Giacomo Casanova

Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was born in Venice on April 2, 1725. His mother, Zanetta Farussi, was an actress; her husband, Gaetano Casanova, was an actor and dancer.

At 17, Casanova graduated from the University of Padua with a degree in law. He had also studied medicine, mathematics and moral philosophy.

Over the course of his varied career, Casanova was an ecclesiastic, soldier, violinist, gambler, financier, spy, diplomat and writer. He joined the Freemasons in Lyon in 1750.

Casanova's name became synonymous with the adventurous lover, largely through his posthumously published memoir, Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life).

He discussed several forms of birth control in his memoirs, including animal-membrane condoms, which he called “English riding coats.” He and some of his partners also used squeezed lemon halves as makeshift cervical caps.

Portrait attributed to Francesco Narici, c. 1760

Casanova was a noted gourmet. His memoirs helped reinforce the association between oysters and seduction; he described eating dozens of them and using them in an erotic game. The often-repeated claim that he ate 50 oysters every morning should be treated as part of his self-created legend rather than an independently established routine.

His memoirs also record elaborate meals of truffles, game, fish and wine, and his insistence that hard-boiled eggs, anchovies and prepared vinegars be available for a salad.

In July 1755 Casanova was imprisoned without trial in the Piombi, the cells beneath the lead roof of the Doge’s Palace, after being accused of offences against religion and morals. Sentenced to five years, he escaped with another prisoner on October 31, 1756, and fled Venice.

In 1757 Casanova helped establish a state lottery to raise money for the École Royale Militaire in Paris. His involvement enhanced his financial reputation, but he did not invent either lotteries in general or the French scheme single-handedly.

During a visit to Switzerland in 1760, Casanova met Voltaire several times. Their lively literary discussions ended in disagreement.

Casanova arrived in London on June 13, 1763. He rented an expensive furnished house in Pall Mall under his adopted name, the Chevalier de Seingalt, employed a multilingual Black servant named Jarbe and later shared the house with a Portuguese woman he called Pauline.

In September 1785, not 1784, Casanova accepted Count Joseph Karl Emmanuel von Waldstein’s offer to become librarian at Dux Castle in Bohemia, now Duchcov in the Czech Republic. He remained based there for the rest of his life.

Casanova began writing Histoire de ma vie in French in 1789. The approximately 3,700-page manuscript remained incomplete when he died and the first uncensored edition based on the original text did not appear until 1960–62.

The Bibliothèque nationale de France acquired Casanova’s original manuscript in 2010. It is now classed as a French national treasure and has been digitised for public consultation.

Casanova died at Dux on June 4, 1798, aged 73. According to his friend the Prince de Ligne, his last words were: “I have lived as a philosopher, and I die as a Christian.”

Source: Food For Thought by Ed Pearce