The autobiography of Italian adventurer and author Giacomo Casanova is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the social customs and norms in 18th century Europe. His brothers, too, were renowned artists in their time: Giovanni was an academy director in Rome and Dresden, Francesco an acclaimed painter of battle scenes in Paris and Vienna. Tracing the history of a remarkable family of the 18th century, this well-researched and eminently readable book paints a rich panorama of European life as well as its cultural, literary, and art history.