Between 1785 and 1798 Giacomo Casanova lived in Dux, Bohemia, far from Europe’s cultural hubs. It was here, in a period of isolation and physical decline, that the Histoire de ma vie took shape, becoming one of the most important autobiographies in Western literature. Dux became the place where experience turned into memory and life became writing.
This article is based on the scientific contributions of our historians, reworked by the museum’s editorial team for digital use.
Beyond the Myth: Casanova in Dux
The Arrival in Dux: a necessary landing
Isolation and marginality
Writing as resistance
Dux as a place of transformation
When his name is mentioned, imagination quickly turns to travel, European salons, and romantic adventures. Over time, this figure has crystallized into a powerful yet partial image: that of the tireless libertine, symbolizing a brilliant and worldly eighteenth century.
However, there is a decisive chapter of his life that long remained on the sidelines: Casanova’s years in Dux, between 1785 and 1798. This period, marked by the end of action, isolation, and reflection, would prove central to shaping his literary legacy.
Casanova arrived in Dux in 1785, thanks to the protection of Count Joseph Karl von Waldstein, who appointed him librarian at his family castle. It was a decision driven not by ambition but by necessity.
Following yet another exile from Venice, a series of financial failures, and increasing physical decline, Casanova was weary and vulnerable. Dux was neither Paris nor Venice: it was a remote place, distant from the nerve centers of European cultural life. This isolation weighed heavily on his character and marked a break in his self-perception.
In Dux, Casanova experienced a new kind of social marginality. He often felt misunderstood, sometimes ridiculed by the castle staff, deprived of the recognition that had accompanied his fame for decades.
Fame, once an asset, now risked becoming a grotesque mask: a caricature of the past. In this context, a new awareness emerged, destined to change the course of his life: writing as the only possible space for survival.
It was in Dux that Casanova began working on the Histoire de ma vie. The writing was not intended as a celebratory project, but as an act of resistance against time, illness, and oblivion.
Through storytelling, Casanova could still inhabit the Europe of the Ancien Régime: the aristocratic courts, the civilization of conversation, the world of travel and brilliant intellect. Memory thus became a strategy to resist the end, to turn loss into narrative.
Dux was not a mere epilogue but a place of profound transformation. Here, the man of action became a man of memory, and lived experience was transformed into literature.
Without the enforced isolation, without the suspension of action, the Histoire de ma vie would never have come to light. Dux represents the crucial passage from lived experience to the written work: a gesture that places Casanova not just in history but within the endurance of literature.
Would you like to discover the palace where Casanova actually lived? Visit the Permanent Museum dedicated to Giacomo Casanova at Palazzo Zaguri.
