CASANOVA Giovanni Giacomo

(Casanova, Giovanni Giacomo), an Italian adventurer of international stature, whose memoirs, distinguished by the utmost frankness in describing the intimate life of the author, brought him scandalous fame and made his name synonymous with debauchery and swindle. Born in Venice on April 2, 1725. From an early age, Casanova showed outstanding learning abilities, as well as the ability to infiltrate the Venetian high society, where very free morals reigned. Having received a spiritual education, Casanova served for some time in the Venetian army, then played the violin in the San Samuel Theater, but found his true calling in love affairs, card games, fraud and deception of simpletons who believed in his connection with supernatural forces. In 1750 he went to France, then traveled through Central Europe and returned to Venice, where he continued his former way of life. He incurred the enmity of the Inquisition and July 26, 1755 was imprisoned in the Doge's Palace on charges of Freemasonry and other sins. After 15 months, on November 1, 1756, Casanova fled, which he later told in the History of my flight (Histoire de ma fuite), written in French and published in Prague in 1788. Casanova left for France, where he became director of the government lottery and awarded the title Chevalier de Seingal. He traveled all over Europe from Spain to England and from Poland to Russia, but his personal charm gradually faded. He eventually had to return to Venice, where he found a job as a police informant. In 1782 another scandal forced him to leave Venice. For another three years, he rushed around Europe until he got a job as a librarian in the castle of Count Waldstein in Bohemia. Here, in the town of Dux, he ended his days on June 4, 1798. From 1891 until the last days of his life, he was writing memoirs. Memoirs (Memoires) Casanova, written in French, brought only to 1774. At first, their authenticity was questioned, but special studies have confirmed the authenticity of the historical events and characters mentioned in them. The author clearly embellishes his adventures, presenting himself as a "hero of debauchery and love victories."
LITERATURE
Casanova J.J. Story of my life. M., 1991 Casanova J.J. Notes of the Venetian Casanova about his stay in Russia. M., 1991 Zweig S. Casanova. M., 1991

Collier Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

See what "CASANOVA Giovanni Giacomo" is in other dictionaries:

- (Casanova) (1725 1798), Italian writer. Historical writings; fantasy novel "Ixameron" (1788). The turbulent life of Casanova, full of numerous love and adventurous adventures, in "Memoirs" (vol. 1 12; written in 1791 1798 on ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Casanova Giovanni Giacomo (April 2, 1725, Venice - June 4, 1798, Dux Castle, Bohemia), Italian writer and memoirist. He lived a stormy life, traveled all over Europe, was repeatedly in prison. Wrote several historical essays, ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Casanova, Giovanni Giacomo- CASANOVA (Casanova) Giovanni Giacomo (1725-98), Italian writer. Historical writings; fantasy novel Iscameron (1788). A turbulent life full of numerous love and adventurous adventures in Memoirs (volumes 1 12, written in 1791 98 ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

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Casanova de Sengalt Giovanni Giacomo- (Casanova de Seingalt, Giovanni Giacomo) (1725-98), Venetian adventurer. He had great personal charm and was known for his love affairs. Traveling all over Europe, he led the life of a player, and sometimes a spy. In 1756 he fled from ... ... The World History

Books

• The Love and Other Adventures of Giacomo Casanova, Cavalier de Sengalt, Venetian, Casanova Giovanni Giacomo. The memoirs of the famous adventurer Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) are extremely frank ...

1734 – 1739

1742

Casanova's parents were actors, both allegedly belonging to the noble family of Palafoks.

Giacomo receives his primary education at a school in Padua.

1734 – 1739 years - Casanova studies law at the University of Padua.

In his youth, Casanova had a close friendship with Abbé Burney, Count of Lyon, French Ambassador to the Venetian Republic.

1742 year - Giacomo Casanova receives a doctorate in jurisprudence.

The same year - Casanova enters the Theological Seminary of St. Cyprian. He is preparing to take holy orders, but he is expelled from the seminary for numerous love affairs and intrigues.

End of March - end of July 1743 years - because of his own intrigues, Casanova is imprisoned in Fort San Andrea.

Casanova spends several years traveling. He visits Naples, Rome, Paris, Constantinople.

1746 year - upon returning to Venice, Giacomo becomes court violinist with Senator Bragadino.

1753 year - the traveler visits Dresden, Prague and Vienna, after which he returns to Venice.

1756 year - after one of the love affairs, Casanova was imprisoned for deceit and blasphemy.

1756 year - escape from prison; Casanova leaves Venice.

