Who is Casanova? Story of my life. Heroic Age of Adventurers

Giacomo Casanova was not a poor man

In the history of human development there are names that have become common nouns, as is the name. When one of the men is called by this name, it immediately becomes clear that this person is literally a real red tape who does not miss “a single skirt.”

This is exactly what Giovanni Giacomo Casanova was, born in sunny Venice on April 2, 1725. The boy was the offspring of an artist who, while married to a colleague in the profession, sinned and gave birth to a child from the director of the theater in which she performed. A year later, she tried to get rid of the child and gave him to his grandmother to raise. And she again began to wander around in other people’s beds - well, apparently little Casanova did not inherit the best genetics on his mother’s side and affected his entire future fate.

From his parents he inherited a love for theater, an art in which he was well versed as an adult. But let's return to the childhood and adolescence of the young offspring of artists. While still small, eleven years old, he had already learned what sexual desire was and quite seriously intended to marry a young lady who was only two years older than him. Of course, the marriage was not destined to take place, because the teenager studied at school in Padua and entered the university here, where he studied law.

His youth was spent in fun and friendship with such people as the Count of Lyons and Abbot Bernie. At the same time, he meets a courtesan on his way, who managed to make a great lover out of Casanova. She made him understand that only by being able to satisfy a woman could he allow himself to be satisfied. Having taught him all possible techniques that can excite a woman and bring her to orgasm. Her merit also lies in the fact that Giacomo Casanova used sex toys all his life, so he had the prototype of a modern dildo made of wood and covered with leather. The love for spying on other people's sexual acts and anal sex came later.

Casanova and the Theological Seminary

But Casanova is 17 years old and he becomes a doctor of law, after which he decides to enter a theological seminary. But it was not there! Casanova could not finish it, overwhelmed by lust, he showed an exorbitant interest in female and was in no way suitable for the role of a priest. Moreover, he was also seen in homosexual relations with one of the seminarians. For his numerous love affairs, he was simply expelled from the seminary, and a year later he managed to end up in Fort San Andrea, but his own intrigues were to blame for this.

Rumors about his talent as a lover spread quite quickly, both young and not so young women tried their best to get Casanova. And he never refused anyone, taking advantage not only of their bed, but also of their generosity - he never disdained any gifts from a generous woman’s hand - be it gold coins or jewelry with diamonds. True, one of his love affairs ends sadly - he is expelled from Venice.

How his life would have developed if not for these circumstances is unknown, but having been expelled from Venice, Casanova went on a trip, first through Italy, and then through Europe, where he managed to visit Paris. A few years later, he was granted mercy, returned to his hometown, and having already known the love of women and caressed by the attention of Senator Bragadino, Casanova began to play music in 1746, and became a violinist in the senator’s house and, of course, successfully seduced women.

An irresistible craving for travel and adventure haunts the young and full of strength a man, and at the age of 28 he again goes to Europe, this time to Vienna, Dresden and Prague. But the restless Casanova always strove to return to his hometown and his path again lies in Venice. As you can see, Casanova did not remember the laws of Venice very well, because he soon ends up in prison again, accused of blasphemy and fraud. And in the same 1756 he managed to escape from prison and leave Venice incognito.

Casanova - French secret agent

Portrait of Giacomo Casanova

At that time, his friend from his youth, Abbot Berni, received a rather significant post - the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France. Remembering his friendship with Casanova, he invites him to Paris with only one goal - to make the latter a secret agent. Well, Bernie’s plan was a success and gradually Giacomo Casanova becomes one of those people who is actively involved in diplomatic activities, especially since all the doors of the women’s bedrooms were open for him, and he was allowed into any of the houses, so strong was his reputation as a first-class lover

The adventurer Casanova even managed to become the director of a French lottery and open his own manufactory. It would seem that everything was going well, he leads social life, is engaged in speculation, has enough funds, but two years later everything suddenly ends at the moment when Bernie loses the post of minister and his place is taken by the Duke de Choiseul.

Once again, traveling around Europe, uncertainty, random money, fate entered the stage of a dark period, which did not end even after returning to Paris. This time, in 1759, he was sent to the French prison of Fort l'Evêque. In Paris, he incurred debts, and, as you know, you can’t always escape from them. It wouldn't be Casanova if he couldn't get out of prison two days later, but at what cost? A secret mission in Holland, that's what he agreed to for the sake of freedom.

A year later, he already goes to Germany, where he manages to visit Cologne and Stuttgart, but even here he has no peace from creditors, they are hot on his heels, but the clever adventurer still manages to elude them and get to Paris through Switzerland. A year later he was back in secular society and politics, as evidenced by the fact that he represented Portugal at the Augsburg Congress.

