Casanova

Italian adventurer

• Born: April 2, 1725
• Birthplace: Venice (now in Italy)
• Died: June 4, 1798
• Place of death: Dux, Bohemia (now Duchcov, Czech Republic)

Although discounted by some as too bawdy to be literature, Casanova’s twelve volumes of memoirs serve as a treatise on the manners and mores of society in eighteenth century Europe.

Early Life

Jean-Jacques, chevalier de Seingalt, whose other name, Casanova (kah-sah-NAW-vah), would become synonymous with the bon vivant and sexually proficient man, was a sickly child who was considered mentally deficient by his parents. He suffered from debilitating nosebleeds and was so unresponsive that he did not speak until he was eight years old. His parents made no secret of their wish that he would die.

Casanova was the eldest son of a Venetian actor of Spanish descent and Zanetta, the leading lady in the Comici troupe of comic actors. His father died when Casanova was very young, and soon after, Zanetta abandoned the young Casanova, his three brothers, and two sisters, leaving them with strangers while she toured Verona, St. Petersburg, and Dresden. After she left, she seldom saw the children.

After the death of his father and in his mother’s absence, Casanova began to flourish academically and was sent to boarding school in Padua, where he studied law, although he wished to become a doctor. In his memoirs, he proudly claims that while at school, he experienced his first sexual encounter at age eleven and found his second love, the gaming tables. He soon lost his money, began gambling on credit, and wrote his grandmother for additional funds. Instead of sending money, Casanova’s grandmother whisked him home to Venice and placed him in an abbey school in the hope that the church would alter his less-than-reputable passions. At age fifteen, Casanova had received three minor orders from the church, been introduced into society by his patron, and acquired the social graces that would serve him well throughout the remainder of his life. He excelled in his studies and was allowed to preach two sermons, but during the second sermon it became obvious that he was not sober, and he was dismissed from the program. Thanks to the intercession of his patron, he was transferred to a seminary but soon was expelled for a sexual tryst.

Because he obviously was not cut from clerical cloth, Casanova’s next foray into the professional world was the Venetian army, which he entered as an ensign. This, too, proved to be a less-than-ideal choice; he resigned the post in 1745. Seeking a less structured position, he began to play the violin in a theater orchestra. During an evening performance, one of the theater patrons became ill, and Casanova, claiming to be schooled in the medicinal arts, saved the man’s life. The gentleman was Senator Bragadin, a wealthy and influential politician, who showed his gratitude by moving Casanova into his home and his social circle and becoming his patron. After many false starts, Casanova had found his niche in the world and realized his true calling, which was to be supported and valued merely by virtue of being himself.

Life’s Work

During his years at Bragadin’s home, Casanova’s main source of revenue was gambling, naturally with the senator’s money. He reveled in his new social position, charmed the high society of the region, and dazzled all he met with his rugged good looks and the energy that seemed to radiate from his person. He was tall, unusually strong, and dark complected. His face bore several smallpox scars, and he had a high forehead, a long nose, a soft chin, large eyes, and full lips. He was a born orator, a good listener, and generous to a fault—particularly when the source of the generosity was not his own funds.

Although he was educated, Casanova used his knowledge for nothing more than to sparkle in conversation in the attempt to impress the wealthy and well connected now drawn to his circle. His energy was without bounds but undirected; he was intelligent but lacked the power of concentration. Within this new social sphere, his hedonism and narcissism flourished, and although he entertained everyone he met with his wit and carpe diem philosophy, he also exploited them. In the fluid social milieu of eighteenth century Europe, knowledge was a ticket to fame and fortune, and Casanova had a demonstrable talent for always being in the right place at the right time with the proper witticism.

Casanova’s actions caught the attention of the police, who noted that the young man’s libertine excesses had nearly ruined Senator Bragadin. Under the noted rogue’s tutelage, the senator had acquired an interest in magic and the occult. In addition, Casanova had penned satirical and, by some accounts, atheistic poetry and was well-known for his gambling and sexual conquests. With little provocation, the police raided Casanova’s quarters, discovered books on magic, and, accompanied by forty archers, arrested him. Uninformed of the charges against him, which included bewitching Bragadin and being a corrupter of youth, and without benefit of trial, Casanova was escorted to Piombi prison under the roof of the Doges’ Palace in Venice. The inquisitors of state sentenced him to a prison stay of five years. Casanova found prison less suited to his appetites than the church or the military, and he immediately began plotting an escape. With the aid of a cellmate, a monk called Balbi, the enterprising young man dug his way out and left Venice for almost twenty years.

Employing the graces he had acquired during his time at the senator’s and his expertise as a “lover of women,” Casanova traveled extensively in Europe, floating from one patron or patroness to another and increasing his circle of influence. During this period, he conversed with Voltaire, King George III, and Empress Catherine the Great and became a favorite of the upper classes. He wrote novels, plays, and scholarly treatises and dabbled in finance, organizing a national lottery in Holland.