1757 year - Bernie receives the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs of France and invites Giacomo to Paris. Here, Bernie warmly welcomes an old friend, and Casanova agrees to perform a series of "secret assignments" for him.

Gradually, thanks to Bernie, Casanova is involved in the secret diplomatic activities of France. He becomes a secular lion, in addition to espionage, he is also engaged in speculation and magic. He is appointed director of the French lottery.

1758 year - Casanova, on behalf of the French government, is sent on a secret mission to Holland.

The same year - Giacomo curtails his espionage activities, as the Duke de Choiseul comes to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. He leaves Paris and wanders around Europe again.

1759 year - return to Paris, where, a few months after returning, Casanova was imprisoned for debts in Fort l'Eveque. Under arrest, the adventurer spends two days, after which he immediately again goes to Holland on a secret mission.

1760 year - Germany. Casanova visits Cologne, Stuttgart. In Germany, the traveler is constantly harassed by creditors, and even arrested once. Through Switzerland he fled to Paris.

1761 year - Giacomo Casanova represents Portugal at the Augsburg Congress.

1763 a year - a visit to London, from where you have to flee because of debts.

1764 year - Germany again. In Berlin, Casanova receives an audience from King Frederick the Great. The traveler has the opportunity to stay in Germany for military service (become the head of the cadet corps), but rejects this offer, preferring to wander and experience many different adventures and love affairs.

1765 year - Russia. Casanova visits St. Petersburg, Moscow; he is presented to Catherine II. After spending about a year in Russia, he leaves for Warsaw.

1766 year - an adventurer flees from Warsaw to Germany because of a conflict with Count Barnitsky, which led to a duel.

Giacomo again wanders around Europe: Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Italy ... Everywhere he is engaged in petty espionage activities and experiences a huge number of love affairs.

1768 year - in Spain, Casanova manages to go to prison twice. For the first time, the adventurer was imprisoned in the Buen Retiro prison in Madrid for illegal possession of weapons, the second time in Barcelona, ​​for an intrigue with the mistress of the governor. In Madrid, his detention lasted two days, in Barcelona - just over a month.

1769 year - Casanova writes "Refutation".

1770 year - Italy. Again friendship with Bernie, who by that time had become a cardinal.

1775 year - Casanova receives permission to return to Venice, which he immediately uses. At home, the famous adventurer becomes a secret agent of the Inquisition Tribunal, and at the same time holds the position of director of the theater.

1782 year - Casanova has to leave the service and again flee from Venice. This comes after the publication of his pamphlet "No Love, No Women". In addition, with his next novel, he insults the nobleman Grimaldi. Giacomo goes to Austria, then to the Czech Republic.

1783 year - Casanova visits Venice for the last time and spends several weeks at home.

1784 year - in Vienna, Casanova serves as a secretary to the ambassador of the Venetian Republic. Acquaintance and friendship with Count Waldstein.

1785 year - Count Waldstein offers Casanova the position of librarian in his estate Gut-Dux, located in Bohemia. Casanova agrees. In Gut-Duks, he not only serves as a librarian, but also, together with the owner of the castle, is engaged in magic and alchemy.

Approximately 1790 year - Casanova is taken to write his Memoirs.

Venetian adventurer of international stature. His name has become a household name - a synonym for love, licentiousness and swindle. Contemporaries also knew him as a man of extremely versatile talents - an alchemist, lawyer, mathematician, musician, financier, historian. Author of world famous memoirs.