Casanova loved not only women, but also beautiful life, and debts followed him everywhere, even when he was in London, from which for this reason he had to flee. Here was another, one of the brightest love stories Casanova and the courtesans of Chaipillon. It ended very pitifully - with a complete lack of money and flight.
And now again a visit to Germany, where in Berlin he was presented to King Frederick the Great. The king invites him to enroll in military service and take command cadet corps, but Casanova doesn’t want to be tied to one place at all, so he prefers to give up the place. Boredom, boredom... She drives him on the road again, and he gets ready to hit the road again.

Casanova in Russia

And so in 1765, Casanova decided to visit Russia and see Moscow and St. Petersburg. Here he is introduced to Catherine II, reigning at that time. The queen did not share the ladies’ general delight in meeting the intriguer; she did not like him, and therefore he did not manage to get a position at court.

In Russia, too, there was a love adventure, which for him was the acquisition of a peasant woman for 100 rubles. He saw her when one day he was walking with a new friend, officer Stepan Zinoviev, around Yekateringof. The girl’s beauty struck her and forced her to pursue the fugitive all the way to the house, where she managed to hide. Serfdom made it possible to buy a girl, which the Venetian agreed with her father.

Nyura, or as Casanova called her in his memoirs, Zaira, was extremely smart and after only three months of communication, she spoke Italian quite well and, among other things, learned all the tricks of love. He dressed her in the most fashionable dresses, taught her manners, and made her into a completely well-bred girl. Zaira also had a drawback - she was a terribly jealous person and once almost killed an Italian by throwing a bottle at him.

Time flew by unnoticed and the eternal wanderer Casanova was drawn to change, but he could not just take and return the girl he had completely changed back to her parents in the peasant hut. Then he decides to arrange it future fate and “places” her with the architect Rinaldi, a 70-year-old man who soon died, leaving his entire fortune to Zaira.

Casanova in Europe

Casanova loved many women, but not for long. Sex sport :)

And Casanova again got ready to travel, this time to Poland. In Warsaw, he was treated kindly by the king and moved in high society, but his proximity to the theatrical world played a cruel joke on him - a conflict arose with Count Bernadsky over an actress, which ended in a duel and Casanova’s flight from the country.

Casanova is again traveling through European countries, which change one after another - new people, new places, mistresses. Wherever he appeared, his activities were somehow connected with espionage, fortunately he was involved in high circles all states. During this journey, while in Spain, he was imprisoned twice, but as usual, he did not stay there for long.

In 1770, his friend Bernie became a cardinal, their friendship was renewed and, of course, Casanova returned to Italy, but he received permission to return to Venice only five years later.

Arriving in Venice, he becomes an agent, and this time not of the government, but of the Inquisition, simultaneously receiving the position of director of the theater. Antonio Pratolini - that was his name in the denunciations to the Inquisition.

The restless Casanova again could not stay in one place, and literary activity, the publication of the pamphlet “Neither Love nor Women” became the reason for his new flight from Venice, in addition to his next novel. Having ridiculed the top of Venetian society in a pamphlet, he thereby sentenced himself to exile. This time he decides to go to Austria and the Czech Republic.

The stiffness of the Austrian court and its ladies, who were inordinately proud of their virginity, was incomprehensible and ridiculous for the libertine, as well as for any Italian. He didn’t like it here at all, however, there was nothing to do - he had to live somewhere.

A year later, he returns to his beloved city, which constantly rejected him, like foreign body. This was the last visit to Venice, after which he goes to Vienna, accepting the post of secretary of the ambassador, and there he meets Count Waldstein. The friendship that has developed between them leads to the fact that the count invites Casanova to leave for his estate, to which he agrees.

Count Waldstein was fond of alchemy and magic, and therefore Casanova not only works as his librarian, but also, with his characteristic curiosity, takes part in the count’s experiments.

It was last trip which Casanova did. By the time he went to live on the count’s estate, he was no longer interesting to the ladies - aged and having spent all his sexual energy, he could only pretend to have a relationship with some simple lady of advanced age.

