The True Story of Casanova | History's Most Legendary Lover

Giacomo Casanova was born in Venice in 1725 to a pair of actors

and grew up to be a man who arguably embodied the spirit of the Enlightenment

He was charming, curious, directionless, and usually fell for intelligent, talented women

who seduced him just as often as he seduced them. However, there is a lot more to this noted Lothario

than his numerous love affairs. Though Giacomo Casanova lived way back in the 18th century

His name to this very day remains an adjective for a man who knows his way around the ladies

Today, we're going to take a look at a dozen raunchy stories about Giacomo Casanova

history's most notorious playboy. Now turn down the lights, spark up a candle, and open a delicious bottle of wine

You're gonna love this one. When Casanova was 17, he spent his days studying to join the church

His nocturnal activities, however, were anything but appropriate for a future man of the cloth

In fact, it was around this time that he lost his virginity one night to two Venetian sisters, 16-year-old Nanita

and 15-year-old Marta Savornian, themselves virgins. Though Casanova remembered his first tryst with fondness

for the rest of his life, that fondness was not shared with at least one of the sisters

Marta entered a convent instead of marrying and prayed for Casanova's salvation

Based on how the rest of his life went, We're going to guess those prayers went unanswered

Around 1745, Casanova attended a dinner in which a young castrato was performing

A castrato, for those who don't know, was essentially a young male singer whose testicles

had been removed to preserve his high voice. Yeah, ouch, but pitch perfect ouch

This particular castrato was called Bellino, and he captivated Casanova. The young Venetian mused that Bellino was actually a woman, and after a game of identity

revelation, Casanova was proven correct. Turns out Bellino was actually a young actress in disguise

She claimed to disguise herself as a contralto to get roles on stage that were not available to women

Though Casanova refers to her as Teresa Lanti, spelled with a T, historians guess

that she might have been Teresa Landy, spelled with a D. She also may have been Artemisia Lanti or Angela

Collori, all of whom ended up on the London stage. Casanova and his Bellino began an affair

that ultimately produced a child. Casanova's illegitimate son, Cesarino. Casanova's life dramatically changed course in March of 1746

While he was in town celebrating Carnival, he noticed Senator Matteo Giovanni Bragadine collapse in his gondola, suffering a stroke

Casanova took charge, immediately directing Bragadine's gondoliers to a surgeon. However, the surgeon's methods, bleeding Bragadine

and rubbing a mercury-based ointment on his chest, might have killed the poor noble had Casanova

himself not intervened. He saved Bragadine's life, and the bystanders claim the young Venetian surely must have wielded supernatural powers

to have pulled it off. As a show of thanks Bragadine supposedly became a patron for Casanova who suddenly had the wealth and connections he so long craved In 1746 Casanova was in Padua where he met a woman he calls Ancilla a local courtesan

Ancilla ran a gambling den, and Casanova lavished her with his time, money, and affection

He also quickly learned he wasn't her only lover. Count Medina was also known as Ancilla's favorite lover, and he also excelled at cards

Casanova felt the two had conspired to cheat him. He demanded satisfaction

So Medina returned the young Venetian's money and then challenged him to a duel by swords

Though Casanova escaped the duel unharmed, he wounded Medina and gained an enemy for the rest of his life

Casanova would go on to have at least one more duel over the course of his adventurous life

Casanova spent two years in Paris, living there from 1750 to 1752

While he was there, he devoted himself to learning French, French kissing

meeting important people, and getting himself into one scrape after another. Casanova was also, probably unwisely

having an affair with a daughter of his landlady, Madame Casson. Sacre bleu

The teenaged Mimi would come down to Casanova's room on her own volition, Casanova emphasized

and they would pass the time in one another's embrace, amongst other things. When Mimi became pregnant, her mother

brought a suit against the young Venetian, but the court ultimately dismissed the charge

In 1753, the 27-year-old Casanova impregnated the 14-year-old Katerina Capreta. Oh, my

Capreta's father quickly sent her off to a Venetian convent. But if he thought that was going to keep

the notorious Lothario away from her, he clearly didn't know Casanova. Rather than keeping his distance

the legendary lover enlisted the help of nuns at the convent to pass letters to Caterina

Meanwhile, in the course of coming and going to the convent, Casanova had piqued the attention of Marina Morozini

a beautiful nun who was already engaged in an affair with Abbé Joachim de Berni, a French diplomat in Venice

Morozini was so beguiled by Casanova's figure that she wrote him a letter straight away

and the two soon began a passionate affair. At one point, the couple actually put on a public show

for de Berni, who watched their lovemaking from a secret room. To add another twist to the story, Morosini and Katarina Capreta

were engaged in their own torrid affair within the convent walls. Doesn't sound like much of a convent

Casanova was just really being Casanova. Casanova's lifestyle attracted attention wherever he went

and not just from women. Police organizations across Europe also meticulously recorded his activities

and considered him an outlaw who routinely escaped one city for another

However, in 1755, his scandals caught up with him, and Casanova was arrested on a charge of indecency and blasphemy

Without trial, he was unceremoniously thrown into prison. Though he was fortunate enough to be imprisoned in the Doge's palace