Giacomo Casanova is one of those people who the whole world knows. He was famous during his lifetime, he was not forgotten after his death. They compose songs about him, and far beyond the borders of his homeland, compose poems, make him the hero of films and books. He wrote about himself: “I, Giacomo Casanova, am a Venetian, by inclinations I am a scientist, by habits I am an independent person and so rich that I do not need anyone's help. I travel for pleasure. During my long life of suffering, I have been the victim of intrigues on the part of scoundrels. What was he like, this most interesting person, an interlocutor of crowned persons, a prisoner of European prisons and a frequenter of gambling and brothels? The only thing that Kazanova's relatives got after his death was a manuscript, on the title page of which was written: “Jacques Casanova de Seinghalt, Venetian. Story of my life". Why Jacques? Yes, because Giacomo spent the last years of his life in France. But "Chevalier de Seinghalt" - he invented it. Whatever Casanova came up with in his life, but few doubted this title. Once in Germany he was asked why he had a false name. Casanova, with his usual wit, objected that this was not so: he simply took eight letters from the alphabet, which is not anyone's property. No one bears this name and, accordingly, does not dispute it. And it is so genuine that he received fifty thousand guilders from the banker Karli on it. Casanova himself believed in him so sincerely that he even signed with him not only bills and other financial documents, but also his books. Although he once admitted: "I was not born a nobleman - I achieved the nobility myself." The future celebrity was born on April 2, 1725 in the Most Serene Republic of Venice in the family of the daughter of a shoemaker, actress Zanetta Farusi and actor Gaetano Kazanova. However, there is reason to believe that the real father of the boy was the Venetian patrician Michele Grimani. The question of origin was always extremely painful for Giacomo. In the Casanova family, as in any Italian family, there were many children. Giacomo was the firstborn, and had three brothers and a sister. Some researchers believe that one of the brothers, Francesco, is the illegitimate son of King George III of England. He was born after his mother became the mistress of the Prince of Wales while acting in London in an Italian comedy. Subsequently, Francesco Casanova became a famous artist, the author of battle scenes. It was to him that Catherine the Great ordered the painting “The Battle in Ochakovo”, which is kept in the Hermitage. Another brother, Giacomo, also became an artist, a student of Mengs and director of the Dresden Academy of Arts, and a third, Gaetano, became a priest and preacher. Sister Mary Magdalene was a dancer at the Dresden Opera House. Let us return, however, to our hero. From a very young age, Giacomo showed himself to be an extremely gifted child. In his memoirs, he writes that at the age of twelve he was already studying at the University of Padua, and at eighteen he defended his dissertation in law. In Padua, he first lived in a boarding house with Dr. Gozzi, who, in addition to getting to know the sciences, also gave him violin lessons. Returning to his native Venice, Casanova for some reason decides to devote himself to God and chooses the path of a priest. However, from the church of San Samuel, where he achieved the position of a preacher, he had to leave after the second sermon. The reason was a drunken swoon that happened to a young priest right on the pulpit. True, this incident did not serve as a lesson to him. Giacomo moved to the island of Murano to the seminary of San Cipriano, from where he was expelled after some time with a scandal for behavior inappropriate for a clergyman. He was sent for correction to one of the Venetian forts at the entrance to the Adriatic. It was here that the future brilliant seducer received the first of his “professional” illnesses, because inside the fortress he was completely free, which he did not fail to take advantage of, and the beautiful Greek woman made him such an unforgettable “gift”. After parting with the cassock of the priest, Casanova entered the military service. On the island of Corfu, he becomes adjutant to the commander of the fleet, Giacomo da Riva. In 1746, finally returning to Venice, Giacomo received a place as an ordinary violinist at the San Samuel Theater. He played at weddings, parties and even helped the famous Anto-nio Vivaldi in composing oratorios. And of course, he seduced women. One dark night in the spring of 1746, Casanova met a man in a red robe who dropped a letter in front of him. Giacomo picked it up and returned it to its owner. The man in the robe was Venetian senator Matteo Giovanni Bragadin. As a token of gratitude, he offered to give Casanova a lift in his gondola. On the way, the senator had a stroke. Giacomo ordered the gondola stopped and sought out a doctor. After providing first aid, Casanova took the patient home, where two friends of the senator immediately ran - the Venetian patricians Marco Dandolo and Marco Barbaro. Assessing the actions of the doctor, Giacomo realized that he was treating the patient incorrectly, and immediately set to work himself. The next morning, the senator felt great. This is how Casanova met his future patron, who, in gratitude, adopted him.

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Casanova Giovanni Giacomo

Casanova Giovanni Giacomo

Italian writer. Author of historical works, fantastic novel "Icosameron" (1788). In the memoirs "The Story of My Life" (vols. 1-12, written in 1791-1798, in French, published 1822-1828) - Casanova's numerous love and adventurous adventures are described, characteristics of contemporaries and public mores are given. He had varied interests.

Casanova (Giovanni Giacomo Casanova de Sengalt - a title of nobility that he appropriated to himself) comes from Venice. The actors' son had an unhappy childhood. After studying law, young Giacomo wanted to take holy orders, but became entangled in love affairs and was expelled from the seminary. Having visited Naples, Rome, Constantinople, Paris, he returned to Venice, where he was imprisoned in 1755 for deceit and blasphemy. In 1756 he fled to Paris, where he won a special position for himself by magic. After long wanderings around Europe, he arrived in Berlin, received an audience with Frederick the Great. He could take the post of head of the cadet corps, but preferred to go to St. Petersburg, where he met with Catherine II, after which he left for Warsaw, from where he fled because of a duel with Count Branitsky. Then he wandered around Europe, experiencing many adventures everywhere. In 1782 he settled in the Czech Republic, in the castle of Count Waldstein, with whom he studied cabalism and alchemy.

