Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was born on April 2, 1725 in Venice by the actors Gaetano Casanova (who is actually only a putative father, the carnal father is indicated by himself in the person of the patrician Michele Grimani) and Zanetta Farusso called "La Buranella". The long absences due to their work make Giacomo an orphan since birth. He grows up with his maternal grandmother.
He graduated in law in Padua in 1742. He tried an ecclesiastical career but, of course, it did not fit his nature; then try the military one, but soon after he resigns. He knows the patrician Matteo Bragadin, who keeps him as if he were his own son. His brilliant life, however, leads to suspicions and so Casanova is forced to escape from Venice.
He takes refuge in Paris. After three years he returns to his hometown, but is accused of despising the Holy Religion for an adventure with two nuns. As a result he was imprisoned in the Piombi, but on 31 October 1756 he managed to escape. This escape will make it extremely famous.
Despite the continuous and frequent travels he will always remain deeply Venetian, in love with his city. Lover of the "dolce vita" of the city that takes place between theaters, casinos and casinos, where she organizes elegant dinners and consumes together with the beautiful in turn manicaretti and galant encounters.
After the escape he took refuge again in Paris: here he was arrested a second time for bankruptcy. Released after a few days, he continues his countless trips that take him to Switzerland, the Netherlands, the German states and London. Later he went to Prussia, Russia and Spain. In 1769 he returned to Italy, but he had to wait two years before receiving permission to return to Venice after an exile of almost twenty years.
A man of great appetites, ambitious and brilliant, he was a lover of comforts that could not always be allowed. Of brownish color, one meter and ninety tall, with a lively eye and a passionate and fickle character, Casanova possessed more than beauty, a magnetic and fascinating personality and intellectual abilities and superior oratory (also recognized by many detractors). "Talents" that will make the most of the European courts, dominated by a cultured but also fatuous and permissive class.
Also in the Venetian period are written as "Neither love nor women", a book against the patrician Carlo Grimani for a wrong suffered because of which he will be driven back from his hometown. At the age of 58 Casanova resumed his wanderings for Europe and wrote other books such as "Stories of my life", bibliography published in French, "Stories of my escape" of 1788 and the novel "Icosameron" of the same year.
Speaking of himself and his personalities, he will say: "Happy those who, without harming anyone, know how to procure pleasure, and foolish others who imagine that the Supreme Being can rejoice in the pains and sorrows and abstinence that they offer him in sacrifice ".
Giacomo Casanova died June 4, 1798 in the lost castle of Dux, pronouncing the last, famous words "Great God and witnesses all of my death: I am a Christian philosopher and die". Of death he thought it was just a "change of form".