Who wrote Casanova? The most famous lover is Giacomo Casanova. Giacomo Casanova: biography

He was born in Venice in 1725. His parents were actors who supposedly belonged to the famous noble family of Palafox. Giacomo was a very gifted young man who first graduated from school in Padua and then began to study law.

Prison torments

According to Casanova’s memoirs, at the age of thirty he was arrested and sent to Piombi in the “Lead Prison” to serve his sentence for crimes against the holy faith - books on magic, including the Zohar, were found in his possession.

In prison, Giacomo was placed in the most terrible conditions, where he was tormented by “hordes of fleas,” constant darkness and summer heat. But the torment was alleviated when, after five months of such a stay, at the personal request of Count Bragadin, he was moved to other prisoners, where he was given good food, a warm bed and money for books.

Casanova managed to escape from prison and thirty years later he would write a book about it, translated into many languages ​​and gaining great popularity - “The Story of My Escape.”

Casanova's secret activities

Since his mother was an actress, he early years moved in secular circles. Venice was good at keeping secrets from foreigners, so knowing anything was life-threatening. But Giacomo ignored all prohibitions and was friends with such influential people as the Count of Lyons, Abbot Berni and the French Ambassador to the Venetian Republic.

Casanova declared himself a Rosicrucian and alchemist, but Count Saint Germain himself competed with him in this:

The life of the young seducer changes dramatically after his friend Bernie becomes French Foreign Minister in 1757. In his memoirs, he wrote that Bernie always accepted him not as a minister, but as a friend, and therefore did not hesitate to ask him to carry out secret assignments. Thus, Giacomo was involved in secret diplomatic activities.

Casanova wasted no time...

Bernie tried his best to win the favor of his king, and used Casanova to carry out his plans. Giacomo, in his memoirs, thus recalls the first secret assignment. Bernie informed him by letter that it was necessary to urgently go to Versailles to meet there with the Abbé de Laville.

And then he asked if Casanova could visit about ten warships of the French fleet anchored in Dunkirk and gain confidence in the senior officers there in order to find out everything important information about the armament of ships, ammunition, command and control procedures and the number of sailors? Casanova replied to the Abbot that he was ready to try to carry out his instructions.

A couple of days later he rented a hotel room in Dunkirk. A local banker, who received orders from France, gave Giacomo one hundred louis for expenses, and in the evening introduced him to the squadron commander, Monsieur de Bareilles. The commander, as expected, first questioned Giacomo, asking several questions, and then invited him to dinner with his wife, who had just returned from the theater.

The commander and his wife were very helpful and friendly. Casanova did not waste time at the gambling tables and very quickly became acquainted with all the naval and army officers. He talked a lot about navies European countries, trying to pass himself off as a great expert in this field. Giacomo really understood this topic, since he served in the navy. A few days later, he not only met the captains of warships, but also became friends with them.

All the secrets were revealed to the secret agent

Casanova quickly gained confidence, as he himself recalls in his memoirs, sometimes he spoke all sorts of nonsense, and the captains listened to him with great interest. Soon one of the captains invited Casanova to dine on board his ship. After which he received invitations from the other captains. This was only to the advantage of the secret agent.

The captains were so kind to him that they themselves told him, like guides, about their warships. Casanova did not waste time and carefully studied each ship up and down, did not hesitate to ask questions, according to him, there were always young officers who, wanting to show off, shared information that was valuable to him.

The officers spoke openly about their ships, so it was not difficult for the secret agent to collect all the necessary information to compile a detailed report for his friend. Before going to bed, he took notes and wrote down all the advantages and disadvantages of the ship he visited. Giacomo approached the task very responsibly, did not get distracted by flirting and slept only four or five hours a day. His main goal was to carry out a secret mission.

The secret agent most often dined with Cornman's business partner or with Monsieur P. The latter's wife often accompanied the young seducer and was very pleased with his treatment. One day they were alone with her, and Casanova showed her all his gratitude...

The end of espionage activities

After successfully completing the secret mission, he kindly said goodbye to everyone and departed back to Paris, but chose a different route. Having arrived at his destination, Giacomo immediately went to the minister with a report, he crossed out everything unnecessary from the report, not sparing two hours of his invaluable time.

At night, the secret agent rewrote his report and went to Versailles to present it to Abbe Laville. He silently read the report, but his face expressed nothing. The abbot only asked to wait a little, after a while he himself will let you know how well the secret assignment was completed.

A month later, Casanova received the long-awaited answer and five hundred louis. It turns out that the Secretary of the Navy really liked the report, he found it not only well-written, but also very informative. But the secret agent’s joy was not complete; some very reasonable considerations prevented him from fully enjoying his success.

The thing is that this secret assignment cost the Ministry of the Navy a tidy sum - twelve thousand livres. But the minister himself could easily find out all the information he was interested in and not spend a single sou.

Also, any young officer, even without being very smart and talented, could, if necessary, give the impression of a very capable person.

Casanova perfectly understood the monarchical bureaucracy; it was such that all the ministers, without stinting, threw government money down the drain, generously showering their favorites and protégés.

In 1758, instead of Casanova's friend Abbot Bernie, the Duke de Choiseul became Minister of Foreign Affairs. Unfortunately, after this event, all espionage activities of the secret agent came to naught.

Memoirs "The Story of My Life"

In 1789, Giacomo began to actively create work, without which his popularity would not have been so widespread - he wrote a memoir called “The Story of My Life.” He speaks of the work as “the only medicine so as not to go crazy and not die of boredom.”

Then he wandered around Europe for a long time, changing one country for another, and only in 1779 he received a position as a librarian at the estate of Count Waldstein Gud-Dux. On June 4, 1798, the secret agent and brilliant lover passed away.

The Legend of Casanova

According to legend, the priest who baptized a two-week-old baby with the famous surname Casanova made a very strange entry in his diary.

“It seems to me that today I baptized the Antichrist himself” - this is exactly the impression the baby made on the priest.

A few days earlier, the same priest had performed the funeral service for the beautiful actress, Casanova’s mother, who died during a painful birth.

It is not clear why the baby made such a strange impression on the priest? Perhaps this was due to the death of his mother or because the boy did not cry even once during the ceremony. In any case, the reasons are not clear. But the strange thing is that this clergyman died exactly a year later under rather mysterious circumstances...

The boy was raised by his aunt, his mother's older sister. She was a very educated woman who gave Giacomo an excellent upbringing and education. She managed to instill in her future hero-lover a hypnotizing gallantry that won many women’s hearts.

Artisan of love pleasures

• According to legend, Casanova had his first love experience at the age of eleven, from a twelve-year-old girl who served his aunt. By the age of fifteen, the young man was very experienced in matters of love. He had many fans, including noble and adult representatives of the fair sex.
• But there is another legend according to which Giacomo learned all the joys of sex much later - at twenty-one. He hired a prostitute for the night, but due to the lack of love experience, he could not do anything in bed, and then the priestess of love began to train him.

After just one month of intensive practice, the prostitute spread a rumor about a skillful and virtuoso lover who could brighten the life of even the most picky representative of the fair sex. After some time, all the aristocrats dreamed of Casanova, and all the married representatives of the stronger sex lost their appetite and sleep.

At first, the young lover seduced widows and old maids, who had long ago lost hope of finding a worthy life partner and starting a family. But over time, he managed to seduce about a thousand women who were married to noble aristocrats.

The tragedy of Casanova

It turns out that the hero-lover also knew how to truly love. He experienced a cruel tragedy, which may have been the reason for his frivolous lifestyle.

When he was not yet twenty years old, he had a bride whom he loved very much, but, unfortunately, fate tragically separated them - she died of pneumonia. This blow was so strong for Casanova that he even wanted to commit suicide, but came to his senses in time. After the tragedy he suffered, he promised himself that he would never marry anyone.

An interesting fact is that he warned all his women with whom he had an intimate relationship that he was not going to get married and therefore should not get carried away with him seriously. All his numerous novels lasted no more than a month. But at the age of forty, he met a girl who was very similar to his deceased bride and fell in love. He broke his vow, married her and never cheated on his wife.

The seducer knew all the secrets of love

Why was Casanova so popular with women, what is the mystery of his many love victories? In fact, he was not handsome and did not have supernatural masculine strength. His love victories can be explained by the fact that he was an altruist, that is, he gave pleasure not only to himself, but also to the woman, unlike other men of that time.

The gallant seducer loved to make love in unexpected places, for example, on a set dinner table or in a fountain in front of surprised servants. People who knew the hero-lover closely claimed that he knew all the secrets of the erotic kitchen.

He knew recipes that could turn any nun into a licentious courtesan. For example, Marquise de Roy, remembering Giacomo, said that the julienne he prepared worked real miracles; after tasting them, she experienced such a passion that she could not quench, even after a whole night of love.

“I have always loved highly spiced food... As for women, I always found that the one I was in love with smelled good, and the more she sweated, the sweeter it seemed to me.”

At the mere sound of this person’s name, memory immediately pulls out the label “adventurer” and adds the stereotypical adjective “famous.” Of course, the name Casanova has become a household name, like the names of Don Juan and Lovelace!

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

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

But, besides this, he was an abbot, officer, musician, diplomat, doctor of law, engineer, economist, manufacturer, philosopher, writer, historian, art critic, astronomer, impresario, librarian, freemason, secret agent, soothsayer, forger, gambler - difficult list all the 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 his versatile erudition and unparalleled self-confidence.

He was interested in pedagogy and agronomy, medicine and linguistics; He made a source of income from the occult sciences, considering it not at all reprehensible to profit from the stupidity of his neighbors. He studied the history of cards, bondage and the compilation of the “Dictionary of Cheeses”.

Having visited Poland, he began publishing the history of the Polish uprisings (three volumes were published out of the intended seven); A “Project for setting up a soap factory in Warsaw”, written by him, was also discovered. 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 a new technology), in Spain he is a land reformer, in Courland he tours the mines with the air of a specialist, in Venice he proposes a new method of dyeing matter.

