It was at the house of these friends that Casanova became acquainted with
the poet, Lorenzo Da Ponte. "I made his acquaintance," says the latter,
in his own Memoirs, "at the house of Zaguri and the house of Memmo, who
both sought after his always interesting conversation, accepting from
this man all he had of good, and closing their eyes, on account of his
genius, upon the perverse parts of his nature."

Lorenzo Da Ponte, known above all as Mozart's librettist, and whose youth
much resembled that of Casanova, was accused of having eaten ham on
Friday and was obliged to flee from Venice in 1777, to escape the
punishment of the Tribunal of Blasphemies. In his Memoirs, he speaks
unsparingly of his compatriot and yet, as M. Rava notes, in the numerous
letters he wrote Casanova, and which were preserved at Dux, he proclaims
his friendship and admiration.

Irene Rinaldi, whom he met again at Padua in 1777, with her daughter who
"had become a charming girl; and our acquaintance was renewed in the
tenderest manner."

The ballet-girl Adelaide, daughter of Mme. Soavi, who was also a dancer,
and of a M. de Marigny.

Barbara, who attracted Casanova's attention at Trieste, in 1773, while he
was frequenting a family named Leo, but toward whom he had maintained an
attitude of respect. This girl, on meeting him again in 1777, declared
that "she had guessed my real feelings and had been amused by my foolish
restraint."

At Pesaro, the Jewess Leah, with whom he had the most singular