C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798)
Casanova de Seingalt, Giovanni Jacopo (kä”sa-nō’vä de sīn’gält). An Italian adventurer; born at Venice, 1725; died in Bohemia, June 4, 1803. Expelled from Venice for his scandalous irregularities, he returned there and was imprisoned; after some months he made his escape, and for twenty years traveled over Europe, imposing upon all classes of society with his pretensions to occult science and knowledge of all the secrets of alchemy, including rejuvenation of the old. Among his dupes were Mme. de Pompadour, Frederick the Great, and even that other prince of charlatans, Cagliostro. He wrote his ‘Memoirs,’ which were published (1828) in 12 volumes. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).