Casanova's old age

It is surprising that with such a turbulent life, Giacomo Casanova died a natural death, not in a duel or in prison

Giacomo Casanova lived a rather long life, and always wrote his memoirs, but from the age when he turned 49, stories about love adventures disappear. Apparently by this age, he was no longer able to satisfy any woman. Hundreds of love affairs are attributed to him; in fact, he never set out to count them. A good expert in female psychology and a master of flirting, he valued the opportunity to turn a woman’s head; the game of seduction brought no less pleasure than intimacy. His success is also explained by the fact that he gave each woman a small piece of love, and not just sex, and his memoirs are permeated with a slight sadness of partings, and tenderness for each of them. But in addition to love adventures, the memoirs contain many descriptions of life situations and those people with whom he happened to be acquainted, including both mere mortals and the monarchs ruling at that time.

Being an educated and versatile person, Casanova wrote several literary works during his life, including “History of Troubles in Poland”, the novel “Icozameron”, the comedy “Moluccaida”, a translation of Homer’s “Iliad” and a number of other translations of French novels and his own writings. Casanova's works were published frequently, but they were constantly modified, sometimes getting rid of various passages, sometimes changing their meaning, and the original memoirs were published only in the 60s of the last century.

He died immediately, on the estate of Count Waldstein at the age of 73 (July 4, 1798). An old, sick and lonely old man, who left his indelible mark on the history of mankind as the most talented seducer, unrivaled lover, writer, adventurer and philosopher, spy and freemason, sharper and duelist, a man of irrepressible passions and a sharp mind.

Story of my life

Giacomo Girolamo Casanova

THE AGE OF GREAT ADVENTURERS

1861 F.M. Dostoevsky writes that “Casanova’s personality is one of the most remarkable of his century”, introduces the Russian reader to “Memoirs”, publishing excerpts in the magazine “Time”, which is published by his brother. The writer states in the preface that this is “entertaining reading,” but “it is impossible to translate the entire book. She is known for certain eccentricities, the frank presentation of which is rightly condemned by the morality accepted in our time.”

1887 Abridged Russian translation of “Casanova’s Memoirs” in one volume, edited by V.V. Chuiko.

1960 On April 21, the Brockhaus company in Wiesbaden and the Parisian publishing house Plon began the first complete publication of the original text of Casanova's Memoirs.

2009 There is still no complete Russian translation of Casanova’s memoirs, but the Zakharov publishing house is publishing a two-volume edition containing a collection (the most complete set) of all translations existing in Russian.

“They say that old age makes a person wise: I don’t understand how you can love the effect if the cause is disgusting.”

Heroic Age of Adventurers

A quarter of a century separates the Seven Years' War from the French Revolution, and all these 25 years there has been a stifling calm over Europe. The great dynasties of the Habsburgs, Bourbons and Hohenzollerns were tired of fighting. The burghers smoke serenely, blowing smoke in rings, the soldiers powder their braids and clean their no longer needed guns; the exhausted peoples can finally rest a little, but the princes are bored without war. They are bored to death, all these German, Italian and other princelings in their tiny residences, and they want to be amused. Yes, it’s terribly boring for these poor fellows, all these petty electors and dukes in their ghostly grandeur, in their newly built, still damp-cold palaces in the Rococo style, despite all sorts of amusing gardens, fountains and greenhouses, menageries, parks with game, galleries and cabinets of curiosities. . With blood-squeezed money and with manners quickly learned from Parisian dance masters, they, like monkeys, imitate Trianon and Versailles and play “grand residence” and “sun king.” Out of boredom, they even become patrons of the arts and intellectual gourmets, correspond with Voltaire and Diderot, collect Chinese porcelain, medieval coins and baroque paintings, order French comedies, invite Italian singers and dancers - and only the ruler of Weimar manages to invite several Germans to his court - Schiller , Goethe and Herder. In general, boar baiting and pantomimes on the water are replaced by theatrical divertissements - for always in those moments when the earth feels tired, the world of play - theater, fashion and dance - acquires special importance.

The princes try to outdo each other in spending money and diplomatic tricks in order to win away from each other the most interesting entertainers, the best dancers, musicians, singers and organists. They lure from each other Gluck and Handel, Metastasio and Gasse, as well as cabalists and cocottes, fireworks and boar hunters, librettists and choreographers. For each of these princes wants to have in his small court the newest, the best and the most fashionable - in essence, more to spite the small-scale neighbor than to benefit himself. And here they have masters of ceremonies and ceremonies, stone theaters and opera halls, stages and ballets. Only one more thing is missing to dispel the boredom of a provincial town and give a real secular appearance to the hopelessly boring faces of the unchanged sixty nobles: there are not enough noble visitors, interesting guests, cosmopolitan foreigners - a living newspaper - in a word, a few raisins in the fermented dough, a small breeze from the big world - in the stuffy air of a residence located on thirty streets.