Casanova's "Don Juan List" can only strike the imagination of a very exemplary family man: 122 women in thirty-nine years. Not so much - three love affairs a year. At that time, a list of love luck was an indispensable attribute of a secular dandy, it was compiled with great care, memorized, a brilliant "track record" provided new victories.

Love was one of the highest meanings of Casanova's existence, and it made him great. But his novels did not end with a wedding, the reward of virtue and the debunking of vice. Natural feeling is free and infinite; in itself is its justification. "I loved women to the point of madness, but I always preferred freedom to them."

Casanova willingly engaged in a psychological game with women, amused, intrigued, embarrassed, lured, surprised, extolled (such, say, his adventures with Mrs. F. in Corfu, K.K. in Venice, Mademoiselle de la Mour in Paris). “By persuading the girl, I persuaded myself, the case followed the wise rules of foolishness,” he wrote about the victory won thanks to improvisation. He flattered, sometimes just molested until he achieved what he wanted. For the sake of beautiful eyes, he moved from city to city, put on a livery to serve the lady he liked. But more often everything happened much easier, as with Mimi Kenson: "I became curious whether she would wake up or not, I myself undressed, lay down - and the rest is clear without words."

It combined a sublime feeling and carnal passion, sincere impulses and monetary calculations. Casanova bought the girls he liked (most of all he liked young thin brunettes), taught them the science of love, secular courtesy, and then, with great benefit for himself, gave way to others - financiers, nobles, the king. You should not take at face value his assurances of disinterestedness, that he only did what made the happiness of poor girls - it was a constant source of income for him. However, the society itself dictated to him the norms of behavior. Louis XV turned France into a huge harem, beauties arrived from all over and even from other countries, parents brought their daughters to Versailles - suddenly the king will pay attention during a walk. And the young O'Morphy got from the hands of Casanova into the bed of the king thanks to a portrait painted from her, which the monarch liked (a fabulous story about love from a portrait turned into a completely modern story about choosing a girl from a photograph).

With some, he had philosophical conversations, and one even gave a whole library. He slept with aristocrats, with prostitutes, with nuns, with girls, with his niece, maybe with his daughter. But in all his life, it seems, not a single mistress reproached him for anything, because physical intimacy was not just a pastime for him.

One day in Venice, Casanova picked up a letter on the stairs that Senator Bragodin had dropped.

Casanova Giovanni Giacomo

The noble senator invited Casanova to take a ride with him. Dear Bragodin became ill, and Giacomo carefully brought him home. The senator sheltered his savior, seeing in him a messenger of mysterious forces, in the existence of which he deeply believed. Casanova settled in the house of a benefactor and began to engage in magic at his leisure. The victims of his tricks complained to the authorities, but he surprisingly easily shied away from responsibility. And yet, on charges of witchcraft, the Venetian police imprisoned him in the Piombi prison, famous for its horrors, under the lead roofs of the Doge's Palace in Venice.

However, Casanova did not master magic in vain. It is difficult to say what role supernatural forces played here, but exactly at midnight on October 31, Casanova left the casemate, which was locked with many locks. In an impregnable Venetian dungeon, he cut a passage to a lead roof. The flight of Casanova made a lot of noise in Europe and brought fame to the adventurer.

Therefore, Paris enthusiastically met the young rake, especially the Parisian celebrity - the Marquise d'Ufrey, who was crazy about his big black eyes and Roman nose. Casanova, with his inherent sense of humor, convinced the marquise that when she turned 63, she would have a son, she would die, and then she would be resurrected as a young girl. Apparently, the Marquise was inclined to believe Giacomo, who in the meantime took possession of her millions and, fleeing the Bastille, hastened to Voltaire in Fern.

He evaluated states in terms of the success of his adventures. He was dissatisfied with England: in London, he was robbed by a Frenchwoman, Charpillon, and her husband nearly killed Giacomo.

Who was Casanova anyway?

At different times, the famous adventurer gave himself different certifications. He presented himself as a Catholic priest, a Muslim, an officer, a diplomat. In London, he once said to a woman: "I am a libertine by profession, and today you have acquired a bad acquaintance. The main business of my life was sensual pleasures: I did not know a more important matter."

"Love is a search," Casanova wrote in his declining years. There was no end to his search. Giacomo remembered some women not without a hint of contempt, others with a sense of gratitude.

