😉 Greetings honorable audience! In the article “Giacomo Casanova: Biography of the Great Adventurer” – about the main stages in the life of the most famous lover, Italian traveler and writer.
Casanova: biography
In 1725, on April 2, little Giacomo Girolamo was born into a Venetian family of theater actors. His mother was a beautiful, talented, successful and popular actress who constantly toured with the troupe, so his grandmother was involved in raising her son. My father died soon after.
The child was very sickly. The humid climate of Venice did not suit him, and the doctors recommended to change him. So, nine-year-old Giacomo ended up in a boarding house in the Italian city of Padua.
Conditions at the boarding house were terrible and all of its inhabitants were mired in poverty. But from the unenviable fate of our hero, his first teacher, Abbot Gozzi, saved him, taking the boy to him. In the abbot’s house, the student received not only education, but also his first love experience.
It happened when he was eleven years old. Abbot Gozzi had a younger sister, and she became his chosen one. Soon the guy graduated from the university and became the owner of the degree of a church lawyer.
The church cassock did not appeal to Casanova. He liked women, he loved cards and social entertainment, since there were plenty of them in Venice at that time.
The young man was the soul of any company. He knew how to find a common language with everyone, so he easily found patrons and received patronage. Casanova looked for himself in many professions, even in the military field. He dreamed of becoming a doctor, but his vicious interests played a role and he retired.
Casanova’s Adventures
The only field where Casanova felt like a professional was love. There was no equal to him. But he did not collect beauties, he loved them and experienced every novel with all his heart. His new lady felt like the only one.
Portrait of Casanova by Venetian painter Alessandro Longhi
Despite many lovers, he never married, although several times he was not far from it. At the end of his life, in his memoirs, the great lover described his adventures in great detail.
He was a very versatile person. He loved to read, he had an excellent memory, was fond of alchemy and occult sciences. He had a talent for adventure and dangerous games.
Thus, in July 1755, the thirty-year-old Casanova was arrested by order of the all-powerful inquisition and sent to prison.
To the surprise of all of Italy, this fidget escaped from prison, despite the fact that no one ever succeeded! They said that it was impossible to escape from the “Lead” prison. It is possible that high patrons helped him. After his escape, the adventurer left Venice, although he loved her very much.
Travels
Our hero traveled all over Europe, even in Russia. He could be called a great traveler. In the XVIII century. it was rather difficult to travel because of bad roads and robbers who hunted for robberies, but Casanova was driven by a thirst for adventure.
He still selflessly loved women, but luck began to turn away from the great seducer more and more often. He had to master the profession of a spy. This allowed him not to sit in one place, brought in money and ensured the protection of the authorities.
It suited him, because a series of troubles, duels and adversities followed him everywhere. But even here the adventurer could not resist the temptation. He started playing again, got into huge debt, and had to flee to Switzerland. He visited the monastery in Einsiedeln and thought about settling down forever and staying there.
Love for life, women and adventures made him continue to wander. Wherever he was, novels with beauties accompanied him like a shadow.
Since 1760, Casanova called himself Chevalier de Sengaltes and this name continued to call himself in the future. Two years later, he returned to Paris, started a new scam, but it failed miserably. He tried to convince the Marquis d’Urfe that he would turn her into a youth with the help of witchcraft.
A trip to England also brought nothing to the adventurer, except for promiscuous sexual intercourse and a venereal disease. Poor and sick, he left for Belgium.
For another three years he traveled around Europe. His bad reputation and notoriety have served their purpose. He was not accepted anywhere, the authorities expelled him from the country. As a result, he was forced to return to Italy.
Creation
To return to Venice, Giacomo needed permission. While waiting for the documents, he was in Rome and undertook to translate the Iliad into Italian. When he began to write the book “History of Troubles in Poland”, he was admitted to the literary academy.
To win over the Venetian authorities, Casanova spies. And finally, in 1774, the Inquisition took pity and allowed him to return to Venice.
Years of dissolute life have left their mark. Lovelace no longer had much success with pretty girls and money for playing cards. In 1785 he got a job as a librarian for Count Waldstein.
Out of despair, Giacomo even contemplated suicide because of his loneliness. And only a great desire to finish writing his memoirs “The Story of My Life” did not allow him to do this. In total, the writer wrote about twenty works in his life. Including the comedy “Molyukkeida”, the novel “Ikozameron”.
Casanova lived to be seventy-three years old and died on June 4, 1798. His height is 1,87 m, his zodiac sign is Aries.
Giacomo Casanova: biography (video)
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