Thousands of plans and projects are constantly swarming in his head. He composes a political dialogue with Robespierre, publishes a pamphlet against Cagliostro, with whom 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 even here he did not disdain cheating techniques: he often dedicated the same poem to different ladies. From his pen came plays, opera and ballet librettos.

With his voluminous novel “Icosameron,” he anticipated J. Verne, describing in it how two Englishmen, a brother and sister, descend underground and find themselves in a utopian country. Painting a picture of a developed civilization, he predicted the appearance of cars, airplanes, telegraphs, television and even poisonous gases here, thereby far ahead of his era in his thoughts.

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

Several reliable portraits of Giacomo Casanova and many descriptions of his appearance made by contemporaries have been preserved. In his dark, olive-tinged face - contradictory, like all Casanova - there was some kind of demonic ferocity and at the same time gentle good nature. He was tall and athletic. He always dressed carefully and tastefully. His sword certainly had a precious hilt; rings, snuff boxes and pistols are of the finest workmanship. After 1760, another detail was added to his wardrobe - 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 calendar reformer, convincing her to accept the Gregorian style. His ode in Italian in honor of Catherine was also found.

A report, apparently written in St. Petersburg, outlining his thoughts on the ways of developing agriculture and breeding silkworms, also survived. Casanova met with the empress's favorite Grigory Orlov, with Chancellor Nikita Panin and with Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, later director of the Academy of Sciences and president of the Russian Academy.

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

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

Lyudmila Zadorozhnaya

: marya-iskysnica.livejournal.com

For some reason, it so happens that we think of Casanova and Don Juan as two boots of the same pair, two legendary seducers. And only a slightly more knowledgeable reader will remember that the Spaniard is a literary character who has given rise to myths about himself. And Casanova is a real historical figure, a Venetian adventurer of the 18th century, the author of multi-volume memoirs. But can memories be trusted? And why to this day do they have such success with readers, leaving no one indifferent? It's not that easy to explain. Although it seems quite easy

“The story of my life”: events and dates
April 2, 1725 A son, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova, is born into a family of Venetian actors. Since his mother is constantly traveling, his grandmother is raising him.
17341739 After the death of his father, the boy is sent to Padua: studies at a boarding school, then at the University of Padua
17391744 Returning to Venice, Abbot Casanova reads his first sermons and receives a Doctor of Law degree, which does not prevent him, having become friends with Senator Malipiero, having fun and winning his first victories on the love front.
17441745 Casanova is sent to the island of Corfu with the rank of lieutenant in the Venetian fleet
1745 Returning to Venice, he experiences financial difficulties and is ready to earn extra money as a violinist at the Teatro San Samuele for a meager salary.
1746 Having accidentally encountered Senator Bragadin and treated him during an attack medical care, Casanova becomes his "adopted son". He is rich and can lead a cheerful and carefree life
17471749 Accused of blasphemy and violence, Casanova leaves Venice and wanders around Italy. Then he meets Henrietta, one of his most mysterious lovers
1750 After entering the Masonic lodge in Lyon, he ends up in Paris
1752 Traveling in Germany
17531754 Return to Venice. Love adventures with K.K. and M.M. from the monastery of Murano
17551756 Arrest and imprisonment in Piombi prison
17561759 Escape from Piombi. Casanova again in Paris, then in Holland
17601762 Traveling through Germany and Switzerland (meeting with Voltaire), traveling through Italy and Europe
17631764 England. An unfortunate episode with Charpillon, which inspired Pierre Louis to write the short story “The Woman and the Clown,” filmed by Luis Buñuel (the film “This Vague Object of Desire”)
17641765 Travel to Russia
17661768 Traveling through Poland (duel with Count Branicki) and escape, wandering through Germany, traveling through Spain
17691774 Wandering around Italy awaiting pardon and the opportunity to return to Venice

At this point, “The Story of My Life” ends; the rest is known to us “from biographers”

17741775 Return to Venice: Casanova becomes a paid informant for the Inquisition, but already in 1783, because of the pamphlet he wrote, he again falls into disgrace
1784 At the invitation of Count Wallenstein, he becomes a librarian at Dux Castle, Bohemia (present-day territory of the Czech Republic). A series of monotonous days follows, spent quarreling with the servants. The only consolation was writing memoirs, which he began in the late 1780s.
1798 In the Dux castle, with the words “I lived as a philosopher and die as a Christian,” G. Casanova ends his earthly life. The memoirs go to his nephew Carlo Angiolini (son of his brother Francesco, the famous battle painter)
1820s The heirs are selling the memoirs to the Brockhaus publishing house. Thus begins Casanova's new life

In 1820, a French manuscript landed on the desk of the Leipzig publisher Friedrich-Arnold Brockhaus. It belonged to the pen of a certain Italian named Giacomo Casanova, who died in 1798, a librarian at Dux Castle (Bohemia), and was a detailed description of his life.

Finding himself in Dresden on business, Brockhaus showed the manuscript to his friends - romantic writers. Ludwig Tieck and Friedrich Schelling liked the biography very much. An adventurer traveling around Europe, falling in love at every turn, changing professions In the 19th century, this beautiful and terrible image seemed already unattainable and therefore an even more attractive ideal. Hearing rave reviews, the publisher immediately ordered a translation into German.

The success exceeded all expectations. People started talking about the memoirs all over Europe. And soon Brockhaus published a book in the original language. When Casanova's work became publicly available, long-running disputes began. Some readers and, of course, critics were indignant because “undoubtedly, in the history of literature there have been works equally immoral, but none of them is more shameful for the author than this: for here the narrator and the hero are one person who cannot declare, like Martial: “Even though the verses are obscene, my life is impeccable” (Professor Alessandro d'Ancona). Other, more sensitive literary connoisseurs - and there were many of them - admired uncontrollably. To Alfred de Musset, “the best of adventurers” seemed to be a rebel who did not want to submit to any conventions and chose a style of behavior only in accordance with his own ideas, not to mention his desires.

A little more than twenty years passed after the death of the real Casanova, and few people remembered him, even in his hometown. Thus, the poet Ugo Foscolo considered the published notes to be apocryphal, and Casanova as a fictitious person, despite the fact that he knew Venice, lived in it and was familiar with its history. In the middle of the 19th century, a version seriously spread in France that the author of the book was Stendhal, whose style was supposedly felt in every phrase.

However, at the same time professional historians and philologists became interested in the “incident”. The question of authorship, fortunately, was closed quite quickly and without endless discussions, about which Mark Twain later quipped (“Shakespeare’s works were actually written not by him, but by an unknown namesake”). They stopped doubting the existence of the historical Casanova. However, the question of the reliability of his memoirs hung in the air. It was the so-called Casanovistas who had to allow it, the adventurer’s fans who had grouped around a special magazine by the beginning of the 20th century. Having read the memoirs of their idol, like a cipher text, they behaved like real detectives: they sat in the archives for months, trying to establish the identity of the next Unknown (Casanova often gallantly changed or shortened the names of his lovers to initials) or find out the true address of each of his countless dates. At the same time, they did not realize that they were trying to prove the sincerity of a man who, in his own memoirs, exposed himself as a professional charlatan, and sometimes even a cheater. And a chain reaction began: after Casanova’s fans, their opponents plunged into the archives, but with the opposite goal - to prove that the great libertine was also an insignificant deceiver.

It quickly became clear: many, and the most incredible stories described in the memoirs are undoubtedly real (minor inaccuracies or discrepancies only increased general impression reliability).

The temptation to follow in the footsteps of the famous adventurer and look into his dating houses has not disappeared to this day.

In northern Venice
Who was not blown to Russia by the wind of adventure in the 18th century? Casanova came here already at the end of his adventurous career. The Italian arrived in St. Petersburg on the frosty morning of December 21, 1764, on the shortest day of the Russian winter. He subsequently assured his reader that a night in this climate could last "18 hours and 45 minutes."

The first thing that struck him in St. Petersburg was the extraordinary cheapness (30 years later, the author of his memoirs sighed that those days were long gone, and the northern capital had become more expensive than London). Second what from foreign languages Mostly German is spoken. No sooner had Casanova moved into his rooms on Millionnaya than he received an invitation to a three-day masquerade ball at court, from which he returned in good spirits. Even if not everyone spoke French, the ladies danced the square dance in the French style “impeccably.” In addition, he met old Parisian acquaintances there. But it soon became clear that the first impression was wrong: some of the courtiers spoke Ronsard’s language perfectly, and the visiting ladies’ man quickly became friends with them. Among his acquaintances he mentions Naryshkin, Elagin, Panin and Ekaterina Dashkova.

Among the St. Petersburg elite, he notes widespread Voltairianism. “Everyone reads him, everyone carries a volume of Voltaire in their pocket and quotes no one but him. And God forbid that anyone should allow themselves to laugh at him...” This attitude irritated Casanova. “They believe that after reading Voltaire they will become as wise as their idol. But if they read those books from which Voltaire himself once gained knowledge, it would bring them much more benefit,” he grumpily notes. As a gambling man and adventurer, Casanova loved to put everything on the line. At the same time, he knew how to lose and appreciated this quality in other people. Seeing how a certain prince, having lost 1,000 rubles on a word, remained equanimous, the Venetian expressed his admiration. They answered him, laughing: “Yes, your noble prince doesn’t even think about paying.” “But won’t he dishonor himself by doing this?” The guest was amazed. “Here it is not considered shameful. There is an unspoken rule that the one who loses by word of mouth pays only if he wishes. But he is free not to pay. On the contrary, demanding payment of winnings is considered bad manners.” Moreover, the interlocutor continued, there are many nobles who boast that they have perfectly learned to cheat, and even go to Europe to earn money. Such frankness embarrassed even Casanova. He practically did not play in Russia. However, at that moment he just had money. Like all Europeans, abandoned by the will of fate to our country, Casanova thought about what was happening in the state. However, unlike the old grump Custine, he preferred not to criticize, but to describe colorfully. For example, how once, while crossing a dilapidated wooden bridge and expressing dissatisfaction, I heard from a Russian companion that on the occasion of a celebration when the Empress would pass across the bridge, it would be built of stone. With less than three weeks left before the celebration, Casanova had his doubts. The interlocutor sternly said that there could be no doubts, since the corresponding decree had already been issued. The most interesting thing, Casanova writes, is that although the bridge, of course, was not built, the empress actually turned out to be “always right”: a few days before the holiday, she issued a second decree, postponing construction until next year. Finally, he was amazed by the baths. And not even that men and women washed in them together. And the fact that no one paid the slightest attention to each other.

