AlchemistFreemasonOccultistItalian

Alessandro Cagliostro

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, born Giuseppe Balsamo, was an Italian occultist, adventurer, and self-styled magician known for his travels, Egyptian Rite Freemasonry, and influence on popular culture.

1. Overview

Giuseppe Balsamo (Giuseppe Balsamodʒuˈzɛppe ˈbalsamoItalian), widely known by the alias Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (Alessandro Cagliostroalesˈsandro kaʎˈʎɔstroItalian), was an Italian occultist, adventurer, and self-styled magician. Born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1743, Cagliostro became a glamorous figure associated with the royal courts of Europe, where he pursued various occult arts including psychic healing, alchemy, and scrying. While often characterized as a charlatan and impostor, a view notably reinforced by Thomas Carlyle who called him the "Quack of Quacks," he also gained a reputation for distributing wealth acquired from the rich to the poor during his prime. His life was marked by extensive travels across Europe under various aliases, involvement in Freemasonry where he established his unique "Egyptian Rite," and his controversial role in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. Despite his acquittal in the Diamond Necklace scandal, his reputation suffered, leading to his eventual arrest in Rome on charges of heresy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Inquisition and died in 1795 in the Forte di San Leo. Posthumously, his legacy remains complex, with some attempts at rehabilitation and persistent legends, including alleged sightings after his death. His enigmatic persona has profoundly influenced occultism and continues to be a prominent figure in popular culture, inspiring numerous works across literature, film, television, comics, and music.

2. Early Life and Background

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro
Count Alessandro di Cagliostro

Giuseppe Balsamo was born into a poor family in Albergheria, which was once the old Jewish Quarter of Palermo, Sicily, in 1743. While his exact birth date is subject to various theories, it is commonly cited as June 2, 1743. Despite his family's precarious financial situation, his grandfather and uncles ensured that the young Giuseppe received a solid education from a tutor. He later became a novice in the Catholic Order of St. John of God, where he learned chemistry and a series of spiritual rites before being expelled from the monastery.

According to Cagliostro's own memoirs, he became the disciple of a Greek alchemist named Althotas, though the existence of this individual remains unconfirmed. During his trial following the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Cagliostro claimed to have been born of noble Christian parents but abandoned as an orphan on the island of Malta. He asserted that he traveled as a child to Medina, Mecca, and Cairo, and upon returning to Malta, was admitted to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, where he studied alchemy, the Kabbalah, and magic.

In 1764, at the age of twenty-one, Balsamo convinced Vincenzo Marano, a wealthy goldsmith, of the existence of a hidden treasure buried centuries earlier at Mount Pellegrino. Balsamo's purported knowledge of the occult was meant to protect them from magical creatures guarding the treasure. However, in preparation for the expedition, Balsamo requested 70 pieces of silver from Marano. When the time came to dig for the supposed treasure, Balsamo attacked Marano, leaving him bleeding and believing the assault was the work of djinns. The following day, Marano discovered that Balsamo, accompanied by two accomplices, had fled to Messina. By 1765-1766, Balsamo found himself on the island of Malta, where he became an auxiliary (donato) for the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and developed skills as a pharmacist.

The identification of Cagliostro with Giuseppe Balsamo was later confirmed by a lawyer from Palermo, who, upon official request, sent a dossier with pertinent documents to France. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, during his Italian Journey in April 1787, met this lawyer and examined the documents, including Balsamo's pedigree. The documents traced Balsamo's lineage through his great-grandfather Matteo Martello, whose daughter Felicità married Pietro Balsamo. Their son, Giuseppe, was christened with the name of his great-uncle and eventually adopted his surname. Goethe noted that Felicità Balsamo was still alive in Palermo during his travels and that Cagliostro was of Jewish origin, suggesting the name "Balsamo" might derive from the Hebrew Baal Shem. Cagliostro himself publicly claimed to be a disciple of Haĩm Falk, the Baal Shem of London.

3. Travels and Activities

In early 1768, Balsamo left Malta for Rome, where he secured a position as a secretary to Cardinal Orsini. Finding the job tedious, he soon began leading a double life, selling what he described as magical "Egyptian" amulets and engravings that were pasted on boards and painted to resemble genuine paintings. During this period, he encountered many Sicilian expatriates and ex-convicts. One such acquaintance introduced him to Lorenza Seraphina Feliciani (born around April 8, 1751), known as Serafina, who was fourteen years old at the time. He married her in 1768.

