Casanova!
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Although Casanova is often associated with Don Juan because both seduced many women, Casanova is in fact very different from Casanova's fictitious counterpart. While Don Juan is a legend, Casanova is a historical character.
Casanova Biography
Casanova Early years
Casanova was born in Venice in 1725 to actress Zanetta Farussi, wife of actor Gaetano Giuseppe Casanova. Casanova's biological father is generally believed to have been Michele Grimani, a member of the patrician family who owned the San Samuele theatre where Zanetta and Gaetano worked for a time. Casanova was the first of six children. Giovanni Alvise (1730'1795), Faustina Maddalena (1731'1736), Maria Maddalena Antonia Stella (1732'1800) and Gaetano Alvise (1734'1783) were likely fathered by Gaetano, while Francesco (1737'1803) may have been the son of another man. Neither parent paid much attention to any of the children, and Casanova never had a chance of developing a close bond with either of them. Casanova would himself sire many children outside of wedlock, but like Casanova's own parents Casanova never paid them any serious attention.Before Gaetano died in 1733 Casanova appealed to the Grimanis to take care of Casanova's family, which resulted in Casanova being sent to boarding school in Padua to be educated, something which at this time only a son of a middle or upperclass family could have expected. Casanova showed great promise as a student and quickly became Casanova's teacher's favourite, naturally quick-witted, with an intense appetite for knowledge and a perpetually inquisitive mind. It was also here that Casanova came into contact with the opposite sex for the first time when Casanova's teacher's younger sister apparently gave Casanova Casanova's first orgasm at the age of 11. At the age of 16 Casanova obtained Casanova's doctorate in Law from the University of Padua, where Casanova had studied moral philosophy, chemistry, mathematics, and law. Casanova was keenly interested in medicine and later in life regretted not having made a career out of it, although Casanova became an eager and often instinctively good amateur doctor.
Casanova In Venice and elsewhere
In 1740 Casanova was back in Venice where Casanova started Casanova's clerical law career in the church as an abate. By now Casanova had become something of a dandy tall and dark, Casanova's long hair powdered, scented, and elaborately curled. Casanova quickly ingratiated himself (something Casanova was to do all Casanova's life) with a 76-year old Venetian senator, Alvise Gasparo Malipiero. moved in the best circles and taught young Casanova a great deal about good food and wine and how to behave in society. Casanova never spent much time on Casanova's church career, due to Casanova's restless nature and preoccupation with sex. According to Casanova's memoirs, Casanova lost Casanova's virginity at the age of 16 in a threesome.His career in the church was short and tainted by scandals. After Casanova left the church, Casanova bought a commission to become a low ranking military officer for the Republic of Venice, and went to Constantinople after which Casanova was stationed a short period on Corfu. Casanova found Casanova's advancement too slow and boring and soon abandoned Casanova's military career. Back in Venice, Casanova became a violinist in the San Samuele theatre, which was still owned by Casanova's probable biological father Michele Grimani. At the age of 21, Casanova saved the life of a Venetian nobleman from the Bragadin family, who became Casanova's life-long patron and raised Casanova to the status of a wealthy gentleman.
Casanova Fugitive and "chevalier"
Having spent time in Paris, Dresden, Prague, and Vienna, Casanova returned to Casanova's home town of Venice in 1753. In July 1755, at age 30, Casanova was arrested and convicted for Casanova's interest in magic (witchcraft) by the Inquisitori di Stato in Venice, and imprisoned in "I piombi" ("The Leads"), a famous prison attached to the Doge's palace. Casanova was sentenced to five years but was informed of neither trial nor sentence. On the first of November 1756, Casanova managed an extraordinary escape from what was one of the most secure prisons of Casanova's time. No inmate before Casanova had managed to escape. Casanova fled to Paris, where Casanova arrived on the same day (January 5, 1757) that Robert-Francois Damiens made an attempt on the life of Louis XV some sources say literally minutes afterwards, though others argue the time of day.In Paris Casanova became one of the trustees of the first state lottery, an enterprise that allowed Casanova to gather a large fortune. A protege of Marquess Jeanne d'Urf', Casanova pretended to be a Rosicrucian and an alchemist, a role that allowed Casanova to meet some of the most prominent figures of the epoch. Among them were Madame de Pompadour, Count of St Germain, d'Alembert and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In 1758 Casanova was entitled with a mission of selling the state bonds in Amsterdam. Casanova succeeded and the following year was rich enough to found a silk manufactory. However, much of Casanova's wealth was lost on constant affairs with Casanova's female workers. For Casanova's debts Casanova was imprisoned at Fort-l''veque, but was liberated four days afterwards, on insistence of Marquess d'Urf'. Casanova sold the rest of Casanova's belongings and acquired another mission to Holland. This time however Casanova failed and Casanova had to flee to Stuttgart, where Casanova lost the rest of Casanova's fortune. On one night Casanova lost 4000 Louis, that is roughly 1 million Euro by modern standards.