Of course, Casanova would not be Casanova if his stay in Russia was reduced only to a list of “cold observations from the mind.” There were also some love affairs: in Russia he acquired a pretty peasant girl. The very fact of acquiring a serf (a barbarian right already outlived in Europe!) was exotic for him: and it was no coincidence that he gave her the exotic name Zaira (that was the name of the Sultan’s beautiful slave in Voltaire’s tragedy). At first, very pleased with his beauty, the Italian regretted one thing: they could not talk, and in women, as in men, the author of “The Story of My Life” valued first of all the interlocutor. (“Having allowed her lover to enjoy her charms, the narrow-minded beauty has nothing more to offer him. On the contrary, an ugly woman endowed with a subtle mind can make a man fall in love with her so much that he will reach the limit of all his dreams with her.”) But Zaira soon learned the Venetian dialect. “If it weren’t for her damned jealousy and not for her mania for telling fortunes on cards (for Zaira this was a way to find out about infidelity and make a scene), I would never have left her,” our hero later assured. Having fallen in love with a French actress before leaving, he entrusted Zaire to the elderly architect Rinaldi (the builder of the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg).

Probably, communication with Zaira, who loved to tell fortunes on cards, contributed to his conclusion that “of all Christians, the Russian people are the most superstitious.” He also formed a special opinion about St. Nicholas the Saint, through whom Russians “communicate with God”: “in the corner of every room there is certainly an icon, and when entering, you first bow to him, and only then to the owner. If suddenly there is no icon, then the Russian, having scanned the whole room with his eyes, stops in bewilderment and is completely lost.” In the middle of the summer of 1764, on the advice of friends, Casanova, for whom the white nights “brought melancholy,” went to Moscow. “You cannot say that you have been to Russia if you have not been to Moscow, or that you know Russians if you only communicated with St. Petersburg residents: at court they behave completely differently than in ordinary life. In general, St. Petersburg residents differ little from foreigners. And Moscow residents, especially the rich, sympathize with all those who, due to their position, for profit or out of ambition, go “to a foreign land,” because their homeland is Moscow, and St. Petersburg cannot help but spoil them.”

From Moscow, Casanova has popular popular-traditional impressions. The deafening ringing of bells, the abundance of churches, traditional Moscow hospitality. Moreover, he finds that women are more beautiful and less cold, and for all of them the only unpardonable sin is stinginess. Having returned to St. Petersburg again, he begins to think about leaving. However, his acquaintances assure him that he cannot go without meeting the empress. On Panin's advice, early in the morning Casanova goes for a walk in the Summer Garden. Walking between “bad statues made of unimportant stone,” among which were Sappho in the guise of a bearded old man, and Avicenna in the form of an absurd old woman, the Venetian actually met Catherine. “I hope that not everything you saw here seemed as ridiculous to you as these statues.” Casanova diplomatically replied that all Russian absurdities were nothing compared to what was worthy of admiration in this country, and “without difficulty” talked about it for an hour, and then proposed a project for calendar reform to the Empress.

Despite all his efforts, Casanova never managed to find his place in northern Venice. However, he admitted that he himself did not really know what he wanted when he came here, and what role he could apply for. He tried to get a job with the empress, submitted a number of projects, but all to no avail. “In Russia, only those who were invited are held in high esteem. Those who came here of their own free will are not respected.”

"Appearances" of the Venetian

The memoirs begin with the birth of Casanova we will begin with this. In the Venetian district of San Samuele, at house number 3082 on the narrow street Ca Malipiero (formerly Via Commedia), you can read: here “Giacomo Casanova was born on April 4, 1725.” Three hundred years ago, as now, San Samuele was a modest, unremarkable place, where, however, one of the three main city theaters was located (now in its place is a school). Carlo Goldoni, who lived next door, wrote for his troupe, and Giacomo’s parents Gaetano and Zanetta Casanova performed on stage (“beautiful and very talented,” the famous author of “The Innkeeper” and “The Servant of Two Masters” would call her “beautiful and very talented” in his memoirs). Since the “very talented” actress was often on the road, the boy’s grandmother, Marcia Farussi, was in charge of raising him.

Close-up 1
The memorial plaque was installed on house 3082 relatively recently. True, it has since become clear that Casanova was not born there at all, but in his grandmother’s house located nearby, where he lived until 1728. It was decided not to change the address of the attraction so as not to confuse tourists.

At first, Casanova’s life somehow came into contact with the Church of St. Samuel. There he was baptized and there, having studied in Padua and received the rank of abbot, he preached his first sermon (after it, according to him, many love notes were found among the donations of parishioners). The palazzo where the venerable Senator Malipiero lived overlooks the square in front of the gloomy facade of the long-closed temple. The future memoirist quickly became friends with the latter and soon quarreled over courting his pupil.

Casanova's mother wanted him to continue studying church law. The son felt an insurmountable disgust towards him. At that time, he was more attracted to medicine, natural sciences and philosophy. Later, he became seriously interested in mathematics and even hoped to make important discoveries in this discipline. But I probably didn’t find the time. Inconstancy is the main property of his nature. Our hero is always on the move constantly changing places of residence, occupations, lovers. He strives to remain completely open to desires that have not yet been realized. Tireless curiosity is its strength and vulnerability.

Close-up 2
Before commentators began to argue about Casanova, friends and enemies gossiped about him during his lifetime. So, Pietro Chiari brought him out in one of his many comedies: “he has only Paris and London on his lips,” “always polished like Narcissus, pompous and puffed up like a peacock, and constantly in motion, like a windmill, he is constantly he intruded everywhere, being nice to everyone. With a miser he behaves like an alchemist, with beauties like a poet, with the powerful like a politician, but from the point of view of a sane person, he is simply ridiculous.”

Having returned from his first trips (Italy, Corfu, Istanbul), having exchanged his cassock for a military uniform, but soon parted with it, Casanova returns to his old area. His father died long ago, his mother performed at the Saxon court in Dresden, and the fate of the young man, it seemed, would also be connected with the stage: now he himself works as a violinist at the San Samuele Theater.

However, in April 1746, near the Palazzo Soranzo (in Piazza San Polo), he accidentally meets Senator Bragadin, helps him get home after a sudden heart attack, and thus getting into this very house, makes an indelible impression on the noble lord with his knowledge of Kabbalistics. Grateful Bragadin settles the savior in his luxurious palazzo (near Rialto), assigns rent, and surrounds him with almost paternal care. And again the period of carefree festivities and brief romances begins

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In the twentieth century, letters from women to the Venetian were found and published (“Casanova was considered a liar - but he hardly told the whole truth!” exclaimed Casanova player Armand Bachet after reading them). Despite the fact that among the writers there are only a few names mentioned in the memoirs, their general mood is confirmed by a picture of friendly and loving relationships presented by the addressee.

For example, with the young nun M.M With her, right from the monument to the condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni (which you will probably see today while walking around Venice), Casanova often went to a small apartment near Piazza San Marco (secluded “corners” in the center the so-called “casinos” were then in fashion among aristocrats, who considered the spacious palace halls too uncomfortable for intimate tete-a-tete). And if you stop by the island of Murano, find that monastery gate from which M.M. secretly slipped out when going on these dates. At the beginning of the 20th century, one could always find a researcher frozen with emotion here; the monastery served as a classic place of “pilgrimage” for the Casanovites.

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Decently dressed gentlemen, sentimentally reminiscing, caused bewilderment among the local population: “When I returned from the war in 1919, one person came and looked at this gate for a long time. I don’t know what he found in her: she couldn’t be called beautiful. This signor claimed that she was connected with a certain Casanova. Maybe he lived at the monastery? a local gardener told historian Pierre Gruet in the 1950s.

As now, the center of Venetian life in the 18th century was the spacious St. Mark's Square. People walked along it from morning to evening without any particular purpose, back and forth, from the basilica of the same name to the church on the opposite side (in its place under Napoleon a continuous arcade was erected). And after having fun, they settled in countless cafes (one of them, “Triumph of Venice”, has survived to this day under the name “Florian”). The central episode of the memoirs is also connected with the main square of the city - Casanova's famous escape from Piombi, a prison located directly under the lead roof of the Doge's Palace, which is why it was unbearably cold in winter, and unbearably stuffy in summer. Here, by the verdict of the college of inquisitors, the tireless lover was brought in the summer of 1746.

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It is still unclear why he ended up there. Casanova himself connects his arrest with the denunciations of an informant, a certain Manuzzi; needless to say, the Casanovaists also discovered these denunciations. There was mention of our hero’s communication with foreigners (although according to the laws of the Venetian Republic, only patricians were prohibited from communicating with them, this certainly did not add credibility to the accused), blasphemy, practicing magic, debauchery, reading prohibited publications, as well as the complaints of a certain aristocrat that the young man is corrupting her sons by giving them godless books to read (namely the works of Voltaire and Rousseau). The informer did not forget to mention that Casanova belonged to the Masonic lodge.

The court case itself could not be found; perhaps there was no formal investigation. In those days, if big names were “looming” in a case, they naturally tried to hush it up as soon as possible. But the verdict “surfaced”, according to which the adventurer was sentenced to 5 years. By the way, this verdict remained unknown to Giacomo himself until the end of his days. If he had known about him in prison, he probably would not have risked his life by escaping after a year and a half of imprisonment.

The description of the escape is perhaps the most striking episode of the memoirs, in which the author manages to keep the reader in suspense from beginning to end: without skimping on colorful details, Casanova tells how, on the eve of the ready escape, he was unexpectedly transferred to another cell, how he began to plan a new escape together with the monk imprisoned next door, how he handed him homemade tools in a thick volume of the Bible, how he chose the right night to escape, reading fortunes on the volume of his beloved Ariosto, then almost fell, crawling along the steep slope of the roof of the Palace, and descending into one of the premises, fell from emotional overexcitement, fell asleep, but woke up in time, changed clothes and was finally released by the gatekeeper, who mistook him for an accidentally locked visitor.

