Cold Open

It’s near midnight on July 26th, 1755, in Venice.

30-year-old Giacomo Casanova stumbles drunkenly through the door of his apartment, bumps into a table in the darkness... and knocks a glass of wine to the floor.

He manages to find his way to his bed.

He pulls off his boots and flops onto his back. But his head barely hits the pillow… when the door crashes back open and a group of men rushes into the room. Although alcohol has slowed his reflexes, Casanova still lurches to his feet… and grabs for the sword he keeps next to his bed. Swinging it wildly, he squints as he tries to recognize the men in the darkness. They might be the angry husbands of Casanova’s many lovers, or possibly they’re victims of Casanova's many frauds. But after a moment, an authoritative voice orders Casanova to lower his weapon— he’s under arrest.

Casanova drops the sword.

And two of the men grab him holding him upright while another shackles his wrists. It seems that justice has finally caught up with Venice’s most infamous scoundrel.

Giacomo Casanova's arrest doesn’t come as a surprise to most Venetians. For years, he’s been known for his sordid love affairs, tasteless pranks, and fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes. But Casanova won’t allow the authorities to keep him down for long—and his notoriety will reach new levels when he breaks out of prison, fifteen months after his arrest on July 26th, 1755.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is July 26th, 1755: The Arrest of Casanova.

Act One

It’s 1747 in Venice, eight years before Giacomo Casanova is dragged out of bed by Venetian guards.

A gondola slowly drifts along the city’s Grand Canal. Lounging on board, 22-year-old Casanova smiles at his recent stroke of good fortune. A few minutes ago, Casanova was offered the chance to share a ride with another man going in the same direction—but when he stepped aboard the gondola, Casanova realized that the other passenger happened to be Don Matteo Bragadin, one of the richest and most influential men in the city. Casanova could do with making the acquaintance of such a powerful man.

Casanova was born into a family of Venetian actors, but he always preferred books to the stage. That thirst for learning led him to university, and five years ago, Casanova graduated and began training to become a priest. But Casanova's character didn’t suit that vocation. His head was easily turned by the opposite sex, and he fell into debt through gambling. So, Casanova left the seminary and joined the army instead, but he was equally ill-suited to military life. So, now, he’s trying his hand at a more creative and carefree career as a traveling musician. It’s a hard way to earn a living, but if Casanova can impress Don Matteo and persuade him to become a sponsor, Casanova's money worries could be over.

So, Casanova clears his throat and asks Don Matteo a friendly question to break the ice. But Don Matteo doesn’t answer. Casanova wonders whether the old man has fallen asleep, but when he takes a closer look, he notices that Don Matteo’s eyes are glassy, and his face is pale and sweaty. Casanova realizes with a start that Don Matteo is suffering some kind of fit. He orders the gondolier to speed up and get to Don Matteo's mansion as quickly as possible.

When they arrive, Casanova explains the situation to Don Matteo's panicking family and leaves him in the hands of a doctor. Over the next few days, though, Casanova repeatedly returns to see how Don Matteo is getting on. But the news isn’t good. Despite the doctor’s best efforts, Don Matteo is sinking fast. In desperation, Casanova suggests they try one last thing: removing the mercury-based ointment from Don Matteo's chest. The doctor grudgingly agrees, but it works. Don Matteo's family is amazed when he suddenly rallies and regains consciousness. Soon, Don Matteo is on the road to recovery—and when his family tells him about Casanova’s role in his recuperation, Don Matteo rewards Casanova with a monthly wage. Casanova has secured his first patron—a benefactor willing to fund his creative lifestyle.

So now, with the backing of a wealthy sponsor, Casanova's immediate financial worries disappear. But Casanova doesn’t use his time to compose and perform music, as Don Matteo intended. Instead, Casanova throws himself into a life of debauchery. He drinks heavily and gambles excessively. He sleeps around, and his conquests include the wives of Venetian nobility, prostitutes, and even nuns. Casanova earns a reputation for blasphemy and indecency - and one stunt of his especially horrifies society. Casanova digs up a corpse, intending to plant it in a friend’s bed when he’s asleep as a joke. The prank backfires when the shock of waking up next to a corpse almost kills Casanova’s friend.

But there’s an even darker side to Casanova’s exploits. Many of the young women he sleeps with are barely out of puberty. He’s also accused of rape, and while officials investigate these claims, Casanova decides to leave Venice until the heat dies down. Over the next three years, Casanova travels widely throughout Europe. He visits Paris, Dresden, Prague, and Vienna. But wherever he goes, Casanova leaves behind a trail of jilted lovers and gambling debts.

By 1753, the charge of rape against Casanova has been dropped and he returns to Venice. But it doesn’t take long for the law to catch up with him for other reasons. As soon as he’s back in the city, complaints about Casanova’s behavior begin again. Casanova openly courts the wives and children of Venetian nobles. He makes offensive and blasphemous statements. And he provokes several brawls. All this leaves the Doge of Venice unimpressed. He’s responsible for maintaining law and order in the city, and Casanova is undermining his authority. So he orders covert surveillance of Casanova to gather evidence of wrongdoing. Casanova's patron Don Matteo Bragadin warns him that he’s going to be arrested if he doesn’t leave the city again.

But this time, Casanova won’t flee. Instead, he’ll choose to stay in Venice and fight to clear his name. And on July 26th, 1755, he’ll be arrested for affronts to religion and public decency—but even the iron bars of Venice’s most secure prison won’t contain Casanova for long.

Act Two

It’s July 1756 in Venice, one year after the arrest of Giacomo Casanova.