Although successful by his standards, Casanova longed to return to his beloved Venice. Through his connections, he gained a reprieve on the condition that he would return as a secret agent, which he did, serving from 1774 to 1782. Ironically, however, he found that after twenty years of traveling, the home of his youth failed to hold his interest: Soon he yearned to wander once again, this time to England. The eight years Casanova spent in England proved to be his downfall. He failed to amuse and delight British society as he had the society of the Continent, and he encountered people more adept than he at being scoundrels. Penurious, he returned to Venice to find himself barred from gaining entry to the great halls where he had once enjoyed social success.

Without other recourse, Casanova accepted an invitation to become chateau librarian for Count von Waldstein in Bohemia. Unable to speak the language and thus stripped of his witty repartee, society’s once-shining star was relegated to the periphery of the social world at the château of Dux. Miserable and isolated, Casanova removed himself from the milieu and began to compose his memoirs, a task that encompassed the final fourteen years of his life. He died at the château, broken and alone, in 1798.

Significance

It is virtually impossible to separate Casanova the man from Casanova the literary artist, not only because the major portion of his work is autobiography, which is theoretically factual, but also because so much of Casanova’s character is fiction. Although he disliked novels, he is the prototype of the picaresque, the charming rogue who slips and slides through encounters while envisioning, at best, an improved state in life and, at the least, survival at any cost.

Whether Casanova created the legend or vice versa remains a matter of scholarly debate; however, Casanova’s memoirs clearly enumerate the manners, the ills, and the mores of the upper classes of eighteenth century Europe. Although some critics dismiss Casanova’s memoirs as erotic or obscene, others believe the twelve volumes are great literature worthy of study and discourse.

Casanova died in 1798, but the manuscript did not appear until 1820, when Carlo Angiolini, about whom little is known, brought the handwritten bundles to Brockhaus Publishers in Leipzig. Although Angiolini presented the publishers with twelve bundles, which corresponded roughly to the original twelve volumes of the autobiography, it became apparent that sections were missing and that the work was probably incomplete, because the chronology ended in 1774. Some sources contend that Casanova burned the balance of the manuscript when age forced the writing to become less than perfect.

The work was translated into German and published between 1822 and 1828 as Aus den Memoiren de Venetianers Jacob Casanova de Seingalt. Before the memoir’s publication in French, Jean Laforgue, a language professor, was hired to clean up the language, both grammatically and morally, and many of the original passages were deleted. When the French version was released, many doubted its authenticity and attributed the writing to Stendhal. Based on independent research and the restoration of the purged passages, the first “complete and unabridged English translation” was published privately in London (The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1894). This original English translation by Arthur Machen was a numbered, limited run of one thousand copies, of which five hundred were earmarked for American distribution. It was reprinted numerous times by various private clubs and societies (because of its erotic content) and published publicly by Elek Books, London, in the early 1900’s and by G. P. Putnam in New York (1959-1961). Abridged and edited versions of Machen’s translation were also published throughout the twentieth century. Histoire de ma vie, an edition purporting to be the first complete and authentic publication of the original French memoir, was published by Brockhaus in 1960-1962.

Although many people may find the blatant sexuality of the memoirs offensive, each of the hundreds of vignettes in the work sheds light on the customs of the era. Also, many readers will find something admirable in the candor of a person who veils nothing, is ashamed of nothing, and is no hypocrite. Although Casanova provided no great boon for humanity, he obviously was pleased with a life well lived. Casanova is an enigma: He had no respect for authority or reputation, yet he wished to be well liked; he laughed at religion and convention, yet he was pious and intellectually defensive; he personified the quest for pleasure, yet he was known for his respect for women; he was a sensualist who lived life to the fullest, yet he was generous to a fault. This scholar, adventurer, gamester, vagabond, romantic, and rogue can be considered one of the first heroes of popular culture—the popular culture of the Enlightenment.

Bibliography

Casanova, Giacomo. The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt. Translated by Arthur Machen. 12 vols. Reprint. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1959-1961. Claims to be the first complete and unabridged translation of the work; employs new scholarship.

Dobree, Bonamy. Three Eighteenth Century Figures: Sarah Churchill, John Wesley, Giacomo Casanova. London: Oxford University Press, 1962. A rather fond rendering of Casanova’s life, including an overview of his encounters, travels, and lifestyle.

Flem, Lydia. Casanova: The Man Who Really Loved Women. Translated by Catherine Temerson. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997. Presents Casanova’s life as a psychobiography in an attempt to rationalize his activities based on his impoverished childhood and his perpetual search for a mother figure.

Nettl, Paul. The Other Casanova: A Contribution to Eighteenth Century Music and Manners. New York: Philosophical Library, 1950. Places Casanova within the cultural milieu of his era by discussing the music and other arts that he encountered and critiqued.

Parker, Derek. Casanova. Stroud, Gloucestershire, England: Sutton, 2002. Sympathetic biography, describing Casanova’s abilities not only as a lover of women but also as a writer, playwright, mathematician, librarian, diplomat, and spy. Places Casanova’s romantic activities within the context of eighteenth century sexual attitudes and practices.

Symons, Arthur. “Casanova at Dux.” In The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, Venetian Years. Vol. 1. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1959. The preface to this edition of the memoirs is worthy of note as an independent source, because it examines in detail the omission of the bawdy sections in the French translation and the process by which the materials were rediscovered and reincorporated.