Now, by the way, any tourist can book a special excursion from Casanova’s camera at the Doge’s Palace along the route that on November 1, 1756, he first climbed to the roof (though they are not allowed on it), and then to freedom.

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There is a legend that at the end of the 19th century the same Professor Ancona crawled on this roof, risking his life; he really wanted to check the authenticity of the old man Giacomo’s story. To this day, the details of the escape (so colorful in the author’s description) still raise doubts and disagreements. One of the most interesting evidence in favor of its reliability is invoices from a carpenter and a mechanic, dated November 2, 1756. The specified amount of repair work and materials corresponds remarkably closely to the damage caused (by his own description) by the fugitive.

And let skeptics believe that the matter could not have happened without bribing the jailers - even a tenth of what is told in the memoirs is enough to recognize the Venetian as a hero. “I admit, I am proud that I ran. But my pride does not come from the fact that I managed to do this - there is a large share of luck here - but because I considered it feasible and had the courage to bring my plan to fruition.”

The miraculous liberation from Piombi the last Venetian episode in the memoirs. He is followed by a long series of travels and meetings: Paris Geneva Berlin St. Petersburg; Voltaire Frederick II Catherine II And the older our adventurer gets (he himself defines the age limit as 38 years, the time of his first serious defeat on the love front), the more his travels resemble wanderings, the more often he has to pay for love. “If I married a woman who could guide and subjugate me so that I myself would not notice my subordination, then I would take care of my condition, have children and would not be so lonely and poor now.”

If Giacomo began his biography in accordance with the maxim that absorbed the inclinations and testaments of the 18th century (“time spent in pleasure cannot in any way be considered lost”), now, when this century is coming to an end, he is “forced to realize that he has wasted everything in vain.” his time - in other words, he lived his life in vain.”

Second life in Russia
Since the publication of his memoirs, Casanova has been lucky with readers, including in Russia. And although there was no open admiration for the adventurer, as among European romantics (Delacroix or George Sand), these “original”, as he put it, “notes” were read by Alexander Sergeevich himself in the French edition. In the 1830s, it was customary in his circle to discuss the works of famous memoirists, and it can be assumed that Casanova’s memoirs were popular among St. Petersburg residents.

In 1861, a fragment of his biography with introductory remarks publisher F.M. Dostoevsky. Times were harsh, and therefore the preface is of an exculpatory nature: it is strongly emphasized that the memoirs are not just light reading, but an encyclopedia of the 18th century. Then follows the story of Casanova’s escape from Piombi - the only episode in the entire book devoid of those “eccentricities” that could “offend the morality” of the reader of that time.

This reader might have been even more disappointed by the 1884 edition, where, after a promising preface branding Casanova as an unimaginable libertine, there followed a selection of his country studies sketches in which women were not mentioned at all. It seems that the publisher was simply mocking in the preface when, briefly outlining the biography of the adventurer, he kept mentioning some “most impossible adventure, described in great detail in the Memoirs,” but about which, alas, he was forced “out of modesty to remain silent.” . As is known, strict censorship increases the demand for samizdat, and if in official publications erotic descriptions were emasculated, then in unofficial publications, on the contrary, the emphasis was placed on them. By the beginning of the twentieth century, a strange apocrypha was circulating in Russian, which was a loosely rewritten memoir. In order not to cut them off mid-sentence, the unknown editor of this version came up with a spectacular ending: Casanova dies in a shipwreck, but the iron (!) box with his memoirs washes up on the shore to the delight of future fans and admirers.

And only in the 1910s, on the wave of passion for Venice and the 18th century, Casanova’s hour finally struck (at the same time, Pavel Muratov’s book “Images of Italy” was published, where a whole chapter is devoted to the Venetian). His book is becoming so popular that it is even published as thin monthly brochures. The culmination of the memoirist’s then-fame coincided with the appearance of the dramatic works of Marina Tsvetaeva (“Phoenix”, “The Adventures of Casanova”, 1918–1919), dedicated to the last years of the hero’s life. A little later, in her diary of 1923, Tsvetaeva admits: “The plan of my life was: to be loved by 17-year-old Casanova (stranger!), abandoned and raise a beautiful son from him...” Because at that time many young girls were attracted to the seducer, there is one more evidence. In her memoirs, Lilya Brik mentions a young lady who in those years “was in love with Casanova and dreamed of going to hell in order to meet him there.”

In Europe, the peak of Casanova's popularity occurred in the 1920s, but in post-revolutionary Russia, on the contrary, interest in the idle freethinker declined sharply. Perhaps the only mention of him in Stalin’s time was an article in the TSB (1931), in which the author, citing “Capital,” declares the adventurer “a by-product of bourgeois society,” and explains his numerous love affairs with “social benefit” and “thirst for profit.” . However, “sexual psychology continues to be interested in Casanova as a unique biological type,” the author of the article concludes.

In 1991, in the wake of the book “lawlessness” of the post-perestroika era, several editions of memoirs appeared at once (among them the best edited by A.F. Stroev). And in 2005, a volume dedicated to Casanova was published in the ZhZL series. The adventurer was recognized as an outstanding personality.

Between literature and life

Casanova's life story ends abruptly during his stay in Trieste (1774), from where he plans to return to his hometown after eighteen years of wandering. There is a version that there was a continuation (the manuscript read: “The story of my life until 1797”), but it could not be found anywhere. Probably, the author simply did not have time to complete his plans: he sat down to write his memoirs in 1791, seven years before his death, and despite the fact that he sometimes wrote twelve hours a day, he did not have enough time. It is also possible that he did not want to write further at all: it is pleasant to remember the follies of his youth, but his later years (which are known from Casanova’s active mail correspondence) were such that he wanted to quickly forget.

The return to Venice, which he had been waiting for, did not bring him happiness. He changed his occupation again: he tried to translate Homer, published a literary monthly, and acted as a theatrical impresario - all without much success. But another “new” case went well - working as an informant for the Inquisition.

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Casanova's denunciations have been preserved and are now published. As usual, commentators are divided in their connection into its defenders and opponents. The first point out the meaninglessness and harmlessness of these messages (the closure of one theater is their most serious consequence). The latter, not without gloating, point out that it was through the fault of his “colleague”, Manuzzi, that Casanova once ended up in Piombi, and willingly sarcastically spoke about him in his memoirs, keeping silent about his own similar sins. And the complaints of the newly minted informant about citizens reading Voltaire’s “unholy books”, or his indignation that students of the Academy of Arts paint naked models look completely pharisaical!..

However, soon, due to a pamphlet written in a moment of irritation, which insulted the honor of one elderly patrician from the ancient Grimani family with a hint that the patrician was the father of Casanova (such rumors actually circulated), the “illegitimate son” again leaves the fatherland, now forever. “Either I am not made for Venice, or she is for me, or we are both for each other,” he will comment on this event. His last years, as already mentioned, he would have to spend in the modest position of librarian for Count Waldstein, in Dux Castle (present-day Duchtsov in the Czech Republic).

In those years, it seemed to the “retired adventurer” that life was completely over, but it was here, in an unusual wilderness for him, that he began to work on his, as it turned out, immortal memoirs. “If Count Waldstein had taken good Giacomo with him to Paris or Vienna, fed him well and let him smell female flesh,” Stefan Zweig later assured, “these funny stories would have been presented over chocolate and sherbet and would never have been recorded on paper".

This, fortunately, did not happen. Notes roam the library shelves (they can be found either in the section of Italian literature or French), scientists are devoting increasingly sophisticated works to Casanova “on specializations”: magic, medicine, finance and even cooking. Fans still continue to track the route of their idol (German Pablo Gunther recently traveled 36,000 km in his footsteps) and hunt for archival materials. And in the magazine “Bulletin of Casanovistes” (Interme’ diaire des Casanovistes) you can read, for example, that somewhere a medal was cast with the image of the author of “History” or that the mayor of Montpellier assigned the name of Casanova to one of the city streets.

IN Lately People are increasingly remembering that Casanova was primarily a writer. His writing activity remained outside the scope of memoirs: the law of the adventurous genre, which allowed him to boast about love adventures, did not allow him to refer to his own artistic opuses (just as, allowing stories about cheating, this law forced him to remain silent about serious connections with Freemasonry). Meanwhile, even before the appearance of memoirs, a whole series of satires and comedies, translations and historical works, stage reviews and scholarly treatises, as well as a long and phenomenally boring utopian novel “Icozameron” came from the pen of the prolific author.

In this regard, the question of the reliability of the famous memoirs essentially loses its relevance. If Casanova is a writer and not a chronicler, then is the truth so important? And is it any wonder that there are many similarities between his notes and the writings of his contemporaries (from Prevost to Richardson)? This is especially true of the three most “romantic” chapters of the memoirs - about the mysterious Frenchwoman Henrietta, whom Casanova met traveling incognito under the guise of a man, about the same nun M.M., a Venetian aristocrat, the mistress of Cardinal de Berni and the narrator himself, as well as about a certain Charpillon , a London flirt who almost drove him to suicide.

In addition, even if a certain event described is reliable, this does not mean that the author was actually a participant or even a witness. He could have known about many of the events described by hearsay. And if archival research confirms that Casanova, as well as the third parties mentioned by him, were in the indicated place at the indicated time, then the conversations and scenes themselves could easily be embellished in one’s favor (in communicating with great people of the era, the Venetian always looks more interesting than these people!) .

Is it possible to speak with confidence about the participation of the French envoy de Berni in a bed carousel with Murano nuns only because evidence of his debauchery has been preserved? Hardly. It is even more difficult to examine the “Don Juan” list of the Venetian himself. “He is so truthful that he does not hesitate to slander himself,” wrote Musset. On the other hand, we should not forget about vanity and pride (all contemporaries attribute these traits to our hero). The wisest thing to do is to take the memoirist-writer at his word. “There is no doubt that Casanova the adventurer was a skilled liar, but whether the elderly librarian lied at his desk, on the contrary, does not matter at all” (French writer Felicien Marceau).