And as soon as word spreads about this, look, from who knows what corners and secluded places all sorts of adventurers are already rolling in under hundreds of disguises and robes, a night later they roll up in mail carriages and English carriages and with a broad gesture rent the most elegant suite of rooms in the best hotel . They are wearing fantastic uniforms of some Hindustan or Mongolian armies, and they wear loud surnames, which in fact are the same imitation as the fake stones on the buckles of their shoes. They speak all languages, talk about their acquaintance with all rulers and prominent people, they allegedly served in all armies and studied in all universities. Their pockets are filled with projects, their speech is replete with bold promises; they are plotting lotteries and divertissements, state unions and factories, they propose women, castrati and orders, and although they themselves do not have ten gold coins in their pockets, they whisper in everyone’s ear that they have the secret of the alchemists. At each court they refine themselves in new arts: here they perform under the mysterious veil of Freemasons and Rosicrucians*, there, with a money-loving ruler, they play the role of experts in chemical cuisine and the works of Paracelsus. They offer their services to the voluptuous as pimps and suppliers with an exquisite selection of goods, to the lover of wars they appear as spies, to the patrons of the sciences and arts - as philosophers and rhymers. They catch the superstitious with horoscopes, the gullible with projects, players with marked cards, and the naive with high-society elegance. But all this is invariably shrouded in an impenetrably noisy shell of strangeness and mystery, incomprehensible and thereby doubly entertaining. Like will-o'-the-wisps that suddenly flare up and beckon into a quagmire, they flicker and sparkle here and there in the still and musty air of residences, appearing and disappearing in the ghostly dance of deception.

At the courts they are received, amused by them, without respect for them and with as little interest in the authenticity of their nobility as wedding rings their wives and the virginity of the girls accompanying them. For in this immoral atmosphere, poisoned by decadent philosophy, anyone who brings entertainment or alleviates boredom, this terrible disease of the rulers, is welcomed without further questioning. They are willingly tolerated along with the girls, as long as they amuse and as long as they do not rob you too brazenly. Sometimes this pack of artists and swindlers receive a glorious kick in the ass, sometimes they roll out of the ballroom into prison or even onto the galleys, like the director of the Viennese theaters Giuseppe Afflisio. Some, however, stick tightly and become tax collectors, lovers of courtesans, or even, as obliging spouses of court harlots, real nobles and barons. Usually they do not wait for the smell of scandal, for all their charm is based only on novelty and mystery: when their cheating becomes too brazen, when they reach too deeply into other people’s pockets, when they settle down at home for too long at some court, suddenly someone may appear who will lift their mantle and show the world the mark of a thief or the scars of a convict.

The famous Venetian adventurer, “citizen of the world”, as he certified himself, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725 - 1798), whose name became a household name, was not only one of most interesting people of its era, but also its symbol, its reflection. Before his contemporaries and descendants, his readers, he appeared as a truly versatile, encyclopedically educated person: 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, and 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 constantly turn to the legend of Don Juan. The eternal image of the Seducer appears in Byron and Pushkin, Hoffmann and Mérimée, Heiberg and Musset, Lenau and Dumas. It was in this tradition that Casanova’s notes were perceived, which for many years were considered the height of indecency. They were banned from publication and 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 for Mozart of the opera “Don Giovanni” (1787). But Casanova’s “Don Juan list” can only amaze the imagination of a very exemplary family man: 122 women in thirty-nine years. Of course, such lists in Stendhal and Pushkin are shorter, and in the famous novels of those years, which were labeled “erotic” (such as the most fascinating “Phoblas” by Louvet de Couvray, 1787 - 1790), there are fewer heroines, but is that true? Is that a lot - three love affairs a year?

Casanova's personality was hidden under many masks. Some he put on 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 the era, a literary tradition that fit the memoirs into 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 to be the norm in the 18th century became the exception in the 19th century.

The adventurer's main wealth is his reputation, and Casanova carefully maintained it all his life. He immediately turned his adventures into fascinating stories that occupied the society (“I spent two weeks going to lunches and dinners, where everyone wanted to listen in detail to my story about the duel”). He treated his oral “short stories” 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 by him and published, naturally grew into memoirs, which largely retained the intonation of a living oral speech, a performance 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 introduced him as the brother of the famous battle painter. Casanova was unbearable at the thought that his descendants would not know about him, because he was so eager to make people talk about himself, to become famous. Having created memories, he won the duel with Eternity, the approach of which he almost physically felt (“My neighbor, Eternity, will know that, in publishing this modest work, I had the honor of being in your service,” he wrote, dedicating his last essay Count Waldstein). The legendary man arose precisely when the memoirs were published.

