Venice series of books, co-written by Rustichello da Pisa and titled "Il Milione" provided important knowledge of the lands east of Europe, from the Middle East to China, Japan, and Russia. Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) was a prolific writer and adventurer best remembered for his autobiography, "Histoire De Ma Vie" ("Story of My Life"), which links his colourful lifestyle to the city of Venice. Venetian playwrights followed the old Italian theatre tradition of "Commedia dell'arte". Ruzante (1502–1542), Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793), and Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806) used the Venetian dialect extensively in their comedies. Venice has also inspired writers from abroad. Shakespeare set "Othello"
Crollalanza theory of Shakespeare authorship part of Palladino's theories from the 1920s, but Shaul Bassi of the University of Venice suggests that the first clear identification of Crollalanza as Shakespeare's original name came from the once-famous medium Luigi Bellotti who in 1936 told a reporter that Shakespeare had communicated with him "psychographically" and revealed that his real name was Crollalanza, from Valtellina. In 1943 Bellotti published a pamphlet repeating these claims: "L'Italianità di Shakespeare: Guglielmo Crollalanza grande genio italiano". In 2002 Martino Iuvara published "Shakespeare era Italiano: Saggio" ("Shakespeare was an Italian: an Essay"). In this work, Iuvara, a retired Sicilian journalist and teacher of