Publishing adventure
"The Story of My Life" was written in French by an Italian. However, its first readers were the Germans. Only a few years later (in 1826) the owner of the manuscript F.-A. Brockhaus decided on a French edition, giving the manuscript to Dresden professor Jean Laforgue for revision. He not only corrected the language, freely adapting it to the tastes and needs of the era, but also completely changed a number of the most important passages. For example, in a scene of dialogue with Voltaire, he put into the mouth of the Venetian praise for the eloquence of the French. In addition, being a supporter of the revolution and an anti-clerical, the professor with amazing spontaneity rewrote everything that showed in Casanova a man of the previous way of life. It still remains a mystery why, despite the efforts of fans and researchers, for as long as 140 years, the French original manuscript remained locked in the safe of a Leipzig publishing house, miraculously surviving two world wars. The famous Italian literary critic Benedetto Croce recalled that when on the eve of the new year, 1945, he was walking through the evening Naples with the philosopher Salvatore di Giacomo, he dreamily remarked: “It would be good if one of the points of the peace treaty with Germany was the extradition of the manuscript.”

However, the decision to publish it was made only twenty years later: in the early 1960s, a thick three-volume work was published, equipped with detailed comments and accurately reproducing the original text, down to the occasional Italianism.

Hero for all times

How is it that of all the famous Italians, none, including Dante, Machiavelli, Leonardo or Galileo, received the same admiration and attention from readers, scientists and ordinary people as Casanova?

His memoirs are a protean book. Each era found something of its own in it, dreamy or intimate. In the 1820s, Casanova was loved because he was an outstanding adventurer, ready to turn everyday life into a holiday. Towards the end of the century, with the tightening of censorship, he began to be perceived primarily as a regular at “forbidden” boudoirs. Further, at the turn of the century, adherents of Nietzscheanism considered him “one of their own”: unlike the anemic characters who inhabited decadent works, this adventurer taught a full-blooded, rich life and the maximum realization of the potential inherent in man.

Differences in interpretation and the rise or fall of Casanova's popularity are often explained by the values ​​of a particular historical moment. At the same time, the most ardent opponents of the author of “History” were usually found among his fellow countrymen. They especially actively disowned him as a representative of the old, fragmented Italy, in the era of national upsurge (Risorgimento): an adventurer the fruit of a thoroughly rotten, decadent Venetian Republic, but in no way the son of a newly formed heroic nation. With the advent of fascism, these sentiments prevailed again: despite the fact that it was then that an incredible demand for various kinds of biographies arose, from Caesar to the Duce, the success of the Venetian’s memoirs turned out to be inversely proportional to the success of the genre. In 1935, by an act of the Ministry of Culture, “The Story of My Life” was banned in the country.

Such is the inconstancy even after death, the inconstancy of the book and the reader’s attitude towards it. This is not surprising - sometimes it is even difficult to believe that the stories about Casanova are about one person. Even the strictest moralists cannot deny his talent as a storyteller, and director Federico Fellini found the memoirs boring, “like a telephone directory.” The Belgian psychoanalyst L. Flem writes the book “Casanova, or Happiness Incarnate,” and the Italian professor G. Ficara publishes a work entitled “Casanova and Melancholy.” The list goes on.

Of course, here we can recall that the adventurer himself willingly contradicted himself. And besides, in contrast to the established character of Don Juan, his image on the pages of the memoirs is in constant development: the young hero is presented in the first chapters as a gentle, passionate person, capable of sincere feelings and full of bright hopes. Gradually he loses these properties and by the end he is ready to buy love where he can no longer win it. However, this does not explain the intensity of emotions with which some attack the seducer, while others are ready to defend him.

And here’s another paradox: it was this unique and unstable personality (be it a historical person or a character) that began to personify the “type” and faded into the empty nickname of an ordinary seducer

The myth of the “good” seducer

“These days, Casanova has become something like spaghetti, mandolin and Santa Lucia, something that is associated with Italians outside of Italy without arousing much respect or sympathy,” Marcello Mastroianni said bluntly. “For foreigners, Casanova is a moderately handsome Italian who enjoys some success with women.”

Yes, he has long become a myth: few people have read his memoirs, but everyone has heard about their author-hero. But if among the people this name has merged with Don Juan, then anyone who thinks about these two will definitely contrast them.

The Andalusian is a “cold seducer”, for whom a woman is a “victim”, another number on the list of victories (this is the first stereotype). And the Venetian is a generous lover, for him every woman is unique (also a stereotype, but more attractive). The romantic from Seville loves no one, the hedonist Casanova is ready to love everyone. “The Spanish Don Juan, the German Doctor Faustus, the Englishman Byron and the Frenchman Baudelaire all of them are, first of all, eternally dissatisfied Casanova, at the very first kiss of Faust’s Margarita, would have felt himself in seventh heaven and wished to stop the moment” this is how Mussolini’s former friend Margarita Zarfatti summed up this idea , author of Casanova vs. Don Juan.

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Casanova the author undoubtedly remembered his Spanish “forerunner” when he composed the story of his own life. In 1787, the premiere of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni took place in Prague. An aging memoirist who lived nearby visited the city more than once and may even have helped his friend, the Venetian Da Ponte, work on the libretto (two scenes intended for the opera, but not included in it, were found among the papers in Dux). And soon after this, Casanova sits down to write his memoirs. Working on his own image, he deliberately contrasts it with the traditional image of the seducer: in his memoirs, a “negative” type of seducer appears more than once (he acts according to the Don Juan principle - deceive and disappear), which successfully highlights the merits of the protagonist, who repeatedly seduces the “victim”, but already in his own way - softly, friendly, causing in her not anger, but tears of joy.

And here is the result: in modern open society, with its frightening freedom of morals, Don Juan is rapidly losing power over the imagination. And Casanova, who did not want to stop there, continues to arouse interest.

They had great attractive power. This environment nurtured Casanova and made him one of the most famous Venetians of the 18th century.

Venice. Church of St. Samuel, where Casanova was baptized

During his childhood, Casanova was raised by his grandmother, Marcia Baldissera, while his mother toured Europe with the theater. His father died when Giacomo was eight years old. As a child, Casanova suffered from nosebleeds, and Marcia turned to a witch for help: “Leaving the gondola, we entered the barn, where we found old woman sitting on a straw mattress with black cat in her arms, there were five or six more cats around her.” Although the ointment she used turned out to be ineffective, the boy was delighted with the mystery of witchcraft. Perhaps to cure the bleeding, the cause of which, according to doctors, was the increased air density of Venice, on his ninth birthday Giacomo was sent to a boarding house located in Padua, further from the coast. This event became a bitter memory for Casanova, who perceived it as neglect from his parents. “So they got rid of me,” he complains.

The conditions in the boarding house were terrible, so the boy asked to be placed in the care of Abbot Gozzi, his first teacher, who taught him science and playing the violin. In 1734, Giacomo moved in with the priest and lived with him and his family until 1737. Gozzi's house became the place where Casanova, at the age of eleven, had his first contact with the opposite sex, when Bettina, Gozzi's younger sister, caressed him: Bettina was “beautiful, cheerful, keen on reading novels... I immediately liked the girl, although I did not quite understand , Why. It was she who gradually kindled in my heart the first sparks of that feeling, which later became my main passion.” Bettina later married, but Casanova retained his lifelong affection for her and the Gozzi family.

Casanova early showed a sharp and inquisitive mind and a gigantic thirst for knowledge. In November 1737, when he was only twelve years old, he entered the University of Padua and graduated at the age of seventeen, in June 1742, receiving a law degree, “for which ... he felt an insurmountable disgust.” His trustee hoped that he would become a church lawyer. Casanova also studied ethics, chemistry, mathematics, and, in addition, showed a genuine interest in medicine: “It would be better if I were allowed to do what I wanted and become a doctor, for whom professional quackery is even more suitable than in the practice of law.” He often prescribed his own medications for himself and his friends. During his studies, Casanova began to gamble for money and quickly found himself in debt, as a result of which he was summoned to Venice, where he had an unpleasant conversation with his grandmother; but the habit of playing was firmly rooted in him.

Upon his return to Venice, Casanova began a career as a ecclesiastical lawyer, working for the lawyer Manzoni, and after taking monastic vows, he was ordained a novice by the Patriarch of Venice (January 1741). While continuing his university studies, he traveled to Padua and back. By that time he had already become a real dandy: he was dark-eyed, dark and tall, with powdered, perfumed and carefully curled long black hair. He quickly acquired a patron (as he did throughout his life), the 76-year-old Venetian senator Alviso Gasparo Malipiero, owner of the Palazzo Malipiero (next to Casanova's house in Venice). The senator, who moved in high circles, taught Casanova how to behave in society and understand good food and wine. But when Casanova was caught flirting with actress Teresa Imer, whom Malipiero himself wanted to seduce, the latter kicked both of them out of his house. Casanova's growing curiosity about women led him to have his first sexual experiences with two sisters, Nanette and Maria Savorian, aged fourteen and sixteen, who were distant relatives of the Grimani family. Casanova stated that his calling in life was finally determined after that first experience.

Beginning of adulthood

Scandals marred Casanova's short career in the church. After the death of his grandmother (March 18, 1743), Casanova briefly entered the seminary of St. Cyprian in Murano, but already in April 1743, debts for the first time brought him to prison - Fort St. Andrey. His mother tried to secure a place for him under Bishop Bernardo de Bernardis, but Casanova rejected this offer almost immediately after visiting the Diocese of Calabria. Instead, he took a job in Rome as secretary to the influential Cardinal Troiano Acquaviva d'Aragona (January 1744). At a meeting with the pope, Giacomo boldly asked the high priest for permission to read “forbidden books” and be exempted from the requirement to eat fish during Lent, claiming that such food caused his eyes to become inflamed. Casanova also helped another cardinal, composing love letters for him. But when Casanova became a scapegoat in a scandal involving a pair of unhappy lovers, Cardinal Acquaviva fired Casanova, thanking him for his benevolence, but thereby ending his ecclesiastical career forever.