But, recreating his life anew, transferring it to paper, Casanova moved into the space of culture, where different, artistic laws apply. 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, is guided by models known to him (for example, French politicians of the 17th - 18th centuries diligently imitated the heroes of Plutarch, especially during 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 from political map The Venetian Republic, conquered by Napoleon's troops), it is literature that preserves the memory of behavioral norms and offers them to the reader.

Giacomo Casanova belonged to two cultures - Italian and French, which he spent most of his life entering into. Casanova wrote his first literary creations in his native language, but at the end of his life he completely switched to French (although he continued to sin with Italianisms). At that time it was a truly international language, it was spoken in all European countries, 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), a great artist and adventurer who escaped from prison and spent many years in France, like our hero.

Casanova’s memoirs, which at first raised doubts among both readers and researchers about their authenticity (bibliophile Paul Lacroix even considered them to be the author of Stendhal, who really valued the Venetian’s notes), are, in general, very truthful. For many episodes, documentary evidence was found already in the 20th century. Of course, Casanova tries to present himself in the most favorable light, keeping silent about what discredits him, but in many cases he breaks the chronology, rearranges events, combines similar ones (for example, 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 depicts on the pages of his memoirs, can subjugate the truth of life. So, when Casanova’s benefactor and victim 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: the adventure and picaresque novel, the psychological story coming from the 17th century, the career novel and the “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 is revealed.

In France, as often happens, interest in memoirs arose after periods of strong social upheaval: religious wars (1562 - 1594), the Fronde (1648 - 1653). Prose then was dominated by multi-volume baroque novels, where the heroic and gallant adventures of centuries ago were glorified in a sublime style - as in “Artamen, or the Great Cyrus” (1649 - 1653) by Madeleine de Scudéry. Memoirs that described the recent past brought into literature genuine and cruel events, bloody dramas, love affairs, military exploits, examples of high nobility and calculating 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 prepared the way for the “plausible” novel of the 18th century.

Memoirs were written (or, less often, secretaries composed for them) queens (Marguerite of Valois, Henrietta of England), ministers (Sully, Richelieu, Mazarin), nobles, court ladies, military leaders, judges, prelates (Dukes of Bouillon, Angoulême, Guise, de Rohan , Mademoiselle de Montpensier, Marshal Bassompierre, first president of parliament Mathieu Molay, Cardinal de Retz, etc.), aristocratic writers (Agrippa d'Aubigné, Francois de La Rochefoucauld). The popularity of memoirs was so great that at the turn of the 17th - 18th centuries, the interpenetration of “fiction” and “documentary” prose began. Fake memories of genuine historical figures have appeared. They were produced in large numbers by the gifted writer Gaetan Courtille de Sandra, the most famous of which are “Memoirs of M. d’Artagnan” (1700), where military exploits, espionage, deceptions, political intrigues and, most importantly, success with women bring good luck to a musketeer.

Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (Italian: Giacomo Girolamo Casanova), Chevalier de Sengalt (April 2, 1725, Venice - June 4, 1798, Dux Castle, Bohemia) - a famous Italian adventurer, traveler and writer, author of a detailed autobiography “The Story of My Life” (French. Histoire de ma vie).

At the age of 11, Casanova was seriously planning to marry 13-year-old Bettina, the sister of a priest from Padua, with whom he was then living. However, the arguments of the holy father convinced Giacomo that becoming an abbot would make him happy sooner than becoming an exemplary family man. When the boy was 15 years old, he returned to his hometown of Venice. To begin with, Giacomo achieved the position of preacher in the Venetian church of San Samuele, in which he was baptized. The young, charming abbot turned the heads of the parishioners. However, the abbot's career was ruined due to a drunken stunt.
The fame of the young abbot quickly spread throughout Venice. The lords and senoritas showered their lover with cute trinkets: diamonds, gold coins and expensive furs, vying with each other to invite him to stay at their estates. But Giacomo quickly got bored with all this, and he chose to go to the Seminary of San Cipriano on the island of Murano. But from there, for his love sins, he was sent for correction to the Venetian fort of San Andrea di Lido, which is at the exit to the Adriatic. So Giacomo turned from an abbot into a prisoner.
However, there Giacomo fell ill. Doctors could not identify the strange disease (only in 1879 it received the name “gonorrhea”). Nevertheless, he was prescribed six weeks of strict fasting and cold mercury lotions. Casanova recovered, although during treatment he could not refuse the company of pretty women. He was even proud of the first of his “occupational injuries” (by the end of his life there would be 11 varieties).

