This is how Casanova could have travelled through Venice (generated motif)
Some names burn themselves into history like a seal of hot wax. Casanova is one of them.
300 years after his birth, the name Casanova is still synonymous with seduction, escapades and forbidden glances under silk masks. But what is really known about the supposed lover of the century from Venice?
Born as an actor
Giacomo Casanova was born into a theatre family. He learnt to play with identities from an early age. His mother travelled around Europe as a celebrated soubrette and operetta singer. The young Giacomo grew up for a time with his grandmother, was educated by priests and allegedly showed an intellectual precocity at an early age that astonished even cynical mentors.
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He completed his law degree at the age of 17. He tried his hand as a clergyman, but by his own account he did not last long. He was a man whose hunger for life was not limited to bread and water. He also earned money as a violinist in the meantime - at the theatre in San Samuele, where he had played behind the scenes as a child. Casanova was a child of the masked city of Venice, the dazzling world of illusion, play and transformation.
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He owes his fame to himself
The fact that Casanova became a legend is actually not due to his libido, but to his pen. He owes his fame to himself. In his famous autobiography "Histoire de ma vie" ("History of my life"), he describes his affairs, travels, duels, escapades, disguises and prison escapes with literary flair, but with dubious facts.
Many historians doubt the reliability of these memoirs. Casanova describes around 120 to 130 love affairs in his autobiography - but this number is not historically proven.
There are no reliable documents or independent confirmations to support this information. Love letters that could document such affairs have barely survived - either because they were never collected, were lost over the decades or because Casanova himself deliberately covered his tracks. Other anecdotes seem all too perfectly composed, like stage plays with himself in the leading role.
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What is historically documented about Casanova?
Casanova's birth in Venice in 1725, his origins in a theatre family (his mother was a well-known actress, his father worked in the theatre), his early law studies in Padua, his short career as a cleric and violinist and his later years as a librarian in Bohemia are all documented. These stages of his life can be documented by documents, contracts and contemporary sources.
However, much else - such as the exact number of his affairs, the authenticity of individual prison escapes or alleged encounters with celebrities such as Voltaire or Catherine the Great - is based almost exclusively on his own notes. There are no known love letters to Casanova, no witness statements or external diary entries to support these episodes. Historians therefore agree that the "Histoire de ma vie" is a cultural-historical document, but not a factual report.
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Casanova's greatest triumph
The fact that Casanova - of all people - spent his last years as a librarian in a castle in Bohemia sounds like an irony of fate. But it was there that he wrote his greatest story: himself. With words that survive to this day. And that is perhaps his greatest triumph: that 300 years later we are still fascinated by this man who turned himself into a love legend.
