Life of the world’s prime lover Casanova − foursomes, bedding nuns and libido secrets and techniques
The legendary lover Giacomo Casanova was born more than 300 years. Since then, his surname has passed into everyday speech as a byword for bed-hopping lotharios.
But the Italian playboy, portrayed by Heath Ledger in a 2005 movie, and David Tennant in the same year on TV, was also a scam artist, soldier, spy, prison escapee and even a science fiction writer. Here we take a closer look at the life of the rogue.
Born in Venice on April 2, 1725, to a pair of impoverished actors, Casanova would grow up to become a 6ft 3in philanderer with long, powdered hair. As he went into adulthood, Casanova ended up having a stellar life, full of action and intrigue.
Seducer
Losing his virginity at 17 to a pair of posh teenage sisters after they shared a boozy dinner, he would eventually count noblewomen and milkmaids among his 120 conquests.
He even secretly spirited a nun, known as “MM”, out of her convent for a night of passion via a gondola. Their affair later became a foursome involving another nun and the French ambassador.
Often boosting his libido by gobbling roquefort cheese, he once hid in a chapel confessional box to seduce a mayor’s wife, romanced a newlywed bride in a carriage and was wounded in a duel over an Italian actress. He also bedded a woman who had been pretending to be a man.
When not frequenting brothels, Casanova found his greatest love with a Frenchwoman, Henriette, whom he said could make him happy “24 hours a day”. He was heartbroken when she left him.
Notorious womaniser Casanova never married but he had illegitimate children and has been accused of both incest and rape. He said: “I was born for the sex opposite to mine. I have always loved it and done all that I could to make myself loved by it.”
Genius
Brought up by his granny, Casanova was plucked from poverty by a priest to study at the university of Padua aged just 12. He graduated at 17 with a degree in law.
His knowledge of medicine helped him save the life of a Venetian man who was having a stroke. The man became his patron, helping the ever cash-strapped Casanova to pose as an aristocrat.
He’d go on to write plays, study for holy orders, briefly become a soldier and violinist, translate Greek works and help France set up a state lottery, as well as running his own silk factory.
Casanova also penned a sci-finovel, Icosameron, about a land at the centre of the Earth where people are both male and female.
Jail breaker
Despite his intellect, scandal followed Casanova everywhere and he was often in trouble with the law. At the age of 30, in 1755, he was imprisoned in a rat-infested cell at the Doge’s Palace in Venice for affronting “common decency”.
Sentenced to five years, in October 1756 he managed to have a sharpened iron bar smuggled to fellow prisoner Father Balbi. It was inside a Bible, carried underneath a plate of pasta. One night, Balbi used it to gouge a hole in his cell’s roof then climb across to dig through to Casanova .
The pair then clambered through the roof, lowered themselves down on a 25ft rope made from bed sheets and talked their way past guards, saying they’d been accidentally locked in the palace after a function. Casanova then fled to Paris.
Scam artist and spy
After beautiful women, gambling was Casanova’s biggest weakness – and he was regularly in debt. He became a conman to make cash, changing his name to Chevalier de Seingalt and posing as a magician and alchemist.
Casanova wowed French society with tricks, even convincing one rich widow he could reincarnate her for a fee. He said: “Deceiving a fool is an exploit worthy of an intelligent man.” His talents for skulduggery saw him recruited to work as a spy abroad by the Venetian and French governments.
Celebrity
During his life the cash-strapped Casanova travelled all over Europe using his charm. He met Catherine the great, Britain’s King george III, composer Mozart and US Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. But his colourful antics made him enemies, seeing him exiled from both Venice and France.
Casanova considered suicide on London’s Westminster Bridge as his sexual prowess waned. He ended up virtually penniless, riddled with venereal disease, working as a librarian in a Bohemian castle.
It was there that he wrote the scandalous 3,700-page memoir detailing his sex life that would secure his fame. It wasn’t published until 1821, which was 23 years after his death, at the age of 73.
Casanova’s Story of My Life was immediately banned by the Vatican, but the manuscript is now in the National Library of France, having been snapped up for a cool £5.75million.
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