not only to women, but also to men. At the time of his youth, the king of adventures and scams studied at the theological seminary, and prepared for holy orders, but his puritanical thoughts were never destined to come true. For his immoral study of occult literature and promiscuity, he was expelled. Almost immediately after his expulsion, he was called to serve Venice.

In adulthood, the indefatigable Casanova could make love in a record for a long time, because of the alienation to decency, he did not care about the time, place and position of what was happening. For example, during a daytime visit to one of the monasteries, a nun voluntarily gave him a deep blowjob through the bars separating them.

For Casanova, always a sensitive and weak topic was the topic of his origin, which not only embarrassed him, but literally oppressed him. As mentioned above, while preparing for a spiritual mission, the young Venetian studied the vague and inexplicable sciences quite deeply, including homeopathy. It was the study of the latter that played an important role for him. When the young adventurer turned twenty-one, fate brings him together with the domineering but very sick aristocrat Matteo Brigadin. Applying all his knowledge and skills, Giacomo managed to cure the old man from certain death, and he, in gratitude for the saved life, adopts him. The famous Chevalier de Sengalt appears: "I was not born a nobleman, I achieved the nobility myself." Newly made dad gay sponsors Casanova's trips to Paris, Naples, Rome and Constantinople. However, he had to be a Venetian court dandy for a relatively short time. Thanks to his love victories, acquired title and extravagant sense of humor, Casanova had many detractors. Soldiers seized him and put him in prison for heresy, he had cabalistic literature with him. However, the reason for the detention was not only heresy, but also blasphemy and worship of Freemasonry!

It is not known how he managed to escape from prison, only countless guesses and assumptions can be built on this topic. Having escaped from Venice, Casanova recognizes Europe. First he went to France, Germany, then cold Russia, to Switzerland ... In 1756, having arrived in Paris, Casanova earns his living by organizing the state lottery and speculation. When Paris, with its constant bustle, bored the rogue, he moved to Berlin, where he made acquaintance with Frederick the Great. The years 1764-1765 spent in Russia were marked by an acquaintance with Lieutenant Lunin, with whom Casanova exchanged vows of love and fidelity. At the same time, he was in an audience with Catherine, Empress Russian Empire, about differences in calendars. After Russia, there are still a lot of countries and cities where Casanova visited ... Casanova was very smart, educated and intelligent person, among his friends are noted: Count Alexei Orlov, Mozart, Voltaire, Goethe.

Looking at his love affairs, Lieutenant Lunin is not the only significant affection. In Geneva, after visiting Voltaire, Giacomo meets the Frenchwoman Henriette. Henriette was very beautiful, educated, well trained in court etiquette. They lived in the same hotel room for about three months, after which each of them went his own way. After a lot years, being in this room by accident, the tireless lover discovered the inscription: "You will forget Henriette," but no ... Henriette was not so easy to forget.

In 1774, the Jesuit order pulled Casanova's established political connections, his mind and natural charm to your side. This rogue spent the next seven years in Venice as a spy for the Inquisition. But the position of an informant made Casanova despondent, he was pretty fed up with the sophisticated and arrogant Venetian court, which the great lover described in his regular satirical memoirs. The memoirs were made public, from which the tops of the intelligentsia stood on end, thanks to Grimaldi, wounded to the very heart, Giacomo Casanova was forever expelled from his native Italy. Casanova devoted the rest of his life to books, literature and his memoirs in the Bohemian castle of Du with Count von Waldstein as a personal librarian.

Name: Giacomo Girolamo Casanova

Years of life: April 2, 1725 - June 4, 1798

State: Italy

Field of activity: Adventurer, Writer, Traveler

Greatest Achievement: Writing the book "The Story of My Life". Most famous lover in history.

How to call a man who does not miss a single skirt, constantly changes partners (and even manages to make them fall in love with him). Womanizer? A bit rough (although in fact). I'm sorry...too rude. And then a beautiful surname comes to mind, which has already become synonymous with inconstancy in relationships - Casanova. The name already lives separately from the owner himself. And who was a real man? Was the historical character under the name of Casanova really so loving? Or were these the machinations of the ill-wishers of the famous Venetian?

early years

The future great lover was born into a family of actors on April 2, 1725. On that day, Catholics celebrated the bright holiday of Easter, it seemed that nothing foreshadowed such an ambiguous fate of the baby. Parents constantly toured, so Giacomo and his brothers and sisters were raised by their mother's grandmother. When he was 8 years old, his father died.

