Giacomo Girolamo Casanova is born in Venice on April 2, in a house on the Calle della Commedia, near the Teatro San Samuele. 
His parents are actors: Gaetano Giuseppe Casanova and Zanetta (née Farussi)--though Giacomo will later claim in Né amori né donne (1783) that his true father was the Venetian nobleman Michele Grimani, whose family owned the theater where his parents were employed. 

His parents are frequently absent, on tour or abroad, and Giacomo is raised almost entirely by his maternal grandmother, Marzia Farussi.  Casanova is a sickly child.  He will later describe the first years of his life as a nearly vegetative state that lasted until the age of eight.