With particular tenderness, Casanova recalled Henriette, who loved him dearly - judging by her letters and after the death of Giacomo - who, parting with her lover in Geneva, inscribed with a diamond on the glass in a hotel room: "You will forget your Henriette ..." After reading this inscription through thirteen years old, Casanova pleaded unworthy of her. When, many years later, after escaping from a Barcelona prison, he went to bed in Aix, in the south of France, a caring sister of mercy, sent to him by Henriette, who lived on her estate, was on duty at his head.

Casanova was not like Don Juan. Vengeful commanders, jealous husbands and embittered fathers did not pursue him. The happy women did not besiege Giacomo with letters and complaints. What is the secret of his charm?

Casanova was handsome, considerate and generous. But, most importantly, he talked, talked, talked about everything in the world: about love, about medicine, about politics, about agriculture. It was as if he knew everything and everyone and always followed the principle that F. La Rochefoucauld formulated much earlier: an intelligent person can be in love like a crazy person, but not like a fool.

If there was no common language, then he refused love. He was once offered to spend the night with the famous courtesan Kitty Fisher, who demanded a thousand ducats a night from an ordinary client. Casanova refused, because he did not know English, and for him love without communication was not worth a penny.

Already in the middle of his life he felt satiety. More and more failure awaited him. In London, the young courtesan Charpillon harassed him, constantly pulling out money and refusing caresses, and the great seducer ran out of steam. "On that fateful day in early September 1763, I began to die and ceased to live. I was thirty-eight years old." He began to be content with easy victories: public girls, tavern maids, bourgeois women, peasant women, whose virginity could be bought for a handful of sequins. And at the age of fifty, out of economy, he went to middle-aged and unattractive women, lived like a wife with a modest seamstress.

Casanova Giovanni Giacomo

But the more irreversibly his sexual energy left, the more intense his intellectual activity became. He took up literary work. At the end of his life, he wrote his memoirs "The Story of My Life", which were met with mixed reviews.

Each episode described is very colorful in itself, its authenticity is undeniable - Casanova seems sincere, and the memoirs give the impression of a document.

Casanova, as is quite clear from his memoirs, sought to have sexual intercourse with one woman in the presence of another. So it was with Helen and Hedwig, two girls whom he simultaneously deprived of their virginity.

"I enjoyed with them for several hours, going from one to the other five or six times before exhausting myself. In the breaks, seeing their submissiveness and lustfulness, I forced them into difficult poses from the Arstino book, which amused them beyond measure. We kissed each other to all the places they wanted. Hedwig was delighted, she liked to watch."

It seems that Casanova attributed to the girl his own morbid interest in copulation.

The same was the case with Annette and Veronica. “Veronica yielded to her younger sister and took on the passive role that she imposed on her. Pulling away, she bowed her head on her hand, presenting my gaze with breasts that could excite the most indifferent of people, and suggested that I launch an attack on Annette. It was not difficult, because I was on fire and was ready to please her for as long as she pleased. Annette was short-sighted and in the midst of the action could not see what I was doing. I managed to free my right hand so that she did not notice it, and I was able to to give her a piece of pleasure, although not as sharp as her sister experienced. Meanwhile, the veil was knocked off, Veronica took the trouble to correct it and, as if by chance, offered me a new spectacle. She did not hide how charms delight me, her eyes sparkled "Finally, burning with unsatisfied desire, she showed me all the treasures that her nature had endowed, just at the moment when I finished with Annette for the fourth time. She believed that I was rehearsing before nightfall, and her fantasy played out."

One day, Casanova arranged an "oyster dinner" with champagne for two nuns, Armalliena and Elimet. He heated the room so hot that the girls were forced to take off their coats. Then, having started a game, during which one took an oyster from another directly from the mouth, he managed to drop a piece behind the corset, first to one girl, then to another. The extraction process followed, then he examined and compared their legs to the touch. Interestingly, all this happened during the carnival. Approximately the same thing happened during dinner with Bassi (Casanova's temporary assistant).

"When dinner and wine had significantly lifted my spirits, I paid attention to my daughter Bassi, who allowed me to do whatever I wanted, and my father and mother only laughed. The stupid Harlequin was worried and annoyed, because he could not do the same with his Dulcinea. To at the end of supper I was like Adam before the fall. Harlequin got up and, grabbing his beloved by the hand, was about to drag her into another room. I told him to stay, and he stared at me in complete amazement, but then turned his back on us. His girlfriend, on the contrary, she positioned herself in such a way that I managed not to disappoint her.

The scene aroused Bassi's wife, and she began to encourage her husband to prove his love to her. He answered, and the modest Harlequin sat by the fire, covering his head with his hands.

