Giacomo Casanova bibliotecario

Abstract

In September, 1785, Giacomo Casanova, the famous Venetian adventurer, moved to the Dux Castle in Bohemia (now Duchcov, Czech Republic) where he was hired as a librarian by Count Waldstein. This article examines Casanova’s last years, marked by his exorbitant literary production while he was facing the difficulties of old age and he troubled relationship with the Count’s servants. Prostrated by illness, Casanova died in Dux on June 4th, 1798, after finding out that a few months earlier, with the Campoformio treaty, Napoleon had yielded his beloved motherland, Venice, to Austria.