From Venice, Casanova fled to Calabria, in southern Italy. To celebrate, he went to a brothel, where he acquired a second illness and lost all the money to a company of tipsy monks. The province was not to Casanova's taste, and he goes to Rome. The Colosseum seemed to him gloomy ruins, but the labyrinths of the ancient Villa Aldobrandini and the gardens of Villa Borghese, on the banks of the Tiber, were for him a real paradise. Which is not surprising, because young girls were constantly walking there! Isn't this a dream?
Casanova was 25 years old when he first visited Paris. Giacomo settled at the Hotel de Bourgogne, famous for that that Moliere lived there. Gradually, he began to earn money as a “supplier” of beauties to wealthy citizens. For him, love is no longer just a vital need, but also a profession. He seduced the girls he liked (most of all he liked young, thin brunettes), taught them the science of love, social manners, and then, with great benefit for himself, yielded to others - financiers, nobles and even the king himself.
Soon Casanova, accused of further sins, fled to Austria. This country terrified Casanova, because in comparison with the good-natured Pope and the cheerful French court, Empress Maria Theresa looked like a real evil inquisitor. Casanova initially behaved modestly and earned the favor of Maria Teresa and King Franz Stephen. But soon he could not resist and seduced a thirteen-year-old girl, for which he received an order to immediately and forever leave Austria.

At dawn on July 25, 1755, the Inquisition accused Casanova of believing in Satan because he ate meat during Lent. Casanova was imprisoned in Piombi prison for 5 years. The prison consisted of small rooms under the roof of the Doge's Palace. And the roof of this palace was covered with lead slabs.
Escape from captivity became Casanova's persistent dream. After a year and three months, he escaped from prison, which was always considered impossible. He escaped by making a hole in the ceiling and climbing out onto the roof. Casanova's flight from Piombi caused a lot of noise in Europe and brought fame to the adventurer. So at 31, Giacomo Casanova became again a free man, but already with a reputation as a political emigrant.

In Paris he had two houses: a luxurious apartment on Rue Montorgueil and a mansion called Petit Pologne (Little Poland). It stood on a small hill next to the royal hunting park. Casanova got rich and became a real playmaker. There were also open clashes with representatives of justice.
Some time later, Casanova was arrested on the Rue Saint-Denis in his own wheelchair. The police took him to Fort-Léveque prison and kept him there for two days until the Duke of Elbeuf (one of Casanova's lovers) paid bail. Casanova was released and went to Holland, and then moved to Switzerland.

On December 15, 1764, riding six horses in fifteen-degree frost, Casanova rode into St. Petersburg. Here he was interested in everything: factories, churches, monuments, museums, libraries. He visited Tsarskoe Selo, Peterhof and Kronstadt. In the Summer Garden, Giacomo talked with Catherine II.
A year later, Giacomo returned to Germany. Over 39 years, Casanova's Don Juan list included 122 women. He slept with aristocrats, with prostitutes, with nuns, with girls, and maybe even with his daughter. There is a version that in Dresden Casanova met his daughter Sophie, who was married and wanted to have children, but her husband turned out to be infertile. Casanova was always happy to please a pretty woman, especially own daughter. Sophie got pregnant and happy father went to Spain. From 1775 to 1783, Casanova was an informant for the Inquisition, reporting on the reading of forbidden books, free morals, performances, etc. He even had a pseudonym - Antonio Pratolini.

Years passed, and the only constant in Casanova’s life was wandering. He wandered around Austria, Holland, and France. When the young and very rich Count Waldstein found out about him, Casanova lived in poverty in Teplitz (a city in modern Czech Republic). The Count gave Giacomo the post of librarian at his Bohemian castle of Dux (Spirits). There, Giacomo was no longer engaged in love conquests (due to impotence and gout), but in writing memoirs. In his memoirs “The Story of My Life” (written in 1791-1798, and published in 1822-1828), he described his many love and adventurous adventures. From that time on, Casanova's memoirs gained worldwide fame and were soon translated into many European languages. His book was admired by Stendhal, Musset, Delacroix, Akhmatova, Blok, and Tsvetaeva.
Casanova died on June 4, 1798. He was buried in the cemetery in Dux, but no one knows the exact location of his grave.

