This is Scientific American ― 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.Casanova. The name is synonymous with a reputation for romantic―let's say excess.But a new study suggests that the real Giacomo Casanova may have exaggerated his sexual exploits―not in terms of their sheer volume, but in their infectious aftermath.Because though Casanova claimed to have suffered several bouts of gonorrhea,researchers could find no trace of the responsible microbe on the pages of the womanizer's handwritten memoir.The findings will appear in the journal Electrophoresis.Casanova's memoir, completed in 1798, fills 12 volumes, and its English translation runs to 3,500 pages.In this tell-all, Casanova tallies some 122 lovers and confesses to recurring gonorrheal relapses.To investigate these claims, researchers turned to a technique they had previously usedto positively identify the bacterium that causes plague on the pages of death registries from 17th century Milan."Thus we thought we would be able to detect the gonococcus on Casanova's pages,since he candidly admitted, in his memoirs, having been infected by gonorrhea in his first sex intercourse at the age of 18and having suffered from relapses of this sex pathology along his lifetime as a gallant lover."Pier Giorgio Righetti, professor emeritus at Milan Polytechnic.
