Casanova de Seingalt

Casanova de Seingalt, GIOVANNI JACOPO, adventurer, was born at Venice in 1725, and by the time he reached his twenty-first year had been abbé, secretary to Cardinal Aquaviva, ensign, and violinist in an orchestra, at Rome, Constantinople, Corfu, and his own birthplace, where he gained some celebrity by curing a wealthy senator of apoplexy. His irregularities drove him from Venice, but after roaming through Northern Italy and France he was back there in 1755, and was then condemned to five years' imprisonment in the 'Piombi.' In fifteen months' time he effected a daring escape, and then for nearly twenty years wandered through Europe, visiting most of its capitals (Paris, London, Berlin, St Petersburg, Madrid, &c.), and making the acquaintance of the greatest men and women of the day, from the pope to Madame de Pompadour, and from Cagliostro to Frederick the Great. Alchemist, cabalist, knight of the papal order of the Golden Spur, and spy, he was everywhere introduced to the best society, invariably excited the disgust or ill-will of those about him, and had always to 'vanish' after a brief period of felicity. In 1761 we find him distinctly professing the miraculous after the Cagliostro fashion: he having undertaken to regenerate old Madame D'Urfé into a young man—for a consideration! In 1785 he established himself with the Count of Waldstein, at his castle of Dux in Bohemia, and there he died 4th June 1798. His celebrated Mémoires écrits par Lui-même (12 vols. Leip. 1828-38; new ed. 6 vols. Brussels, 1876) contain many interesting notices of the manners of his times, intermixed with details of his marvellous adventures. Clever and cynical, they are unmatched as a self-revelation of scoundrelism; Thackeray's Barry Lyndon is but a far-off echo. See a series of articles by M. Armand-Baschet in Le Livre (1881).—Two of his brothers were painters—GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1728-95), who in 1764 became director of the Dresden Academy; and FRANCESCO (1727-1805), who was born in London, and died near Vienna. He was famous for his battle-pieces.