by Giacomo Casanova

Giacomo Casanova was born April 2, 1725, in Venice to a family of stage dancers and actors, professions then considered so lowly they were often equated with pimping and prostitution. Though his mother, Zanetta Farussi, was married to Gaetano Casanova (who died when Giacomo was eight years old), there is some question as to who his biological father was—Gaetano or the patrician Michele Grimani, who took on the responsibility of rearing Giacomo. Whether out of noblesse oblige or paternal devotion, Grimani and his two brothers (all unwed) provided Casanova with a noble connection and thus an entrance into upper-class European society. While his mother pursued her “acting” career in various great cities of Europe, Casanova attended school in Padua, where he started to serve in the Roman Catholic Church and earned a Doctor of Law degree at the age of 17. Unsuited for the clergy...