Here is what needs to be done small digression about what Venice was like in those years. Despite the strict power of the Doge and the influence catholic church The Venetian Republic was a city of rather free morals. The authorities turned a blind eye to the abundance of gambling houses (as we would now put it, casinos), prostitutes who became famous throughout Italy - Venetian courtesans.

Giacomo did not like to remember his childhood - it was not too happy. He was sickly as a child, and he was sent to Padua, away from the musty air of Venice, where he spent several years alone in a monastery. Since he did not like the living conditions there, Casanova asked to live with his teacher, Abbot Gozzi.

It should be noted that Giacomo was a very smart boy, had a sharp mind and made great strides in his studies. But all this ceased to interest him when the younger sister of the abbe began to flirt with him. Giacomo himself recalled that it was she who kindled in his heart that fire of passion that would be impossible to extinguish throughout his life.

In 1737, Casanova entered the University of Padua and graduated five years later with a degree in church law. It would seem that there is nothing unusual in this fact, except for the age of the boy - at the time of admission he was only 12! Therefore, one can judge Casanova not only from a "bed" point of view, but also by his mind. Although, to be honest, studies attracted him little - at the university he became addicted to card games and lost all his money pretty quickly. I had to borrow. The grandmother heard about this and immediately called her grandson "on the carpet." He promised to improve, but there are no former gamers, as they say.

Giacomo received his first sexual experience (full-fledged) from two sisters, after which the career of a lawyer, which had just begun to improve (Giacomo even managed to get tonsured), no longer attracted the young youth. In 1743, her grandmother died, and Casanova returned to Venice, where she entered the seminary. Unfortunately, he did not stay there either - he was expelled for gambling debts.

Already young man Casanova was distinguished by a spectacular appearance - black eyes, dark hair, high growth. That is how Senator Malipiero saw him, who took the young man under his protection. He taught him good manners, etiquette (later, in order to break even higher, Casanova would come up with the title of nobility de Sengalt). In addition, for the debts, Giacomo managed to serve time in prison. But here, too, failure awaited him - he soon seduced a young Italian woman, the senator's beloved, and he could not stand such an insult and drove them both out into the street.

The beginning of a wild life

It will seem to a modern person that Casanova is just a god from bed. In fact, he had few mistresses - 122 in 39 years. But in those days it was the height of debauchery. And after the deprivation of the patronage of the highest official of Venice, Giacomo, as they say, indulges in all serious. And the punishment was not long in coming - he was sentenced to arrest for blasphemy and a dissolute lifestyle.

In 1749, Casanova fled to Parma, traveled around Italy for some time (of course, leaving behind a trail of girls he had conquered), and then moved to France.

Do you think he's calmer there? No matter how! With his unbridled behavior, he attracts the attention of the police, hiding in Germany and Austria, but the same thing is repeated there. In the end, he returns home to Venice (although it was in Paris that he met a lady named Henrietta, whom Casanova would fall in love with without memory, but his feelings remained unanswered - she was, according to him, the only woman who aroused love and passion in his heart).

The authorities were just waiting for him - until he escaped, they quickly arrested him, filed political charges and threw him in jail. However, he managed to escape - not without the help of dignitaries.

During this period - in the early 1750s, Giacomo becomes a member of the Masonic order, for which he is again arrested and this time sent to a more secure prison - Piombi, or "Lead" prison. During his term, he met (through the wall) with a neighbor - a monk who had departed from his faith and beliefs. Together they made a hole in the ceiling and climbed out of the prison to the roof, from there, with the help of a rope of sheets, to the ground and into the darkness.

last years of life

Gradually, his sexual appetite subsided. More and more he paid attention to thoughts and philosophy. Always attentive to details, Giacomo was careful in bed - he did not leave a single heir (he put on a special cap, the prototype of a modern condom). In 1763, after a night with a courtesan, he felt that sex and the love side of life no longer interested him. This was also due to the fact that he was diagnosed with a venereal disease (years of numerous sexual intercourses affected, even despite the protection). Gradually, he stopped finding young aristocrats and switched to a "cheaper" option - innkeepers, waitresses. And most of them were older ladies.

In general, his fate shook him around Europe - he lived in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic became his last refuge. In 1785, Casanova moved to Bohemia and settled in the Duchtsov castle, where he took up translations and writing books. He also began working for the first time in his life as a library caretaker. It was in this castle that his main work “The Story of My Life” was written, where, among other things, he describes his amazing escape from the Pyombi prison.

The great lover of Venice died on June 4, 1798, having finally heard that the republic was captured by troops.