That work has come to be regarded as a unique and provocative source of information on the customs and norms of European social life in the 18th century. Born to a family of actors, Casanova studied law at the University of Padua and received minor orders in the Catholic Church with a view towards pursuing a career as a canon lawyer.
However, he had no enthusiasm for the law or vocation for the church, and he soon abandoned those plans and launched instead upon an itinerant life as a gambler, violinist, confidence trickster, and man of letters.
Throughout his life, Casanova obtained money and other advantages from various aristocratic patrons by pretending to alchemical , cabbalistic , and magical secret knowledge. Among other exploits, Casanova escaped from the Piombi prison, to which he had been confined by order of the Venetian Council of Ten for offenses against religion and morals, and later helped convince the authorities of the Kingdom of France to establish a state lottery as a source of revenue.
The most notorious aspect of Casanova's career are his many complicated sexual affairs with women, stretching from his early adolescence to his old age, which he described in detail in his autobiography. As a consequence of this, Casanova's name has become a byword for a male seducer and libertine , like " Lothario " or " Don Juan ". He spent his final years in Bohemia , where he served as librarian to the household of Count Waldstein and resided at Dux Castle. At the time of Casanova's birth, the city of Venice thrived as the pleasure capital of Europe, ruled by political and religious conservatives who tolerated social vices and encouraged tourism.
The famed Carnival , gambling houses, and beautiful courtesans were powerful drawcards. This environment provided many of his formative experiences. His grandmother, Marzia Baldissera, cared for him while his mother toured about Europe in the theater. His father died when he was eight. As a child, Casanova suffered nosebleeds and his grandmother sought help from a witch: "Leaving the gondola, we enter a hovel, where we find an old woman sitting on a pallet, with a black cat in her arms and five or six others around her.
