Alessandro Cagliostro facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Count Alessandro di Cagliostro
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| Born |
Giuseppe Balsamo
June 2, 1743 |
| Died | August 26, 1795 (aged 52) Forte di San Leo, Papal States
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| Nationality | Italian |
| Other names | Joseph Balsamo |
| Occupation | Occultist, adventurer, magician |
Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (born Giuseppe Balsamo, June 2, 1743 – August 26, 1795) was an Italian adventurer. He was also known as a magician and occultist. He traveled across Europe and was famous in royal courts.
Cagliostro claimed to practice special arts like psychic healing, alchemy (turning metals into gold), and scrying (seeing the future). After his death, some people saw him as a trickster. Others, however, tried to show him as a true master of magic.
Contents
The Life of Cagliostro
His Background
The true story of Cagliostro is a bit mysterious. Many rumors and stories surround his early life. People tried to find out who he really was when he was arrested for a famous event called the Affair of the Diamond Necklace.
A German writer named Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote about Cagliostro. He said that Cagliostro's real name was Giuseppe Balsamo. This was found out by a lawyer from Palermo, Italy.
Cagliostro himself said he was born to noble Christian parents. He claimed he was left as an orphan on the island of Malta. He also said he traveled to places like Medina, Mecca, and Cairo as a child.
He claimed that when he returned to Malta, he joined the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. There, he said he studied alchemy, the Kabbalah (a type of Jewish mysticism), and magic.
Early Adventures
Giuseppe Balsamo was born into a poor family in Palermo, Sicily. This area was once the old Jewish Quarter. Even though his family didn't have much money, his grandfather and uncles made sure he got a good education.
He was taught by a private teacher. Later, he became a student in a Catholic group called the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God. He was eventually asked to leave this group.
While with the order, Balsamo learned about chemistry. He also learned about some spiritual practices. When he was 21, he convinced a rich goldsmith named Vincenzo Marano that there was a hidden treasure.
This treasure was supposedly buried hundreds of years ago at Mount Pellegrino. Balsamo told Marano that his knowledge of the occult would help them avoid magical creatures. He asked Marano for 70 pieces of silver for the trip.
When they went to dig, Balsamo attacked Marano. Marano was left bleeding and confused. He thought the attack was from spirits called djinns.
The next day, Marano went to Balsamo's house. He found out that Balsamo had left the city. Balsamo and two friends had run away to Messina. By 1765–66, Balsamo was on the island of Malta. There, he became a skilled pharmacist.
Travels Across Europe
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In 1768, Balsamo went to Rome. He got a job as a secretary for Cardinal Orsini. But Balsamo found the job boring. He soon started selling magical "Egyptian" amulets.
He also sold engravings that looked like paintings. During this time, he met Lorenza Seraphina Feliciani, known as Serafina. She was 17 years old. He married her in 1768.
The couple moved in with Lorenza's family. Balsamo's rough way of speaking and his actions were very different from her parents' religious beliefs. After a big argument, the young couple left.
Balsamo then became friends with Agliata, who was good at making fake documents. Agliata offered to teach Balsamo how to forge letters and official papers.
The couple traveled to London. There, Balsamo started using different fake names and titles. He finally settled on "Count Alessandro di Cagliostro." He supposedly met the famous Comte de Saint-Germain in London.
Cagliostro traveled all over Europe. He visited places like Courland, Russia, Poland, Germany, and France. He became so famous that he was even suggested as a doctor to Benjamin Franklin in Paris.
In 1777, "Joseph Cagliostro" joined a Freemason lodge in London. In December 1777, Cagliostro and Serafina left London. They traveled through Germany, visiting other Freemason lodges. They were looking for people to join Cagliostro's "Egyptian Freemasonry."
In 1779, Cagliostro went to Mitau (now Latvia). There, he met the poet Elisa von der Recke. In 1780, after failing to get support from Russian Tsaritsa Catherine the Great, the Cagliostros went to Strasbourg, France.
In 1784, they traveled to Lyon. On December 24, 1784, they started a new Freemason lodge there. It was called La Sagesse Triomphante (The Triumphant Wisdom). In January 1785, Cagliostro and his wife went to Paris. They went because Cardinal Rohan asked them to.
The Diamond Necklace Affair
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Cagliostro was involved in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. This event involved Marie Antoinette and Prince Louis de Rohan. Cagliostro was held in the Bastille prison for nine months.
However, he was found innocent because there was no proof connecting him to the affair. Still, Louis XVI ordered him to leave France. So, Cagliostro went to England.