"Alsatiana was very aroused and used the position of her lover to give me everything I wanted, so I was forced to work hard on her, and the violent convulsions of the body confirmed that she enjoyed as much as I did."

In the case of Bassi, it was important for Casanova that the Harlequin was humiliated and hurt. It was no coincidence that he noted how sweet the feeling of power was for him, how he liked to pay people with whom he had just played with.

Failures in love irritated him and infuriated him. Sharpillon laughed at him, he scratched her, knocked her down, broke her nose - because she rejected his attention. And the case with the "Goudar chair" is absolutely fantastic.

In appearance, the chair was ordinary and very ugly.

Casanova Giovanni Giacomo

However, as soon as a person got into it, "two belts clasped his hands and squeezed them tightly, the other two spread their legs, and the spring lifted the seat."

When Goudard sat down in a chair, “the springs worked and brought him into the “position of a woman in labor.” Casanova mentally admired: this “apparatus” could be used to grab Charpillon and abuse her. Later he abandoned the idea of ​​​​acquiring a chair, but this thought owned his imagination .

Other adventurers were led by greed, they were attracted by fame. For Casanova, both money and fame were only a means. His goal was love. Women filled his life. In 1759 Casanova was in Holland. He is rich, respected, he has an easy path to calm and lasting prosperity. But only meetings, new meetings excited his imagination. He looked for these meetings everywhere: at a court ball, on the street, in a hotel, in a theater, in a brothel. He traveled around the cities without any calculation and plan. His route was marked by a pair of beautiful eyes that lingered on him longer than decency would allow. And for the sake of a pair of beautiful eyes, he was able to dress up as a hotel servant, give feasts, play Voltaire's "Scotch" and settle for a long time in a tiny Swiss town. In a short time he managed to love an aristocrat from high society, the daughters of an innkeeper, a nun from a provincial monastery, a learned girl skilled in theological disputes, servants in Bernese baths, a charming and serious Dubois, some ugly actress and, finally, even her hunchbacked friend . He seduced everyone. He had only one rule: two women are much easier to seduce together than apart.

"Love is only curiosity" - this phrase is often found in Casanova's memoirs. Indefatigable curiosity was the real passion of this man. He was not a banal favorite of women, he was not a happy darling, an accidental dilettante. He treated rapprochement with women the way a serious and diligent artist treats his art.

Casanova was not always immersed in hasty and indiscriminate depravity. Such periods happened to him only when he wanted to drown out the memories of a great love that had just passed and the eternal thirst for a new one. Among the innumerable women mentioned by this "libertine by profession," there are several who left a deep imprint on his soul. The best pages of memoirs are dedicated to them. Talking about them, Casanova avoided obscene details. Their images become for the readers of the memoirs as close and alive as the image of the Venetian adventurer himself.

Casanova's first love was in the spirit of a peaceful Venetian novel. He was sixteen years old, and he loved Nanette and Marton, the two nieces of the good Signora Orio. "This love, which was my first, taught me nothing in the school of life, as it was perfectly happy, and no calculations or worries disturbed it. Often all three of us felt the need to turn our souls to divine providence in order to thank him for obvious patronage, with which it removed from us all accidents that could disturb our peaceful joys ... "

A light touch of elegy appeared in his second love. Perhaps this is because it took place in Rome, in the eternal greenery of the gardens of Ludovisi and Aldobrandini. There, Casanova loved Lucrezia. “Oh, what tender memories are connected for me with these places! .. “Look, look,” Lucretia told me, “didn’t I tell you that our good geniuses protect us. Oh, how she looks at us! Her gaze wants to reassure us. Look what a little devil, this is the most mysterious thing in nature. Look at her, probably, this is your or my good genius. "I thought she was delusional. "What are you talking about, I don't understand you, what should I look at?" - "Don't you see a beautiful snake with a shiny skin, which raised its head and seems to be worshiping us?" I looked where she was pointing and saw a snake of iridescent colors, a cubit long, which really examined us."

On the way from Rome to Ancona, Casanova met with the singer Teresa, disguised as a castrato.

Casanova Giovanni Giacomo

In this strange girl there was a nobility and a clear mind that inspired respect. Casanova wanted never to part with her again. Never had he thought so seriously about marriage as that night in the little hotel in Sinigaglia. The unforeseen separation did not change his decision. It took all Teresa's life experience to convince him that this was impossible for both of them. "It was the first time in my life that I had to think before I decided on anything." They parted and met seventeen years later in Florence. Together with Teresa was a young man, Cesarino, like two drops of water similar to Casanova in his youth. Struck by this meeting, Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote the play "The Adventurer and the Singer".