Name: Giacomo Casanova

Age: 73 years old

Height: 187

Activity: writer, poet, diplomat, adventurer

Family status: wasn't married

Giacomo Casanova: biography

The future adventurer was born at a time when the Venetian Republic was rightfully considered the “capital of pleasure”: the highest ranks, although they had conservative views, were calm about social vices and developed tourism. As part of the grand tour, Casanova's hometown was visited by young aristocrats who were attracted by gambling houses, courtesans and the famous Carnival. It was in this light atmosphere that one of the most famous Venetians of the 18th century grew up.

Childhood and youth

Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was born in Venice on April 2, 1725. He was the eldest of five children of the actress Zanetta Farussi and the dancer Gaetano Giuseppe Casanova. It is known that two brothers - Francesco Giuseppe and Giovanni Battista - became painters, another, Gaetano Alviso, was a priest. Giacomo's only sister Maria Magdalene married a court musician and worked as a dancer at the Dresden Theater.

For certain known facts The origin of Giacomo Casanova was questioned by the publication Armenia.im. In one of their articles in 2017, employees conducted an investigation, at the end of which they concluded that the adventurer was Armenian by nationality. The publication reports that the Armenian Casanova family appeared in Venice in the 18th century, and it was Giacomo who dealt with the case of tax evasion by Armenian merchants in the city of Trieste.

The main arguments of the publication are based on the fact that in order to communicate with traders, Casanova had to know Armenian. Historians are confident that Giacomo could speak with merchants in his native Italian, and the “Armenian family” was not Casanova, but Noratungyan. How are these two names related? The fact is that “casa nova” translated from Italian means the same thing as “nor tun” from Armenian - new house. There is no more significant evidence for the nationality hypothesis.

Giacomo's father died when he was 8 years old. His mother earned money by touring Europe, so the boy spent his childhood with his grandmother Marcia Baldissera. The child suffered from nosebleeds, so on his 9th birthday he ended up in the Padua boarding house for treatment. In one of his essays he would later write that this event was an unpleasant surprise: it seemed to Giacomo that they had gotten rid of him.

The living conditions the boarding house provided were terrible. The boy asked to be taken into the care of his first teacher, Abbot Gozzi, who taught him science and music. From 1734 to 1737, Casanova lived in the family of a priest. There he first falls in love with Gozzi's younger sister, Bettina.

Casanova was naturally intelligent and learned new things quickly and easily. At the age of 12 he entered the University of Padua, from which he graduated 5 years later, receiving a law degree. As he would later write in his essays, the profession did not suit him, but trustee Gozzi hoped that Giacomo would become a church lawyer.

The science that interested Casanova was medicine. The young man wanted to become a doctor, but fate decided differently. IN student years Giacomo showed interest in gambling for money: he quickly found himself in debt and was even called to a conversation with his grandmother. But it did not affect his addiction - his love for the game only took root.

Career

After finishing his studies, he returned to his hometown and got a job as a church lawyer. His appearance already at that moment made the young man stand out from the crowd. Black-eyed, with carefully styled hair, height 1.87 m - his data allowed him to quickly acquire a patron, the Venetian senator Alviso Gasparo Malipiero. He taught the young man etiquette and business manners.

His church career did not work out; he even ended up in prison for debts. Giacomo decided to acquire an officer's patent: he ordered an incredible white uniform with gold epaulettes from a tailor, and bought a long saber. With this look, the handsome man wanted to defeat the residents of the city. But a military career was too boring for the adventurer, and he lost his salary.

Casanova leaves the service and gets a job as a violinist at the San Samuele Theater, where he took part in scandalous festivities and dubious entertainments with pleasure. Giacomo realized the harmfulness of such a life, but saw no other way. Until one day, his knowledge of medicine allowed him to change his life: he found himself in the same gondola with Senator Giovanni di Matteo Bragadin. The official became ill, and Casanova provided first aid.

The senator appointed Giacomo as his advisor, trying to make him a respectable and educated person. But Casanova loved the idle lifestyle and gambling so much that he could not put an end to it. Giovanni warned that such behavior would end badly, and he was right. For the evil prank of his enemy, to whom Giacomo and his company planted a corpse, he was accused of blasphemy and debauchery. Fearing prison, Casanova flees to Parma.

In 1749, he travels around Italy, leads a dissolute lifestyle, and then goes to Paris. Along the way, he repeatedly indulges in lovemaking.

He lived in France for two years, learned the language, but his lifestyle attracted the attention of the police, so Casanova decided to leave for Germany, then to Austria. As a result, he finds himself in Venice again: drinking and carousing becomes even more unbridled.

Giacomo ends up in a prison for political prisoners, he was accused of a crime against faith. However, Casanova managed to escape, not without the help of his patrons. The adventurer goes to Europe again. Giacomo decided to behave more reservedly, introduced himself as an alchemist, and was familiar with and.

