Giacomo Casanova

Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was born in 1725 in Venice, the son of actors in a city that was itself the most theatrical in Europe. Educated for the priesthood, he was expelled from a seminary for scandalous behavior and launched himself into a life of extraordinary variety and restlessness. He crossed Europe dozens of times, moving through the courts of Paris, Vienna, Madrid, St. Petersburg, and Constantinople, reinventing himself at each stop as scholar, adventurer, occultist, or gentleman. His daring escape from the Leads prison in Venice in 1756 became the stuff of legend. This author hub collects 1 work in the Canon Compass ranking, led by History of My Life.