The Real Casanova: Legendary Lover Or Predatory Pedophile?

The sexual adventures of 18th-century Italian playboy Giacomo Casanova are legendary. He was such a famous artist of seduction that his name became synonymous with philandering. Despite his reputation as a gentle ladies man, a look at his adventures through a modern lens reveals a man so obsessed with sex that he was not above rape and pedophilia.

Giacomo Casanova

Casanova led an exciting life outside the bedroom, acting at various times as a diplomat, businessman, pimp, lawyer, clergyman, writer, mathematician, detective, eater, violinist, con man, criminal and politician. He also wrote many plays, essays, novels and letters. One of his novels, Icosameron, is one of the earliest examples of the science-fiction genre.

Casanova's Memoirs

Casanova also wrote his own memoir, Histoire de Ma Vi, from which much of his modern reputation has been derived, but it is also the autobiography that gives us pause today. His own recollections of his adventures read more like manipulation and coercion than skillful seduction, as he sought out single or unhappy married women, earned their trust, made his way with them, and abandoned them. His conquests included servants, nobles, the wives of his closest friends, prostitutes and random strangers, many of whom were apparently not willing participants. In a 1745 incident, he and seven of his friends kidnapped a woman from a carnival and repeatedly gang-raped her as a "good joke". They also gave birth to an unknown number of children, which will never be counted with certainty because every time a woman claims that he has impregnated her, she simply denied… He didn't land on it.

Casanova's Crimes

Casanova's memoirs serve as written confessions of several incidents of child rape, often the children of her adult peers and sometimes her own. After meeting a former lover in 1761 and finding out that he would give birth to her 16-year-old daughter, she wrote that the three had sex together, which resulted in the teen's own pregnancy. He later wrote, "I never understood how a father could love his charming daughter without sleeping with her at least once." He also details the purchase of a 12-year-old girl in St Petersburg in 1765, whom he kept as his personal sex slave until he matured and became tired of her. To be clear, all of this was just as illegal in Casanova's time as it is today, but it was even easier to avoid such things at the time—especially if you're a Casanova.