The couple initially moved in with Lorenza's parents and brother in the vicolo delle Cripte. However, Balsamo's coarse language and his encouragement for Lorenza to display her body deeply contrasted with her parents' strong religious beliefs, leading to a heated discussion after which the young couple departed. At this point, Balsamo befriended Agliata, a forger and swindler, who offered to teach Balsamo the art of forging letters, diplomas, and various other official documents. In return, Agliata requested sexual intercourse with Balsamo's young wife, a request to which Balsamo acquiesced.

The couple then traveled to London, where Balsamo began styling himself with various pseudonyms and self-conferred titles before settling on "Count Alessandro di Cagliostro." It was in London that he allegedly met the enigmatic Comte de Saint-Germain. Cagliostro's travels took him across Europe, including Courland, Russia, Poland, Germany, and later France. His growing reputation led to him being recommended as a physician to Benjamin Franklin during Franklin's stay in Paris.

In December 1777, Cagliostro and Serafina left London for the European mainland. They journeyed through various German states, visiting lodges of the Rite of Strict Observance in an effort to recruit converts to Cagliostro's unique "Egyptian Freemasonry." In February 1779, Cagliostro traveled to Mitau (now in Latvia), where he met the poet Elisa von der Recke. After an unsuccessful attempt to gain the patronage of Russian Tsaritsa Catherine the Great in Saint Petersburg in September 1780, the Cagliostros made their way to Strasbourg, which was then part of France. In October 1784, they traveled to Lyon. On December 24, 1784, they established the co-Masonic mother lodge La Sagesse Triomphante for his Egyptian Freemasonry rite in Lyon. In January 1785, Cagliostro and his wife proceeded to Paris at the urging of Cardinal Rohan.

4. Freemasonry and Egyptian Rite

Satire on Cagliostro at a Masonic meeting in London in 1786, by James Gillray
Satire on Cagliostro at a Masonic meeting in London in 1786, by James Gillray

Cagliostro's formal entry into Freemasonry occurred on April 12, 1777, when "Joseph Cagliostro" was admitted as a Freemason of the Espérance Lodge No. 289 in Gerrard Street, Soho, London. Following this, he began to advocate for an Egyptian origin theory of Freemasonry and subsequently established his own distinct branch, which he termed "Egyptian Masonry" or "Egyptian Freemasonry."

In December 1777, after leaving London, Cagliostro and Serafina actively sought converts to this new rite while traveling through various German states, visiting existing Masonic lodges. On December 24, 1784, they formally founded the co-Masonic mother lodge La Sagesse Triomphante for his Egyptian Freemasonry rite in Lyon, France.

The meetings of the Egyptian Masonry involved spiritualist practices, notably the use of boys and girls as mediums for conducting séances. Cagliostro frequently demonstrated these spiritualistic abilities in various locations, captivating audiences. The phenomena he presented were so compelling that they inspired prominent figures like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller to create literary works based on his spiritualistic demonstrations. The concept of an "Egyptian Freemasonry" persisted in Italy through the Rite of Misraim, founded in 1813 by the three Jewish Bédarride brothers, and in France, by the Rite of Memphis, founded in 1838 by Jacques Etienne Marconis de Nègre. These two rites eventually unified under Giuseppe Garibaldi as the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm in 1881, continuing Cagliostro's initial vision.

5. Affair of the Diamond Necklace

Cagliostro became embroiled in the infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace, a major scandal that implicated Marie Antoinette and Cardinal Prince Louis de Rohan. He was prosecuted for his alleged involvement in the affair and subsequently held in the Bastille prison for nine months. Despite the high-profile nature of the case, Cagliostro was ultimately acquitted, as no substantial evidence could be found to connect him directly to the fraudulent scheme.

However, even after his acquittal, Louis XVI ordered his banishment from France, leading Cagliostro to depart for England. While in England, he was publicly accused by French expatriate Theveneau de Morande of being Giuseppe Balsamo, his true identity. Cagliostro vehemently denied this accusation in his published Open Letter to the English People, which ultimately forced Morande to issue a retraction and an apology. Despite escaping direct legal culpability in the Diamond Necklace affair, the scandal significantly damaged Cagliostro's reputation and marked a turning point in his public standing.

