(1725 - 1798)

Venetian adventurer, soldier, writer, and secret agent in the service of King Louis XV of France. He is remembered chiefly as a libertine, and his name is synonymous with sexual exploits.

Denounced in Venice as a magician in 1755, Casanova was sentenced to five years in prison. He engineered a spectacular escape in 1756 and made his way to Paris, where he introduced the lottery and made a fortune. In this period he traveled extensively and spied for the king of France. He later returned to Venice, where he gathered domestic intelligence from 1774 to 1782.

Casanova was a versatile writer, and his extensive autobiographies demonstrate his powers of observation as well as providing excellent descriptions of 18th-century society in European cities.