During his stay in Corfu, Casanova experienced love, reminiscent of the complexity and torment of the themes of modern novels. The long history of this love is dramatic. Many years later, the memory of the patrician F.F. caused Casanova to exclaim: “What is love? It is a kind of madness over which the mind has no power. It is a disease to which a person is subject at any age and which is incurable when it strikes an old man. O love, an indefinable being and feeling! God of nature, your bitterness is sweet, your bitterness is cruel..."

No other woman evoked such tender memories in Casanova's soul as Henriette, the mysterious Henriette, whom he met in the company of a Hungarian officer in Cesena. The three months he spent with her in Parma were the happiest time of his life. “Whoever thinks that a woman cannot fill all the hours and moments of the day, he thinks so because he never knew Henriette ... We loved each other with all the strength that we were capable of, we were completely content with each other, we are completely lived in our love." Casanova adored this woman, who on her face "had a slight shadow of some kind of sadness." He admired everything about her - her mind, her upbringing, her ability to dress. Once she played the cello superbly. Casanova was touched, shocked by this new talent of his Henriette. “I ran into the garden and wept there, for no one could see me. But who is this incomparable Henriette,” I repeated with a tender soul, where did this treasure that I now own come from? ..

The incident that made Casanova remember Henriette and the days of his youth happened to him just after his separation from Dubois, which was one of his last great attachments. After this incident, he began to feel lonely. He picked up Rosalia in one of the Marseille brothels. “I tried to bind this young lady to me, hoping that she would remain with me until the end of her days and that, living in harmony with her, I would no longer feel the need to wander from one love to another.” But, of course, Rosalia left him, and his wanderings began again.

Instead of a devoted mistress, Casanova met La Corticelli. This little dancer made him jealous and bitterly deceived. She was from Bologna and "all she did was laugh." She caused Casanova many troubles of all kinds. She plotted against him and cheated on him at every opportunity. But the tone of his stories betrays that never, even at the moment of their final break, this "madcap" was not indifferent to the heart of the adventurer who was beginning to grow old.

Casanova's last novel was in Milan. He was still great then. "My luxury was dazzling. My rings, my snuffboxes, my watches and chains, strewn with diamonds, my order cross of diamonds and rubies, which I wore around my neck on a wide crimson ribbon - all this gave me the appearance of a nobleman." Near Milan Casanova he met Clementine, "worthy of deep respect and the purest love." Recalling the days spent with her, he says: "I loved, I was loved and I was healthy, and I had money that I spent for pleasure, I was happy. I liked to repeat this to myself and laughed at the stupid moralists who assure that there is no true happiness on earth. And just these words, "on earth," aroused my gaiety, as if it could be somewhere else!.. Yes, gloomy and short-sighted moralists, there is happiness on earth, a lot of happiness, and everyone has their own.

It is not eternal, no, it passes, comes and passes again... and, perhaps, the amount of suffering, as a consequence of our spiritual and physical weakness, exceeds the amount of happiness for any of us. Maybe so, but this does not mean that there is no happiness, great happiness. If there were no happiness on earth, creation would be monstrous and Voltaire would be right when he called our planet the cesspool of the universe - a bad pun that expresses absurdity or expresses nothing but a surge of writer's bile. There is happiness, there is a lot of happiness, so I repeat even now, when I know him only from memories.

At parting, Clementine sobbed and fainted. Did Casanova then feel that, saying goodbye to her, he says goodbye to his last happiness. He took the Venetian Marcolina in passing almost from the street. Separation from her caused him unprecedented experiences. “I cannot and refuse to convey the suffering that her departure caused me. Even the day before, I was glad of this separation for many reasons. At the moment of departure, I felt that my desire to free myself from Marcolina was weakening. despair!.. The superficial reader will probably not believe it when I say that I was left standing motionless, seized with anguish and in such oblivion of everything that I did not know how to find the way.I jumped on the horse and, spurring it with all my might, gave himself up to the road with a desperate decision to drive his horse or break his neck. Thus I made eighteen leagues in five o'clock."

And then London. "What loneliness, what lostness... London is the last place on earth where you can live when your soul is sad." There, Casanova met not a beloved female friend, but a most dangerous predator. A Frenchwoman from Besancon, who bore the surname Charpillon, was destined to become Casanova's worst enemy. "So, in London, halfway through earthly life, as old Dante said, love mocked me in the most insolent way."