Looking for new sphere Casanova's activities bought the patent of an officer of the Venetian Republic. First of all, he took care to look appropriate:

Realizing that I was now unlikely to succeed in the field of the church, I decided to try on the clothes of a soldier... I asked for a good tailor... he brought me everything I needed to become an incarnate follower of Mars... My uniform was white, with a blue front and silver and gold epaulettes... I bought a long saber, and with my elegant cane in my hand, in an elegant hat with a black cockade, with sideburns and a false tail, I set out to impress the whole city

In August 1744, he joined the officers of the Venetian regiment of the island of Corfu, from where he made a short trip to Constantinople, ostensibly with the aim of delivering there a letter from his former master, the cardinal. He found his promotion too slow, his duties boring, and managed to spend most of his salary playing Pharaoh. In October 1745, Casanova interrupted his military career and returned to Venice.

At the age of twenty-one, he decided to become a professional gambler, but, having lost all the money left over from the sale of his officer position, he turned to his old benefactor Alviso Grimani for help in search of work. Casanova begins his "third career", already at the Teatro San Samuele, as a violinist, "a servant of the highest art, admired by those who have succeeded and despised by mediocrity." He recalled: “My occupation was not noble, but I did not care. Calling everything prejudice, I soon acquired all the habits of my degraded fellow musicians.” He and some of his colleagues “often spent ... nights rowdy in different quarters of the city, inventing the most scandalous pranks and executing them ... amused themselves by untying gondolas moored at private houses, which were then carried away by the current.” They also sent midwives and doctors on false calls.

Palazzo Bragadin - residence of Casanova's patron and adoptive father

Fortune smiled again on Casanova, dissatisfied with his fate as a musician, after he saved the life of the Venetian senator Giovanni di Matteo Bragadin, who had a stroke while returning from a wedding ball in the same gondola with Casanova. They immediately stopped to perform a bloodletting on the senator. Then, already in the senator's palace, the doctor repeated the bloodletting and applied mercury ointment to the patient's chest (at that time, despite its toxic properties, it was considered a universal medicine). This led to a severe fever, and Bragadin began to choke due to a swollen trachea. A priest had already been called, as death seemed inevitable. However, Casanova took the initiative into his own hands, changing the course of treatment and ordering, despite the protests of the doctor present, to remove the mercury ointment from the senator's chest and wash it with cold water. The senator recovered from his illness through rest and healthy food. Since Giacomo had medical knowledge at a young age, the senator and two of his friends decided that such a young man, wise beyond his years, should receive occult knowledge (all three were Kabbalists). The senator adopted Casanova and became his lifelong patron.

Casanova wrote in his memoirs:

I have adopted the most praiseworthy, noble and only natural way of life. I decided to put myself in a position where I would not have to deprive myself of basic necessities. And no one could judge what exactly I needed better than me... No one in Venice could understand how there could be a close connection between me and three respected people: they, so exalted, and I, so down to earth, they, the strictest in their morality, and I, leading a dissolute lifestyle.

Casanova spent the next three years (from December 1745) under the patronage of the senator, formally listed as his referent. He lived like a nobleman, dressed magnificently and, as was natural for him, spent most of his time gambling and immoral acts. His patron was overly tolerant, but warned Giacomo that retribution for such licentiousness would eventually come; but he only “made fun of his terrible prophecies without changing his lifestyle.” However, the adopted son of the senator still had to leave Venice due to even greater scandals. Casanova decided to take revenge on his enemy by playing a prank on him, and to do this he dug up the corpse of a recently buried man - but the victim of the prank was incurably paralyzed. In another case, a girl tricked him into accusing him of rape and contacted the authorities. Casanova was later acquitted due to lack of evidence of his guilt, but by that time he had already fled Venice: he was charged with theft, blasphemy and witchcraft (January 1749).

Retiring to Parma, Casanova began a three-month affair with a French woman, whom he called “Henrietta.” Apparently, this was the strongest love he had ever experienced: this lady combined beauty, intelligence, and good upbringing. According to him, “those who believe that a woman cannot make a man happy twenty-four hours a day never knew Henrietta. The joy that filled my soul was much greater during the day when I talked to her than at night when she was in my arms. Being very well read and possessing innate taste, Henrietta judged everything correctly.” She judged Casanova just as shrewdly. Renowned Casanova scholar J. Rives Childs wrote:

Probably no woman captured Casanova as much as Henrietta; few women had such a deep understanding of him. She got inside him outer shell at the very beginning of their relationship, resisting the temptation to unite her destiny with his. She unraveled his fickle nature, his lack of noble birth, and the unreliability of his finances. Before leaving, she slipped five hundred louis into his pocket - a sign of her appreciation of Casanova.

Grand Tour

Casanova stayed in Paris for two years, spending most of his time in the theater and learning French. He made acquaintances with representatives of the Parisian aristocracy. But soon his numerous love affairs were noticed by the police (as was the case in almost every city he visited).

Casanova translated Cahuzac's tragedy "Zoroaster" from French into Italian, and in February 1752 it was staged at the Royal Theater of Dresden (Italian troupe). In Dresden he met his mother, brother and sister. From the autumn of 1752 to May 1753, Giacomo traveled throughout Germany and Austria. At this time, he composed his own comedies “The Thessalians, or Harlequin at the Sabbath” and “Moluccaid” (in three acts, now lost). The latter was played at the Royal Theater Dresden on February 22, 1753 and was well received by the public. He did not like the stricter moral atmosphere of Vienna and Prague. In 1753, he returned to Venice, where he resumed his antics, thereby making many enemies and attracting the attention of the Inquisition. His police record became a growing list of blasphemies, seductions, fights and quarrels in public places. State spy Giovanni Manucci was brought in to find out about Casanova's relationship with Kabbalism, his involvement in Freemasonry, and the presence of prohibited books in his library. Senator Bragadin, himself a former inquisitor, strongly advised his adopted son to leave immediately in order to avoid the most serious consequences.

Prison and escape

He was in solitary confinement, with clothes, a mattress, a table and a chair, in “the worst of all cells,” where he suffered terribly from darkness, summer heat and “millions of fleas.” He was soon placed with other prisoners, and after five months and a personal petition from Count Bragadin, he was given a warm winter bed and a monthly allowance to buy books and good food. While walking around the prison yard, he found a piece of black marble and an iron rod, which he was able to carry into his cell. He hid the rod inside the chair. Temporarily without cellmates, Casanova sharpened this rod on a stone for two weeks and turned it into a pike (esponton). He then began to chisel away at the wooden floor under his bed, knowing that his cell was directly above the Inquisitor's office. Casanova planned his escape during the carnival, when none of the employees were supposed to be in the office below him. But just three days before the scheduled date, despite his protests and assurances that he was completely happy where he was all this time, Casanova was transferred to a larger, bright cell with a window. Here’s what he wrote later about how he felt: “I sat in my chair, as if struck by thunder, and motionless as a statue, realizing that all my work had gone to waste, but I had nothing to repent of. My hope was taken away, and I could not give myself any other relief except not to think about what would happen to me next.”

Overcoming his despair, Casanova developed a new escape plan. He persuaded a prisoner from the next cell, Father Balbi, an apostate priest, to help him. Pike brought to new camera together with the chair, was handed over to the priest inside the Bible, which was carried in a large dish of pasta by the fooled jailer. Father Balbi made a hole in the ceiling of his cell, climbed up and made a hole in the ceiling of Casanova's cell. To neutralize his new cellmate-spy, Casanova took advantage of his superstitions and thereby forced him into silence. When Balbi made a hole in the ceiling of his cell, Casanova climbed out through it, leaving a note quoting Psalm 117 (according to the Vulgate): “I will not die, but will live and proclaim the works of the Lord.”

The spy remained inside, too afraid of the consequences if he were caught with the others. Casanova and Balbi climbed through the lead slabs onto the roof of the Doge's Palace, shrouded in thick fog. Because the roof was too high above the nearby canal, the fugitives entered the building through a dormer window, breaking the grating above it and smashing it. On the roof they found a long ladder, and with the help of a rope that Casanova had previously made from a sheet, they descended into a room whose floor was seven and a half meters below them. Here they rested until the next morning, and then changed clothes, picked the lock on the exit door, walked past the galleries and rooms along the corridor of the palace and went down the steps. Downstairs, they convinced the guard that they had been mistakenly locked in the palace after the end of the working day, and left through the last door. It was six o'clock in the morning on November 1, 1756, when they, taking a gondola, sailed to the mainland. Eventually Casanova arrived in Paris. This happened on January 5, 1757, the same day that Robert-François Damiens made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Louis XV. Casanova later saw and described the brutal execution of the attacker.

Skeptics argue that Casanova's escape was incredible and that he won his freedom through bribery with the help of his patron. However, in state archives Some confirmation of the adventurer’s story has been preserved, including information about the repair of the ceiling of the cells. Thirty years later, Casanova wrote “The Story of My Escape,” which gained great popularity and was translated into many languages. He repeated the description of this event in his memoirs. Casanova’s judgment about this feat is characteristic:

Thus the Lord prepared for me everything necessary for my escape, which was to be, if not a miracle, then an event worthy of surprise. I confess that I am proud that I ran; but my pride comes not from the fact that I managed to do this - there is a large share of luck here, but from the fact that I considered it feasible and had the courage to bring my plan to fruition.

Back in Paris

He knew that his stay in Paris could be prolonged, and therefore began to act in accordance with the circumstances: “I saw: in order to succeed, I must put all my talents, physical and spiritual, on the line, make acquaintance with people of dignity and influence, always control myself, adopt the opinions of those whom I see will need to please.” Casanova became a mature man, and this time in Paris he was more calculating and cautious, although at times he still relied on his decisive actions and quick thinking. His first task was to find a new patron. This became his old friend de Bernis, now the French Foreign Minister. De Berni advised Casanova to find ways to raise money for the state in order to quickly succeed. Very soon, Giacomo became one of the managers of the first state lottery and the best seller of its tickets (the first draw of the lottery took place on April 18, 1758). This enterprise immediately brought him significant benefits. Having money, he became a member of high society and began new romances. With his occultism, he fooled many noble gentlemen, especially the Marquise Jeanne d'Urfe: his excellent memory allowed him to introduce himself as an expert in numerology. From Casanova's point of view, "deceiving a fool is a matter worthy of smart person» .

