Rogues' Gallery: Casanova

By Jennie Roberson

February 23, 2021

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Photo credit: Wikimedia/DIRECTMEDIA

Of the billions and billions of human lives that have traversed this earth over the millennia, there are few whose name invokes a legacy — for better or for worse. That instant recognition ensures their fame lives on well beyond their graves. And some names go so high into the cultural stratosphere that their very name becomes a shorthand for certain types of behavior or philosophy. 

One of those hallowed names is the Italian memoirist, gambler, and job-hopper extraordinaire who is also often considered one of the world’s greatest lovers — Giacomo Casanova. And yet, despite the fact that his name is synonymous with “womanizer” in many circles, Casanova had no trouble talking about the fact that he was, and is, a notorious disaster bi.

Painting of Casanova wearing a wig and blue jacket, staring intently in front of him.
Image/Wikimedia

But let’s start back at the beginning. Casanova was born in Venice in 1725 to an actor/dancer couple, the oldest of six children. He was cared for by his grandmother for a time while his mother toured with her work (his father passing when he was eight) and was sent to a boarding school on his ninth birthday. But when the conditions of the boarding school were found to be deplorable, the young pupil was sent to study with a priest instead.

From there, a twelve-year-old Casanova was sent to study at the University of Padua and earned a law degree. But he had other plans, studying a vast array of subjects but taking a particular interest in medicine. It was in his teenage years that two of his defining passions began to take hold: sex and gambling. Both would obsess the Venetian for the bulk of his life. To whit, he was expelled from seminary (after finishing his studies at Padua) when he was caught in bed with another student.

From here, Casanova’s life began to take on turns and professions that most of us only dream about, let alone do. It is difficult to summarize all of his exploits, sexual and otherwise, but the libertine-in-question entered into, and slipped out of, nearly two dozen professions (if not more) over the course of the next five decades.

In no particular order, Casanova became a: scribe, traveling violinist, adventurer, gourmand, philosopher, librarian, writer, salesman, legal assistant, secretary, soldier, alchemist, owner of the French lottery — oh, and a goddamn spy. Not only that, but somewhere in there, he also managed to bed over a hundred women. And I am just barely scratching the surface of his life with these descriptions.

Did I mention how he escaped from prison? I didn’t? This is one of my favorite bits about him. He was serving a sentence in the Doge’s Palace after an arrest on the charge of common decency. While there, during an exercise walk, Casanova found an iron bar, smuggled it back to his room, fashioned it into a spike, and dug a hole under his bed for weeks, hiding the spike in an armchair in his cell. 

But when a last-minute cell change foiled his plans, he got to work again after a bout of despair. This time, though, he got help getting out of the joint — an imprisoned priest in the next cell borrowed his spike by getting it passed between cells in a Bible. After the priest bore a hole in his ceiling and into the ceiling of Casanova's cell, the two pried their way out of the roof, broke a window, used a rope Casanova had fashioned, changed clothes, fooled a guard, and escaped by gondola.

How baller is that?! No wonder his life has been adapted into several films and television programs.

Casanova dressed in the old school victorian clothing, has his hand out for a pair of women smiling at him.
Image/Buena Vista Pictures

Okay, I know I’ve mentioned his legendary lovemaking to many women over the course of his life. But why is he finding a place on this bi.org? Well, at the end of his life, Casanova wrote incredibly lengthy memoirs chronicling the events and lovers in his life — and there are several spots (that sometimes got censored) where he detailed the same-sex attractions himself. And as if we shouldn’t believe the man himself, many modern biographers have come to the same conclusion on his queerness. And it is also documented that at the beginning of his (many) careers, he made his way about Venice as a type of sex worker. So though Casanova’s name has rung down through the ages for his heterosexual exploits, it is clear that from the jump, the writer was equally proud of his homosexual exploits.

At the end of his storied life, full of financial and cultural ups and downs (he may have won a lottery and gotten rich, but he also gambled most of his fortunes away), Casanova finished up his life as a private librarian — which afforded him plenty of time to write his 3000-plus page memoirs, Histoire de Ma Vie

While the tomes were not published until a generation after his death, they have become massive worldwide hits, translated into dozens of languages. His memoirs have also become an important and surprisingly accurate chronicling of his era (despite some noted inaccuracies and exaggerations). It should be noted that, while mutual consent was a key element during his sexcapades, the details in today’s day and age would not pass muster for appropriate behavior. Casanova himself admits that his morals and choices have not always been stellar, but he also does not express any remorse for his actions — leading to some credible sociopathic and licentious accusations.

One may easily categorize Casanova as an intellectual dilettante, an exalted paramour, an escaped convict, or an important documentarian. And all of these assessments would be true. But his life had far more dimensions than an easy or dismissive take on it would allow. 

What we can pull from Casanova’s life story, if nothing else, is that there is merit to living life to the hilt. That includes exploring and enjoying the attractions we feel down to our bones — even if history or culture likes to try to erase our queerness from our legacy.

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