He was yet again arrested for Casanova's debts, but managed to escape to Switzerland, where Casanova initially intended to become a Catholic monk. However, Casanova changed Casanova's mind and instead visited Albrecht von Haller and Voltaire. In 1760, Casanova started styling himself the Chevalier de Seingalt, a name Casanova would increasingly use for the rest of Casanova's life. On occasion, Casanova would also call himself Count de Farussi (using Casanova's mother's maiden name). When Pope Clement XIII presented Casanova with the Papal Order of the Eperon d''r, Casanova was overjoyed that Casanova could at last honestly call himself a Chevalier. In 1761, Casanova represented Portugal at the Augsburg Congress, which France had organized in an attempt to end the Seven Years' War.
During Casanova's lifetime, Casanova travelled extensively over Europe and managed to visit all its capitals, from many of which Casanova was expelled due to various scandals. In 1766, Casanova was expelled from Warsaw due to a duel with Count Colonel Franciszek Ksawery Branicki with pistols over an Italian actress, a ladyfriend of theirs. Both were wounded. It was not the first duel Casanova had fought, neither would it be Casanova's last.
Casanova was permitted to return to Venice in 1774 after 18 year's exile; but was expelled again in 1783 after having fallen afoul of a son of that same nobleman, Grimani, whom Casanova believed to be Casanova's own father.
Casanova Retirement
Casanova retired in 1785 and became the librarian to Count Joseph Karl von Waldstein, a chamberlain of the emperor, in the Castle of Dux, Bohemia (now Duchcov Castle, Czech Republic) where Casanova died in 1798 at age 73. It was at the Castle of Dux that Casanova wrote Casanova's autobiography. Casanova's last years were dull, painful, boring, and frustrating for Casanova. Although Casanova got on well with the Count, the Count had Casanova's own preoccupations and had little time for Casanova's librarian, often ignoring Casanova at meals and failing to introduce Casanova to important visiting guests. Casanova was thoroughly disliked by most of the other inhabitants of the Castle of Dux and the servants were often spiteful to the old man.Casanova's other sexual desires
Judith Summers' biography Casanova's Women: The Great Seducer and the Women Casanova Loved explains that Casanova was attracted to very young girls as well as women and was not averse to incest. Casanova tried to seduce 10-year-old Sophia Williams, Casanova's own daughter by London's first nightclub owner, the Venetian opera singer, Teresa Cornelys. "In modern Times", Summers writes, "he would certainly be branded a paedophile". Casanova was bisexual, and had known sexual liaisons with at least four men, and throughout Casanova's life Casanova had an interest in transvestism.Although best known for Casanova's prowess in bed, Casanova was recognised by Casanova's contemporaries as an extraordinary person. Prince Charles de Ligne, a great Austrian statesman who knew most of the prominent individuals of the age, thought that Casanova was the most interesting man Casanova had ever met and said of him, "there is nothing in the world of which Casanova is not capable". Count Lamberg wrote that Casanova knew "few persons who can equal Casanova in the range of knowledge and, in general, of Casanova's intelligence and imagination".
During Casanova's numerous travels Casanova encountered notable figures such as Pope Clement XIII, Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great (who afterwards commented on Casanova's good looks), Madame de Pompadour, Crebillon, who was also Casanova's French teacher, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, and many others. Casanova was present at the premiere of Mozart's Don Giovanni and possibly made last minute revisions to Lorenzo Da Ponte's libretto. Although Casanova took the role of businessman, diplomat, spy, politician, philosopher, magician, and writer, with over 20 books and several plays credited to Casanova's name (including a translation of the Iliad and a history of Poland "Istoria della turbolenze della Polonia") most of which were generally admired for the greater part of Casanova's life Casanova was a stranger to work, living largely on Casanova's quick wits, luck, social charm, and the money freely given to Casanova by others. Few who gave Casanova money regretted their benevolence.