31-year-old Casanova sits on the floor of his prison cell. He’s been trapped inside these four walls for the past ten months—although he’s anything but bored. Instead, he’s hard at work rubbing an iron spike against the wooden floor, slowly and quietly gouging a hole. Casanova is trying to escape.

Two months after his arrest, Casanova was put on trial for crimes against religion and public decency. Casanova was denied the chance to defend himself, and the trial ended with him being sentenced to five years behind bars. Ever since then, Casanova's been held in The Leads, a seven-cell prison housed on the top floor of the Doge's palace in Venice. No one has ever escaped from The Leads — but that hasn’t stopped Casanova from giving it a try.

When Casanova hears footsteps moving down the hallway outside his cell, he stops his work and listens carefully. The steps come closer, so Casanova hastily covers the hole in the floorboards with a rug, hides the metal spike, and takes a seat in his armchair. He sits down just in time because a moment later, the jailer’s keys jangle in the lock and his cell door swings open. Casanova looks up and feigns disinterest, but his heart sinks when the jailer announces the reason for his visit. Casanova’s patrons have intervened on his behalf. He’s being moved to a bigger cell with a better view from the window.

Casanova tries to hide his anguish. He doesn’t want to move cells. All the work he’s done on his escape will be wasted. But Casanova can’t turn down the new cell without raising suspicion. He’ll just have to begin again from scratch.

So, over the next few months, Casanova puts together a new escape plan. He befriends a priest who’s being held in the cell directly above him. Casanova arranges to have the iron spike smuggled to the priest, and the priest secretly digs through his floorboards. When he breaks through, it makes a prominent hole in Casanova's ceiling. The two men know they must now move quickly before the opening between their cells is discovered. So, that very night, Casanova climbs into the priest’s cell, and together the two men hack away at the ceiling there. Eventually, they break through and emerge onto the roof of the palace.

Breathing fresh air for the first time in months, Casanova and the priest crawl along the roof, and away from their cells. They use a bed sheet to lower themselves to a window and break through the shutters into a storeroom. No one in this part of the palace suspects that the two men are escaped prisoners, so Casanova and the priest confidently walk through the maze of corridors as if they’re on the Doge's official business. After a few wrong turns, they make it out of the palace without being challenged.

Casanova is finally free. But he’s also a fugitive with a warrant out for his arrest. So, he immediately flees Venice and returns to his nomadic life throughout Europe. Hiding his identity under an assumed name, Casanova travels to Paris. And there, he becomes a spy for the French state and makes a small fortune pretending to be an alchemist. From France, he travels to the Netherlands. And in Amsterdam, he poses as a financial agent, selling bonds and becoming even richer. When he finally thinks he’s made enough money, Casanova tries to go straight. He sets himself up as a silk manufacturer, supplying Europe’s upper classes with fine fabric.

But Casanova isn’t cut out for honest business. His silk factory doesn’t turn a profit. And with money fast becoming a problem again, Casanova soon falls back into debt—and resumes his old, fraudulent schemes. He roams Europe in search of the next target for his cons. And Casanova's greatest swindle occurs when he persuades a French nobleman that he possesses the secret of eternal youth. Casanova dupes the old man by claiming that he’s actually 300 years old, and sells the nobleman a potion of everlasting life. By the time the aristocrat realizes he’s been tricked, Casanova is hundreds of miles away.

But eventually, after eighteen years on the road, Casanova will feel the pull of home. He’ll write a letter to the Venetian Doge expressing regret for his past actions. The warrant which is still out for his arrest will be withdrawn. And Casanova will return to Venice—but his claim to be a changed man will prove hollow, and he’ll fall afoul of the city’s authorities one last time.

Act Three

It’s September 1774 in Venice, nineteen years after Giacomo Casanova's arrest.

49-year-old Casanova drifts through the canals on a gondola, his eyes taking in every detail of the city he used to know so well. Some buildings look just the same, but others have been torn down and rebuilt. Many of the Venetians he once mingled with have either died or aged beyond recognition. In short, a lot has changed in Casanova’s absence—and that includes his own reputation.

When he fled Venice, Casanova was a notorious fugitive on the run. Now, he’s something of a celebrity. Casanova is celebrated by Venetian society for his infamous prison breakout, and he takes advantage of his new fame by making a living as a writer. But Casanova still can’t resist the pull of controversy. He soon realizes that the more opinionated his writing becomes, the more people buy his work.

But in 1783, nine years after his return to Venice, Casanova goes too far. He targets the Doge of Venice himself in a vicious satirical pamphlet. As a result, Casanova is soon arrested again, and his punishment this time is to be expelled from the city.

Casanova will never return to Venice. He ranges across Europe and eventually makes his way to the sleepy town of Dux in Bohemia. There, Casanova secures a job as a librarian to a local noble. The quiet of Dux is a far cry from his adventurous youth, and at one point Casanova becomes so bored that he considers ending his life. But then Casanova finds a new purpose in Dux —because he writes his life story, recording his notorious deeds for future generations.

Casanova's autobiography will shock and enthrall readers when it’s published more than two decades after his death. The revelations of love affairs, fraudulent scams, and bad behavior will scandalize Europe, with some passages considered so outrageous, they’ll be censored until the 20th Century. But among the episodes that won't be censored and turn Giacomo Casanova into one of history’s most notorious rogues is his account of an infamous breakout from Venice’s supposedly inescapable prison following his arrest on July 26th, 1755.

Outro

Next on History Daily. July 29th, 1862. One of the most famous Confederate spies of the American Civil War is finally arrested after she is betrayed by her lover.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.