The Italian Language

Gian Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725 –1798), the Venetian adventurer and womaniser, travelled extensively through Europe, visiting Constantinople, Corfu, Stuttgart, Paris, Switzerland, Dresden, Warsaw and Vienna. He made various steps towards a career; even entering the Church for a period, but in the end lived on his wits. He was held in the prison attached to the Dodge's palace, in Venice, from where he escaped— the first person ever to do so, going to France. There he made a fortune and then lost it, escaping to Germany to avoid debtor's prison. He ended his days as the librarian of Count von Waldstein, in Bohemia.

He is remembered chiefly as a womaniser, but there was much more to him than that and he was recognised by his contemporaries as possessing an acutely inquisitive mind and to have lived an extremely interesting life. He also wrote several plays, histories and other works, the most famous being his memoirs, Histoire de Ma Vie.

There is in Stuttgart a street called Giacomo Casanovastraße. I remember seeing it, though I cannot find it on the map.