6. Downfall, Imprisonment, and Death

Following his banishment from France, Cagliostro left England and traveled to Rome. While there, he encountered two individuals who were, unbeknownst to him, spies for the Inquisition. Some historical accounts suggest that his own wife, Lorenza, may have been the one who initially betrayed him to the Inquisition.

On December 27, 1789, Cagliostro was arrested in Rome on charges of heresy, specifically for attempting to establish a Masonic lodge in the Papal States. He was subsequently imprisoned in the Castel Sant'Angelo. His trial by the Inquisition commenced, and in 1791, he was found guilty and initially sentenced to death. However, his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He was transferred to the Forte di San Leo, a formidable fortress prison, where he remained until his death on August 26, 1795.

Despite his death in prison, persistent rumors and witness accounts emerged claiming that Cagliostro had been seen alive and traveling, even as far as Russia, contributing to the mystique surrounding his controversial life.

7. Legacy and Evaluation

Cagliostro's legacy is marked by a complex interplay of condemnation as a charlatan and attempts at rehabilitation or re-evaluation. While he came to be widely regarded as a charlatan and impostor, a view solidified by Thomas Carlyle's scathing 1833 critique labeling him the "Quack of Quacks," other perspectives offer a more nuanced view. The Japanese historical account notes that despite being characterized as a con artist, during his prime, Cagliostro exhibited a strong element of a "prankster" and notably distributed wealth he acquired from the affluent to the poor. Later works, such as W. R. H. Trowbridge's Cagliostro: the Splendour and Misery of a Master of Magic (1910), attempted a rehabilitation of his image.

Cagliostro was an extraordinary forger. Giacomo Casanova, in his autobiography, recounted an encounter where Cagliostro demonstrated his ability to forge a letter written by Casanova, despite not understanding the language of the letter. Occult historian Lewis Spence further comments that Cagliostro put his acquired wealth to good use by establishing and funding a network of maternity hospitals and orphanages across the continent. He also carried an alchemistic manuscript titled The Most Holy Trinosophia among others on his ill-fated journey to Rome, and he is widely alleged to have been its author.

His influence on Freemasonry is significant. The Portuguese author Camilo Castelo Branco credits Cagliostro with the creation of the Egyptian Rite of the Freemasons and intensive work in the diffusion of Freemasonry, notably by opening lodges throughout Europe and by introducing the acceptance of women into the community. The idea of an "Egyptian Freemasonry" was continued in Italy by the Rite of Misraim, founded in 1813 by the three Jewish Bédarride brothers, and in France, by the Rite of Memphis, founded in 1838 by Jacques Etienne Marconis de Nègre. These two rites later unified under Giuseppe Garibaldi as the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm in 1881, demonstrating a lasting impact of Cagliostro's Masonic innovations.

Beyond his direct historical impact, Cagliostro's enigmatic life has led to various interpretations. Notably, the prominent occultist Aleister Crowley believed Cagliostro was one of his previous incarnations.

8. Influence

Cagliostro's influence extended beyond his direct activities, impacting various fields and inspiring notable figures. His establishment of the "Egyptian Rite" within Freemasonry left a lasting mark on the esoteric movement, with its principles and practices continuing through later rites like the Rite of Misraim and the Rite of Memphis. His emphasis on spiritualism and ritualistic practices also contributed to the broader landscape of occultism in Europe.

He interacted with, or was perceived to interact with, several prominent historical figures:

  • Comte de Saint-Germain**: Cagliostro allegedly met this equally mysterious figure during his travels in London, further cementing his association with esoteric circles.
  • Benjamin Franklin**: During his stay in Paris, Cagliostro was even recommended as a physician to Franklin, highlighting the extent of his reputation, even among Enlightenment figures.
  • Catherine the Great**: Cagliostro attempted to gain the patronage of the Russian Tsaritsa in Saint Petersburg, though his efforts were unsuccessful.
  • Cardinal Rohan**: Rohan's entreaties led Cagliostro and his wife to Paris, ultimately drawing him into the notorious Affair of the Diamond Necklace.
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe** and **Friedrich Schiller**: Both renowned German literary figures were inspired by Cagliostro's spiritualistic demonstrations, incorporating elements of his life and practices into their works. Goethe's ''Italian Journey'' also played a role in ascertaining Cagliostro's true identity.
  • Aleister Crowley**: The influential occultist believed Cagliostro to be one of his previous incarnations, indicating Cagliostro's enduring symbolic importance within esoteric traditions.