De Berni decided to send Casanova to Dunkirk on a spy mission (August-September 1757). Giacomo was well paid for his short work, which led him subsequently to make one of the few comments against the old regime and the class on which his own well-being depended. Looking back, he remarked: “All French ministers are the same. They squandered money taken from other people's pockets in order to enrich themselves, and their power was unlimited: people from the lower classes were considered as nothing, and the inevitable results of this were the debts of the state and the disorder of finances. The revolution was necessary."

For debts, Casanova was again arrested and this time imprisoned in Forlevek prison, but was released from it four days later thanks to the intercession of the Marquise d'Urfe. Unfortunately for Giacomo, his patron de Berni had by then been dismissed by Louis XV, and Casanova's enemies began to persecute him. In an effort to distance himself from these troubles, the adventurer sold the remainder of his property and achieved his second exile for espionage purposes to Holland, where he departed on December 1, 1759.

On the run

However, this time his mission failed, and he fled to Cologne, and then (in the spring of 1760) to, where luck finally turned against him. He was arrested again for debt, but was able to escape to Switzerland. Tired of his dissolute life, Casanova visited the monastery in Einsiedeln, where he thought about the possibility of changing his lot and becoming a modest, highly educated monk. He returned to the hotel to reflect on his intentions, but there he met a new object of desire, and all his good thoughts about the monastic life immediately disappeared, giving way to his usual instincts. Continuing his wanderings, he visited Albrecht von Haller and Voltaire (the latter twice), then visited Marseille, Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples, Modena and Turin, starting love affairs along the way.

Return to Venice

Casanova lived in several cities in Italy. He recalled: “At the beginning of April 1770, I decided to try my luck and go to Livorno to offer my services to Count Alexei Orlov, who commanded the squadron that was heading to Constantinople.” But Count Orlov refused his help, and Giacomo left for Rome.

In Rome, Casanova had to prepare his return to Venice. While waiting for his supporters to obtain entry permission for him, Casanova began translating the Iliad into Italian, writing a book, The History of the Troubles in Poland, and a comedy. He is accepted into literary academies - Arcadian and Accademia degli Infecondi(). In December 1771 he was exiled to Florence, from where he moved to Trieste. To ingratiate himself with the Venetian authorities, Casanova engaged in commercial espionage for them. However, after waiting several months without receiving permission to enter, he wrote directly to the inquisitors. Finally, the long-awaited permission was sent, and, bursting into tears with excitement, Giacomo read: “We, the state inquisitors, for reasons known to us, give Giacomo Casanova freedom ... giving him the right to come, leave, stop and return, to have connections wherever he pleases without permission and interference. This is our will." Casanova was allowed to return to Venice in September 1774, after eighteen years of exile.

At first he was warmly received and became a celebrity. Even the inquisitors wanted to know how he managed to escape from their prison. Of his three patrons, only Dandolo was still alive, and Casanova was invited to live with him. He received a small allowance from Dandolo and hoped to live by selling his writings, but this was not enough. And he reluctantly continued to engage in espionage for the government of Venice. His reports were paid by the piece and covered issues of religion, morality and commerce; for the most part they were based on rumors and gossip received from acquaintances. He was disappointed because he did not see attractive financial prospects for himself, and few doors were open to him - just as in the past.

When Giacomo turned forty-nine, his appearance showed features that spoke of years of reckless living and thousands of miles traveled. The pockmarks, sunken cheeks and hooked nose became more and more noticeable. His cheeky manner became more restrained. Prince Charles-Joseph de Ligne, Casanova's friend (and uncle of his future employer), described him in the period around 1784:

He would have been handsome if he had not been ugly: tall, built like Hercules, dark complexion; His lively eyes, full of intelligence, always show resentment, anxiety or anger, and that is why he seems fierce. It is easier to anger him than to amuse him; he rarely laughs, but loves to make him laugh; his speeches are entertaining and funny, they have something of the clown Harlequin and Figaro.

Original text(French)

Ce serait un bien bel homme s’il n’était pas laid; il est grand, bâti en Hercule, mais a un teint africain; des yeux vifs, pleins d'esprit à la vérité, mais qui annoncent toujours la susceptibilité, l'inquiétude ou la rancune, lui donnent un peu l'air féroce, plus facile à être mis en colère qu'en gaieté. Il rit peu, mais il fait rire. Il a une manière de dire les choses qui tient de l’Arlequin balourd et du Figaro, ce qui le rend très plaisant.

Venice has changed for Casanova. Now he had little money to gamble with, few worthwhile women to want him, few acquaintances to enliven his dull days. News of his mother's death reached him (in Dresden in November 1776). He experienced even more bitter feelings when he visited the dying Bettina Gozzi: the woman who had once introduced him to intimate caresses now died in his arms. His Iliad was published in three volumes(-), but for a limited number of subscribers, and brought in little money. Casanova started a public dispute with Voltaire about religion, publishing Reflections on “Letters of Praise to Mr. Voltaire.” When he asked: “Suppose you succeed in destroying superstition. What will you replace it with? - Voltaire replied: “I like it so much!” When I free humanity from the ferocious monster that devours it, will they really ask me what I will replace it with? From Casanova's point of view, if Voltaire "was a true philosopher, he should have remained silent on this subject... the people should remain ignorant in order to preserve the general tranquility of the country."

Casanova's final resting place in Venice

Forced to resume his wanderings, Casanova arrived in Paris, and in November 1783, during a report on aeronautics, he met with Benjamin Franklin. From February to April, Mr. Casanova served as secretary to Sebastian Foscarini, the Venetian ambassador in Vienna. He also met Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's librettist, who wrote of Casanova: "this extraordinary man never liked to be in an awkward position." Casanova's notes indicate that he may have given Da Ponte advice regarding the libretto of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Last years in Bohemia

Family

Casanova's mother, Zanetta Maria Casanova, née Farussi (1708-1776), was an actress. The brothers Giacomo Casanova - Francesco (1727-1802 (1803?)) and Giovanni Battista (1732-1795) became famous artists. Francesco was a landscape painter, and Giovanni Battista studied portraiture and archaeology; his book on ancient art was translated into German. The younger brother, Gaetano Alviso Casanova (1734-1783), was a priest in Genoa. Dresden theater dancer Maria Magdalena Casanova (1732-1800), wife of the court musician Peter August, was Casanova's sister.

Creation

Memoirs

Loneliness and boredom recent years life allowed Casanova, without distraction, to concentrate on his memoirs, entitled “The Story of My Life” (fr. Histoire de ma vie) - without this work, his fame would have been much less if the memory of him had not completely disappeared. Even on the eve of 1780, he decided to write his memoirs. In 1789, he seriously began this work, as “the only medicine so as not to go crazy and not die of melancholy.” The first draft was completed by July, and he revised it for the next six years. He presents the days of his solitude as happy times, writing in his work: “I cannot find a more pleasant pastime than talking to myself about my own activities, choosing from them what can amuse my venerable audience.” His memories only go back to the summer of 1774. At the time of his death the manuscript was still in progress. His letter, dated 1792, shows that he hesitated to publish it because he found the story of his life pathetic, and realized that he might make enemies by telling the truth about his adventures. But still, he decided to continue working, using initials instead of full names and softening the most explicit episodes. He wrote in French instead of Italian: “French is more common than my own.”

The memoir opens like this:

I begin by informing my reader that fate has already rewarded me for everything good or bad that I have done during my life, and therefore I have the right to consider myself free... Contrary to the sublime moral principles, inevitably generated by the divine principles rooted in my heart, all my life I remained a slave to my feelings. I took pleasure in losing my way, I constantly lived incorrectly, and my only consolation was that I was aware of my sins... My follies are the follies of youth. You will see that I laugh at them, and if you are kind, you will laugh at them with me.

Casanova wrote about the purpose of his book:

I hope for friendship, respect and gratitude from my readers. They will be grateful to me if reading these memoirs becomes instructive and gives them pleasure. They will respect me if, having given me justice, they find that I have more virtues than sins; and I will earn their friendship as soon as they see with what sincerity and honesty I submit myself to their judgment, without hiding anything about myself.

He also informs readers that he is not talking about all of his adventures: “I have omitted those that could have offended the people who took part in them, since they would not have appeared in the best light. However, there will be those who think that I am sometimes tactless; and I apologize for that." In the last chapter, the text suddenly breaks off, hinting at undescribed events: “Three years later I met her in Padua, and there I renewed my acquaintance with her daughter in a much more tender way.”

The memoirs cover approximately 3,500 pages in ten volumes (the text's first editor, Jean Laforgue, divided it into twelve volumes). Despite the fact that the chronology of events at times suffers from disorder and inaccuracy, and a number of stories are exaggerated, the main outline of the plot and many details are confirmed in the works of contemporaries. Casanova reproduces dialogues well and writes in detail about all classes of society. Casanova is for the most part open about his sins, intentions and motives, and he treats his successes and failures with humor. His confessions are generally free of regret or remorse. Casanova glorifies sensual pleasures, especially music, food and women. “I have always loved highly spiced food... As for women, I always found that the one I was in love with smelled good, and the more she sweated, the sweeter it seemed to me.” He mentions no less than one hundred and twenty relationships with women and girls, and several times briefly hints at relationships with men. He describes his duels and conflicts with scoundrels and officials, their conclusions and escapes, intrigues and machinations, torments and sighs of pleasure. He is convincing when he says: “I can tell vixi(I have lived)."

