Giacomo Casanova

Giacomo Casanova was born in Venice in 1725. His parents,
both actors, wanted him to become a priest, but their hopes
were dashed when, at sixteen, he was expelled from seminary
for immoral misconduct. Probably best-known for his
reputation as a womanizer, Casanova was in turn a secretary,
a soldier in the Venetian army, a preacher, an alchemist, a
gambler, a violinist, a lottery director, and a spy. He
translated Homer's Iliad into Italian and collaborated with
Da Ponte on the libretto for Mozart's Don Giovanni. He
retired in 1785 to the castle of a friend -- Count Waldstein
of Bohemia -- in order to write his memoirs.