Zanetta Farussi

Zanetta Farussi (27 August 1707 – 29 November 1776), known as La Buranella (“the woman of Burano”), was an Italian comedic actress. Her eldest son was the famous adventurer Giacomo Casanova. Biography Born Maria Giovanna Farussi, her father, Girolamo, was a shoemaker. In 1724, at the age of seventeen, she married the actor, Gaetano Casanova, ten years her senior, who had just returned to Venice after several years with a touring theatrical troupe to take a position at the Teatro San Samuele. The marriage was strongly opposed by her parents, because they considered acting to be a disreputable activity. Her father Girolamo died shortly after, from grief according to his grandson Giacomo, and her mother, Marcia, was reconciled only when Gaetano promised that he would not allow Zanetta to become an actress. This promise was soon broken when she began an apprenticeship at Gaetano’s theater. While she was there, Giacomo was born and (according to Giacomo’s memoirs) Gaetano suspected that Michele Grimani (1697–1775), the theater’s proprietor, was actually the father. The following year, they accepted a theatrical engagement in London. It was there they had their second son, Francesco, who