Career
He wrote in Italian, French, Latin and German. He was a pen pal of Gluck, Pietro Metastasio, Voltaire, Jean le Rond d"Alembert, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Catherine the Great, and Frederick William II of Prussia, to whom he dedicated a book of French verses translated from Italian, "L"Alcoran des Princes Destinés au Trone". Giacomo Casanova mentions Stefano Zannovich, who "paid a visit to Vienna under the alias of Prince Castriotto d"Albanie.
Under pressure of the authorities, he left at the end of July 1784" for Poland and later for the Netherlands (United Provinces).
He was born in Montenegro to the Paštrovići near Budva, Venetian Albania (now Montenegro), and committed suicide in an Amsterdam jail. His father was Antun "Budaljanin", a wealthy merchant, and he had a brother named Primislav.
He claimed descendance from Skanderbeg.