The manuscript of the memoirs was kept by Casanova's relatives until it was sold to the publishing house of F. A. Brockhaus. It was first published in a greatly abbreviated German translation in 1828, and then in French, processed by J. Laforgue. In Laforgue's edition, the descriptions of sexual adventures were significantly reduced (in particular, all homosexual episodes were thrown out of the text), and the political coloring of the memoirs was also changed - from a Catholic and a staunch opponent of the revolution, which Casanova was in reality, he turned into a political and religious freethinker. During World War II, the manuscript survived the Allied bombing of Leipzig. The memoirs have been translated - with copyright infringement - into approximately twenty languages. The complete French original was published only in 1960, and after another half a century, the National Library of France bought the manuscript and began translating it into digital form.

Other writings

Giacomo Casanova is the author of more than twenty works, including the comedy "Moluccaida", the three-volume "History of the Troubles in Poland", the five-volume utopian novel "Icozameron" - one of the earliest works of science fiction - as well as a number of translations, including Homer's "Iliad" (-). Of interest are the adventurer's letters and Casanova's original solutions to complex geometric problems.

Relationships with women

For Casanova and his contemporary sybarites from high society love and intimate relationships were most often casual, not burdened with the seriousness that was characteristic of 19th-century romanticism. Flirting, lovemaking, and short-term relationships were common among representatives of the noble class, who married more for the sake of useful connections than for love.

Casanova (left) checking the integrity of the "safety caps" by inflating. Engraving illustrating Casanova's memoirs (Brussels edition 1872)

Being multifaceted and complex, Casanova’s personality was still dominated by sensual passions, as he himself narrates: “Indulging in everything that gave pleasure to my senses has always been the main business of my life; I have never found a more important occupation. Feeling that I was born for the opposite sex, I always loved him and did everything I could to be loved by him." He mentions that he sometimes used "safety caps", first checking their integrity by inflating, to prevent his mistresses from becoming pregnant.

The ideal relationship for Casanova included not only intimate relationships, but also complex intrigues, heroes and villains, and a gallant parting. According to a pattern that he often repeated, he found attractive woman suffering from a rude or jealous lover (Act One); Casanova saves her from difficulty (Act Two); she shows her gratitude; he seduces her; a short-lived, whirlwind romance ensues (Act Three); Feeling the approaching cooling of the ardor of love or boredom, he admits his insolvency and arranges the marriage of his mistress or brings her together with a rich man, leaving the scene after this (Act Four). As William Bolitho notes in Twelve Against God, Casanova's secret to success with women "contained nothing more esoteric than [offering] what every self-respecting woman demands: all he had, all he was, with dazzling a gift in the form of a large sum of money (to compensate for the lack of legality) in lieu of lifelong maintenance.”

Casanova teaches: “There is no such honest woman with an unspoiled heart, whichever man would certainly win, taking advantage of her gratitude. This is one of the surest and fastest ways." Alcohol and violence were not decent means of seduction for him. On the contrary, attentiveness, small courtesies and services should be used to soften a woman’s heart, but “a man who speaks of his love in words is a fool.” Verbal communication is necessary - "without words the pleasure of love is reduced by no less than two-thirds" - but words of love must be implied, not pompously announced.

Mutual agreement is important, according to Casanova, but he avoided easy victories or too difficult situations considering them unsuitable for their purposes. He strived to be the perfect companion - witty, charming, reliable, amiable - in Act One, before moving to the bedroom in Act Three. Casanova states that he did not behave like a predator: "It has never been my rule to direct my attacks against the inexperienced or those whose prejudices would most likely prove an obstacle." However, the women he conquered were mostly in precarious positions or emotionally vulnerable.

Casanova valued a woman’s intelligence: “In the end, a beautiful but stupid woman leaves her lover without entertainment after he has physically enjoyed her attractiveness.” However, his attitude towards educated women was typical of the time: “For a woman, learning is inappropriate; it jeopardizes the basic qualities of her sex... none scientific discovery was not made by women... (it) requires an energy that the female sex does not have. But in simple reasoning and in subtlety of feeling we must give women their due.”

In the introductory article to the Russian edition of Casanova’s memoirs, A. F. Stroev writes:

... Casanova's "Don Juan list" can only amaze the imagination an exemplary family man: 122 women over 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 and gambling

Gambling was a common means of leisure in the social and political circles in which Casanova moved. In his memoirs, he discusses many games of chance in the 18th century, including lottery, pharaoh, basset, picket, primo, fifteen, whist, biribi, and the passion for them on the part of the aristocracy and clergy. Cheaters were treated with greater tolerance than is the case today, and they were rarely publicly reprimanded. Most players were wary of cheaters and their tricks. All kinds of scams were in use, and Casanova amused himself with them.

Casanova gambled throughout his adult life, winning and losing large sums of money. He was trained by professionals and was "taught those wise maxims without which games of chance crush those who play them." He could not always refuse to cheat and at times even teamed up with professional players to make money. Casanova states that he was "calm and smiling when he lost, and not greedy when he won." However, sometimes he strangely deceived himself, and then his behavior was frantic, even challenging him to a duel. Casanova admits that he lacked the stamina to become a professional gambler: “I lacked the prudence to stop when fate was against me, and lacked self-control when I won.” He also did not like to be considered a professional: “Professional players can do nothing to testify that I was from their hellish clique.” Although Casanova sometimes used the game prudently for his own purposes - to quickly get money, to flirt, make connections, act like a gallant gentleman, or to present himself as an aristocrat in front of high society - he could also play with manic passion and without calculation, especially while in the euphoria of a new love adventure. “Why did I play when I so keenly anticipated losing? Greed made me play. I enjoyed spending money and my heart bled when the money was not won at cards.”

Casanova's reputation and authority

Contemporaries considered Giacomo an extraordinary personality, a highly intelligent and inquisitive person. Casanova was one of the outstanding chroniclers of his era. He was a true adventurer who crossed Europe from end to end in search of fortune, an adventurer who met with the most prominent people of the 18th century to realize his intentions. A servant of those in power, and at the same time a bearer of aesthetics and morality new for his age, he was a member secret societies and searched for truth beyond traditional ideas. Being a religious man, a devout Catholic, he believed in the prayer: “Despair kills; prayer dispels it; after prayer a person believes and acts.” But just like prayer, he believed in free will and reason, and clearly did not agree with the statement that the desire for pleasure would not allow him into heaven.

Born into a family of actors, Giacomo had a passion for theater and a theatrical, improvisational life. But for all his talents, he often indulged in the pursuit of entertainment and bodily pleasures, often avoiding stable work and getting himself into trouble where he could have succeeded if he acted carefully. His true calling was to live by relying on his resourcefulness, nerves of steel, luck, charm and money received as a token of gratitude or through deception.

The only things he knew nothing about were those in which he considered himself an expert: the rules of dance, the French language, good taste, structure of the world, rules good manners. Only his comedies are not funny; Only his philosophical works lack philosophy - all the others are filled with it; there is always something weighty, new, spicy, deep. He is a wealth of knowledge, but he quotes Homer and Horace ad nauseum. His mind and his witticisms are like Attic salt. He is sensual and generous, but upset him with anything - and he becomes unpleasant, vindictive and disgusting... He does not believe in anything, but only in the incredible, being superstitious in everything. Fortunately, he has honor and tact... He loves. He wants to get everything... He is proud because he is nothing... Never tell him that you know the story he is going to tell you - pretend that you are hearing it for the first time... Never forget to pay him your respects, otherwise... for this trifle you risk making an enemy. - Charles Joseph de Ligne. Mémoires et mélanges historiques et littéraires, t. 4. - Paris, 1828.

Original text(French)

Il n’y a que les choses qu’il prétend savoir qu’il ne sait pas: les règles de la danse, de la langue française, du goût, de l’usage du monde et du savoir-vivre. Il n’y a que ses comédies qui ne soient pas comiques; il n"y a que ses ouvrages philosophiques où il n'y ait point de philosophie: tous les autres en sont remplis; il y a toujours du trait, du neuf, du piquant et du profond. C'est un puits de science; mais il cite si souvent Homère et Horace, que c'est de quoi en dégoûter. Sa tournure d" esprit et ses saillies sont un extrait de sel attique. Il est sensible et reconnaissant; mais pour peu qu'on lui déplaise, il est méchant, hargneux et détestable... Il ne croit à rien, excepté ce qui est le moins croyable, étant superstitieux sur tout plein d'objets. Heureusement qu'il a de l'honneur et de la délicatesse... Il aime. Il convoite tout... Il est fier, parce qu"il n"est rien et qu"il n"a rien...ne lui dites jamais qui vous savez l"histoire qu"il va vous conter; ayez l"air de l"entendre pour la premiere fois... Ne manquez pas de lui faire la révérence, car un rien vous en fera un ennemi...

It is difficult to imagine a more multifaceted personality than Giacomo Casanova: lawyer and cleric, military man and violinist, swindler and pimp, gourmet and business man, diplomat and spy, politician and doctor, mathematician, philosopher and kabbalist, playwright and writer. His creative legacy includes more than twenty works, including plays and essays, as well as many letters.

Casanova in culture

Casanova is primarily associated with ideas about his love affairs. His name, which has become a household name, is on a par with such literary characters as Don Juan or Casanova’s “contemporaries” - Lovelace and Foblas. Indeed, Casanova’s memoirs, consistent with the philosophy of libertinism, do not shy away from the sexual side of his odyssey, while distorting some facts: for example, studies have shown that Casanova’s repeated hints about alleged incest with own daughters, are chronologically improbable. However, Casanova's real personality is far from being reduced to his erotic escapades; it is much more complex and interesting. In a number of studies at the end of the 20th century, an attempt was made to paint a more holistic image of Casanova - an educated, intelligent, observant and resourceful adventurer.

The famous adventurer is the subject of novels by R. Aldington, plays by A. Schnitzler, M. Tsvetaeva, V. Korkiya and A. Lavrin (“Casanova: Lessons of Love”), essays by S. Zweig, R. Vaillant, F. Marceau, a book by F. Sollers "Casanova the Magnificent" (1998).

Casanova is the hero of an opera by J. Strauss Jr., a film by Federico Fellini, several English-language television series (see Casanova) and a song Casanova in Hell from the album Fundamental groups Pet Shop Boys (2006). Musical composition Casanova in eight scenes for cello and brass band, written by the Dutch composer Johan de Meij