Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (de Seinglalt), better known simply as Casanova, was a man with a colorful life. Throughout his life, Casanova was involved in many adventures, as well as romantic dalliances, which he described in his autobiography, Histoire de ma vie. Casanova engaged himself in such varied occupations as a secretary, a soldier, a clergyman, an alchemist, a gambler, a violinist, a lottery director, a magician, a spy, and surprisingly enough, towards the end of his life, a librarian (2).
The following summary of the events of Casanova's life is excerpted from source #1, Ted Emery's Casanova Research Page.
Born in Venice in the year 1725 to parents Gaetano Giuseppe Casanova and Zanetta Casanova, who were actors, Casanova was raised primarily by his maternal grandmother, Marzia Farussi. As a young teenager, Casanova is sent to Padua, where he studies with Dr. Gozzi, and where he also engages in his first amorous adventures with the female sex. He enrolls as a student of Law at the University of Padua, decides to pursue a career in the Church, and eventually earns his degree as a doctor of civil and canon law. When he is sixteen years old, Casanova is positioned in the seminary of San Cipriano. Unfortunately, this proves to be short-lived, as Casanova is expelled for misconduct. After a brief period of employment as a secretary to the Bishop of Martirano, Casanova travels to Rome and works for the Cardinal of Acquaviva. Again, however, this proves to be of short duration, as he is disgraced when he is accused of aiding the attempted elopement of a French teacher's daughter and is dismissed by the Archbishop. The adventurer then works as a violin player until he provides medical help to a patrician by the name of Matteo Giovanni Bragadin. Bragadin attributes Casanova's medical expertise to the occult, and believes Casanova to have magical powers. Casanova takes advantage of this and becomes Bragadin's personal medical assistant for the next several years. Casanova spends his time playing around and his wild life draws the unwanted attention of the State Inquisitors, and he eventually decides to leave. Over the next several years, Casanova roams around, engages in a torrid love affair with a woman by the name of Henriette, and eventually puts forth his first effort in writing, producing the play La Molucheide. Casanova returns to Venice, and eventually is imprisoned, supposedly for his occult activities. After escaping, he travels again to Paris, where he participates in the foundation of the lottery. Casanova is sent to Dunkirk on a secret mission, where he meets the Marquise d'Urfe, who is to play an important part in his life over the next several years. He convinces the Marquise that he can help her be 'reborn' as a man. For a period of time, Casanova is able to con the Marquise for a large sum of money. Casanova travels again, going on a couple of more secret missions. He is imprisoned for debt, gets released, has many love affairs, continues to swindle Mme d'Urfe until she discovers his duplicity, meets Catherine the Great, and continues making connections with prominent citizens. Casanova continues to write; among other pieces, he publishes the satire Lana Caprina, tranlates Homer's Illiad into Italian verse, and publishes a literary magazine called Le Messager de Thalie. Finally, Casanova is employed by Count Josef Karl Emmanuel von Waldstein to be the librarian at the Count's castle in Dux. It is there that Casanova writes Histoire de ma vie . Casanova dies of a urinary tract infection in 1798.(2)
Casanova produced literature that spanned several different genres. His most famous work is his autobiography, Histoire de ma vie. However, Casanova also wrote a play, a magazine, political literature, as well as fiction. One of Casanova's last works was Icosameron, which followed the theme of a shipwreck and subsequent stranding on an uncharted location with unfamiliar creatures. However, in this piece of literature Casanova employed the use of multicolored humanoid aliens, which is a precursor of the genre of "science fiction" (3).
A brief, but incomplete, list of Casanova's works (1):
1. Emery, Ted. "Casanova Research Page" 1998 URL: http://www.dickinson.edu/~emery/Casanova.htm.(27 November 2004).
2. Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. Edited by Leon Bram and Norma H. Dickey. Vol. 5. N.p.: Funk & Wagnalls, 1986.
3. Kiernan, Suzanne."The Exotic and the Normative in Viaggi di Enrico Wantan alle Terre Australi Incognite by Zaccaria Seriman." Eighteenth-Century Life 26:3 (2002): 58-77.