What an unusual and wild was this love! Casanova fell in love with this woman at first sight. It consisted of cunning, caprice, cold calculation and frivolity, mixed in the most amazing way. She ruined him to the bone and brought him to prison. Once she almost strangled him, another time Casanova inflicted severe beatings on her. In Richmond, in the park, he rushed at her with a dagger. They were either friends or enemies. But here is the last humiliation: Casanova caught her on a date with a young hairdresser. In a perfect frenzy, he destroys everything that comes to his hand. Sharpillon barely managed to escape. Then she got sick. Casanova was told that she was dying. "Then I was seized with a terrible desire to commit suicide. I came to my place and made a will in favor of Bragadin. Then I took a pistol and headed for the Thames with the firm intention of crushing my skull on the parapet of the bridge." A meeting with a certain Edgar saved his life. As always obeying fate, Casanova followed him, and that night ended in an orgy. And the next day he met Sharpillon at a ball among the dancers. “The hair on my head stirred, and I felt a terrible pain in my legs. Edgar told me later that at the sight of my pallor, he thought that I would now fall in an epileptic fit. In an instant, I pushed the audience aside and went straight to her. I began to say something to her, that - I don’t remember. She ran away in fear. This was Casanova's last date with Sharpillon...

After the death of Casanova, he became the hero of numerous literary works, and then films. The great Italian director Federico Fellini showed in his film (1976) a gifted man who tries in vain to use his talents, but in this environment only his sexual energy is in demand...

From a real person, the famous adventurer and lover turned into a myth.

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CASANOVA (Casanova) Giovanni Giacomo Girolamo, Chevalier de Sengalt (Seingalt) (April 2, 1725, Venice - June 4, 1798, Dux Castle, Bohemia), Italian writer. He wrote in French and Italian. Graduated from the University of Padua (1742). Took tonsure (1743); abandoning his church career, he left Venice and wandered around Europe, having tried many professions and occupations: a military man, a violinist, a financier, a secret agent, an informer of the Inquisition, a theater entrepreneur. In 1750 he was ordained a Freemason. He was familiar with many celebrities - from kings and senators to Voltaire and A. von Haller, counts of Saint-Germain and Cagliostro. Repeatedly subjected to persecution and imprisonment on charges of duels, witchcraft and blasphemy. In 1755-1756 he was in the Venetian prison of Piombi, then escaped and moved to Paris (1757). In 1760 he received the title of papal protonotary from Pope Clement XIII. In 1764-65 he was in Russia, met three times in St. Petersburg with Catherine II. In 1780-81 he published a number of periodic collections and magazines: "Herald of Thalia" ("Le messager de Thalie") and others. In 1785 he became the librarian of Count Waldstein in the Dux (Dukhtsov) castle.

The author of a number of literary works: the comedy "Moluckeida" ("La Moluccheide", 1753), the treatise "History of Troubles in Poland" ("Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia", volumes 1-3, 1774-75), the utopian novel "Icozameron" ( "Icosameron", volumes 1-5, 1788), etc., as well as translations, including Homer's "Iliad" (1775-78). Casanova's most famous work is Histoire de ma vie, written in French, which combined a panorama of the life of the widest strata of European society with a description of Casanova's numerous adventures and amorous adventures. The book that brought Casanova posthumous fame and turned him into one of the legends of world culture was first published in abridged form in 1822-28 (in German); in 1826-38 its French edition was published in the processing of J. Laforgue. Casanova, often likened to Don Giovanni, is the subject of novels (R. Aldington), plays (A. Schnitzler, M. I. Tsvetaeva), numerous essays (S. Zweig, R. Vaillant, F. Sollers) and films, including “ Casanova" by F. Fellini (1976).

In Russian, a chapter from Casanova's memoirs was first published in the journal Son of the Fatherland (1823); in 1861 the journal Vremya published another chapter (with a foreword by F. M. Dostoevsky); a separate abridged edition appeared in 1887.

Cit.: Histoire de ma vie. Wiesbaden, 1960-1962. Vol. 1-12; Histoire de ma vie. R., 1993. Vol. 1-3; History of my life: In 2 books. M., 1997.

Lit.: Childs J. R. Casanova, and biography based on new documents. L., 1961; Flem L. Casanova, ou, l'exercise du bonheur. R., 1995; Stroev A.F. "Those who correct Fortune". M., 1998; G. Casanova: tra Venezia e l'Èuropa. Firenze, 2001; Casanova: fin de siècle: Actes du colloque international. R., 2002; Morozova E. V. Casanova. M., 2005; Childs J. R. Casanoviana, an annotated world bibliography of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt and of works concerning him. Vienna, 1956.