Personal life

Casanova's first contact with the opposite sex occurred at the age of 11, in the house of teacher Gozzi. The priest's younger sister Bettina became his beloved. Casanova in his memoirs will describe her as beautiful, cheerful and passionate about reading. It was this girl who kindled feelings in the heart of the famous adventurer that would become Giacomo’s main passion. Despite the fact that Bettina got married, Casanova retained warm feelings for her throughout his life.

After the first feelings of love and intimate relationships The Casanovas were not burdened by seriousness. In his memoirs, he wrote that the main concerns of life were feelings and pleasures. However, Casanova was always prudent, using “safety caps”, which the man first checked by inflating. Burdening himself with children was not part of his plans.

The ideal relationship, according to Giacomo, consisted of four stages: first he found a woman who was dissatisfied with her lover, then he relieved her of the difficulty. Then he seduced the lady, starting a fleeting romance. At the end of the relationship, the lover, losing interest in the woman, set her up with a rich man or arranged her marriage. Giacomo himself was never officially married.

Many of his adventures are described in his memoirs. Historians admit that the stories are full of inaccuracies and may be exaggerated, but the outline of the plot is realistic. It is the memories that allow us to guess how many women Casanova had - at least 120, and in several places in the memoirs the author hints between the lines about relationships with men.

Death

As a result of financial fraud, Casanova acquired a silk manufactory in France. But he was not interested in business: he spent most of the profits on love affairs with his subordinates, turning them into a harem. And again the debts, and again he is on the run. Years of wandering did not pass without a trace for Giacomo: after he was discovered venereal disease, the adventurer returned to Venice.

There were no connections left there, there was no money for women and games. Casanova lived at the expense of the Inquisition - they paid money for espionage. Simply put, he collected gossip about citizens and recorded their statements about the authorities.

In those years, Casanova began to write satirical works, which local residents taken away for quotes. They planned to arrest Giacomo for them, so he again decides to leave Venice.

Last years During his life, Casanova worked as a library keeper at Dux Castle in the Czech Republic. Creativity became the only joy. The man died at 73, far from his homeland, leaving behind about 20 works, the main of which are the memoirs “The Story of My Life.” For more than 6 years he wrote his memoirs without having time to finish them: after Giacomo’s passing, the editors divided the 3,500 sheets into 10 volumes.

Image in culture

The image of Casanova in culture is still relevant: films are made about him, songs are written - the memoirs he left contributed to such fame. The surname Giacomo has become a common name - the nickname “Casanova” is usually given to young men who often change lovers.

The characters in Uncle's Dream talk about his notes. Federico Fellini's Casanova won an Oscar for better job costume designer, and the British newspaper Guardian called the film a “masterpiece.” I tried on the image of a ladies' man.

In 1987, he played the role of Casanova, and in 2005 a series was released in which Giacomo was played by two actors at once: he portrayed a young hero, Peter O’Toole - an adventurer in old age. A modern viewer will immediately remember Lasse Hallström’s film “Casanova,” which was released in 2005. Main role performed in the tape.

The image of Giacomo also appeared in musical compositions, for example, “Casanova” for cello and brass band by the Dutch author Johan de Mey received first place at international competition composers in 1999. Well, every Russian is familiar with the lines of the incendiary hit dedicated to Casanova:

"I am love's lonely tramp Casanova!"

Movies

• 1927 – “Casanova”
• 1943 – “Munchausen”
• 1948 – “The Mysterious Cavalier”
• 1969 – “Childhood, vocation and first experiences of Giacomo Casanova, Venetian”
• 1976 – “Casanova Federico Fellini
• 1981 – “Casanova”
• 1982 – “New World”
• 2006 – “Signs of Love”
• 1987 – “Casanova”
• 1992 – “The Return of Casanova”
• 2002 – “The Young Years of Casanova”
• 2005 – “Casanova”

Quotes

“Being a woman means being able to run away so that you are sure to get caught...”

“They say that old age makes a person wise: I don’t understand how you can love the effect if its cause is disgusting.”

“In our happy times, prostitutes are not needed at all, since decent women willingly meet all your desires.”

“A woman is only as old as she looks.”

“Laughing is the legal right of those who know how everything really happened.”

“You can learn a lot from inexperienced girls.”

"What is love? This is a kind of madness over which reason has no power. This is a disease to which a person is susceptible at any age and which is incurable.”

“I do not conquer a woman, but submit to her.”

“... a person who studies himself carefully will find only weakness in himself.”