Casanova had no intention of serving his full five-year sentence. So Casanova decided to fly the coop After weeks of labor he filed an iron bar into a spike which he used to create a hole through the floor of his cell which he escaped through with the help of his prison mate a monk I have a secret tunnel Nova and the monk coming soon to HBO fled Venice in a gondola on the

c. Casanova sought refuge in Paris and would not return to his beloved Venice for 18 long years

It was said that Casanova and his accomplices' prison break was the first time anyone had

escape from the Doge's palace. His escape from prison brought him a small amount of fame

which no doubt served his romance game even more during his long exile from Venice

While exiled in France in 1757, Casanova introduced a lottery system to the country

Release the bulls. The scheme, which relied on his first-rate mathematical abilities

netted Casanova wealth and access to the upper echelons of French society

He met everyone from Madame de Pompadour, the principal royal mistress at the court of King

Louis XV, to Voltaire and other luminaries of the Enlightenment. But Casanova was nothing if not

egalitarian with his company. At the same time, he cavorted with working girls, dancers, and

actresses because, well, of course he did. Soon, he had squandered his wealth and drifted into debt

In 1760, he fled Paris to escape his creditors and began to roam around Europe under a new name

Chevalier de Saint-Gout. He spent the next 14 years jumping from one scandal to the next

as he jumped from one bed to another across the continent from London to St. Petersburg

In 1759, Casanova was still in Paris. While there, he reacquainted himself

with the intelligent, beautiful Justignana Wien, a young Venetian woman who was caught up

in a passionate affair with his friend Andrea Memo, son of one of Venice's leading families

Justine Yana reached out to her Casanova because she had a problem. She was five months pregnant

with Mamo's baby, a circumstance that would ruin her reputation. Mamo's family vehemently opposed

a marriage between the two, so Justine Yana felt she had no choice but to terminate the pregnancy

Abortion was illegal and dangerous in 18th century France. Nonetheless, they forged ahead

with their plans. They met at a masquerade so as not to arouse suspicion and left the ball for a

few hours to visit the midwife who would assist. To Justine Yana's frustration, the attempt did not work

and she pleaded with Casanova to find another way. Talk about asking the wrong guy for help

After reading of an ointment that would end her term, Casanova convinced her to sleep with him

claiming that he would apply the special ointment to his mini Casanova, and through intercourse

it would be applied directly inside her. This method, unsurprisingly, did not work

Without any other options, Justine Yana Ween had no choice but to flee to a convent, where she discreetly gave birth to her child

Casanova never married, but that didn't stop him from having a handful of illegitimate sons

and daughters. One of these was Leonilda, his daughter from an affair with Lucrezia Castelli

In what must have been an awkward moment Casanova almost unwittingly took Leonilda as his lover in 1761 when he visited Naples But when he learned that she was in fact his own flesh and blood he wisely decided not to sleep with her However

things took a bizarre twist many years later. Leonilda had been married off to a Marchese

and Casanova's old flame, Lucrezia, invited him to visit them at their grand new home

Lucrezia seemed to have confessed to Casanova that their daughter was unhappy

for her husband was not giving her the child she so desperately wanted

So Casanova agreed to Lucrezia's plan. He would impregnate her himself. This isn't typically the kind of thing a man would brag about

but Casanova was no typical man. In fact, the record of this act comes from his own writing

The unholy union had its desired effect, and Casanova became both father and grandfather to Leonilda's son

and or brother, Mikasa Suimbreding. As if his life wasn't fantastical enough already, Casanova, much like Madonna in 2011

also claimed to be an expert in the mystical Kabbalah. The Kabbalah is a belief system that predates religion

A claim that no doubt provided him with a way to manipulate a variety of occult-minded people

To be fair, he was deeply interested in it. But his claims of mysticism, like pretty much everything else he did

were usually rooted in questionable motives. One individual whom Casanova used his claim to manipulate was Jean-Camus de Poncarre

Marquise d'Orfe. The Marquise was a noble and very wealthy French woman who bonded with Casanova

over their shared love of the occult. He took advantage by reveling in his proximity to the

Marquise's wealth and social connections. In 1763, she implored Casanova to put his mystical

knowledge to good use. The Marquise wanted him to reincarnate her soul into the body of a baby

Oh, that's a good use. For years, Casanova strung the old widow along

until she finally caught on to his schemes and the two-parted ways. Casanova was more than just a gigolo

He was also a polymath, and his diverse interests and seemingly boundless energy led him

down a number of career paths. In his 73 years of life, Casanova had jobs

ranging from monk in training to gambler, musician, spy, and soldier. Casanova also considered himself a philosopher

and his intellectual pursuits were just as central to his life as his amorous ones

But perhaps the most surprising career for the world's most famous Lothario was his final one

librarian. In 1785, the aging Casanova apparently had had enough of his adventurous life

and settled down as the official librarian to Count Josef Charles von Walschstein, a Bohemian nobleman

Though this was not the happiest time of Casanova's life, The job itself provided Casanova with a steady income

and his own quarters in the Count's castle in the Bohemian countryside

It also gave him time to write his masterpiece, a 12-volume memoir of his incredible life

Every woman, every age, every color, in every position. That is still considered one of the most authentic sources

of European social norms and customs during the Enlightenment period of the 18th century