In England, a French person named Theveneau de Morande accused him of being Giuseppe Balsamo. Cagliostro denied this in a letter he published. Morande later had to take back his accusation and apologize.
Arrest and Final Days
Cagliostro left England and went to Rome. There, he met two people who were actually spies for the Inquisition. Some stories say his wife was the one who first told the Inquisition about him.
On December 27, 1789, he was arrested. He was trying to start a Masonic lodge in Rome. He was put in the Castel Sant'Angelo prison. He was first sentenced to death.
But his sentence was changed to life in prison. He was sent to the Forte di San Leo. He died there on August 26, 1795.
Cagliostro's Impact
Cagliostro is known for creating the Egyptian Rite of the Freemasons. He also helped spread Freemasonry by opening lodges across Europe. He even allowed women to join these groups.
The idea of "Egyptian Freemasonry" continued in Italy and France. Later, these groups joined together under Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Cagliostro was also very good at forging documents. The famous adventurer Giacomo Casanova wrote in his autobiography that Cagliostro could perfectly copy a letter written by Casanova, even if he didn't understand the language.
Some historians say that Cagliostro used his wealth for good things. He reportedly started and funded many maternity hospitals and orphanages across Europe.
He carried an old manuscript called The Most Holy Trinosophia. It is believed that he wrote it himself. Some occultists, like Aleister Crowley, even believed Cagliostro was one of their past lives.
Cagliostro in Stories and Art
Cagliostro has appeared in many books, plays, movies, and TV shows. People have been fascinated by his mysterious life for centuries.
Books and Comics
- Catherine the Great wrote two short plays that made fun of Cagliostro.
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote a comedy play about Cagliostro's life called The Great Cophta (1791).
- Alexandre Dumas, père used Cagliostro in his novels, like Joseph Balsamo. In these stories, Cagliostro claims to be over 3,000 years old.
- Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy wrote a supernatural love story called Count Cagliostro. In it, the Count brings a long-dead Russian princess back to life.
- The comic book The Phantom featured Cagliostro in a story called The Cagliostro Mystery (1988).
- In the DC Comics universe, Cagliostro is an immortal sorcerer. He is an ancestor of the magicians Zatara and Zatanna.
- In Marvel Comics, Cagliostro is sometimes an enemy of Dracula.
- Cagliostro is a character in Robert Anton Wilson's The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles.
- Cogliostro is a character in Todd McFarlane's comic series Spawn. He was once a demon from Hell but freed himself using alchemy and magic. He teaches Spawn how to do the same.
- In Robert A. Heinlein's Glory Road, a character uses "Balsamo" as an alias and says Giuseppe is her uncle.
- Cagliostro is a playable character in the Japanese mobile game Granblue Fantasy.
- In the video game Steelrising, Cagliostro is a villain. He uses hypnosis and is interested in magic and medicine.
Music
- He appears in the 1794 opera Le congrès des rois, created by 12 different composers.
- Adolphe Adam wrote an opera called Cagliostro in 1844.
- Johann Strauß (Sohn) wrote an operetta called Cagliostro in Wien (Cagliostro in Vienna) in 1875.
- The opera Cagliostro by Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti was performed in 1952.
Film and Television
- Cagliostro has been played by many actors in films, including Orson Welles in Black Magic (1949) and Christopher Walken in The Affair of the Necklace (2001).
- In the 1943 German film Münchhausen, Cagliostro is a powerful magician.
- The Japanese animated movie The Castle of Cagliostro is inspired by stories about the character Arsène Lupin. The main villain, Lazare d'Cagliostro, is a ruler who makes fake money.
- In the 1932 film The Mummy, the story was first based on Cagliostro. It was about a 3000-year-old magician who stayed alive by injecting nitrates.
- Cagliostro and his wife appear in the 2006 anime Le Chevalier d'Eon.
- In the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Doctor Strange (2016), Cagliostro is mentioned as a sorcerer. The Book of Cagliostro contains dark magic spells.
- In the What If? TV series, Cagliostro is mentioned as someone who could change fixed points in time.
- Cagliostro appears as a villain in an episode of the 1960s TV series Thriller.
- In a 1978 episode of the Wonder Woman TV series, Wonder Woman says she faced the original Count Cagliostro in the past.
- In the animated TV series Spawn, Cagliostro is a Hell-Spawn who freed himself from a curse. He helps Spawn learn to do the same.
- In Samurai Jack, an episode features a quest for the crystal of Cagliostro.
Images for kids
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Cagliostro by Daniel Chodowiecki
See also
In Spanish: Cagliostro para niños
