The name Cagliostro was synonymous with magic and mysteries, but was he a true believer or a devious con-artist?
In the annals of alchemy and occultism, only a handful of practitioners remain legendary today. Names such as Fulcanelli, St Germain and, one of the most notorious of them all, Count Alessandro Cagliostro (pronounced ‘Cali-Ostro’). Infamous even centuries after his passing, he was once described in Baroness D’Oberkirch’s memoirs as being “possessed of a demonic power” and having a charisma that “enthralled the mind, paralysed the will.” Throughout the latter half of the 18th century, this ‘nobleman’ travelled throughout Europe earning a reputation as both a blasphemer and a conman. Much of
Cagliostro’s life is shrouded in mystery, the facts submerged under a wealth of fiction created by either the Count himself or by others. But what is the truth of Cagliostro’s legend? Was he a true believer in the occult practices he preached? Or was he a devious swindler, petty crook and confidence trickster?
Lowly Beginnings
Born Giuseppe Balsamo in Sicily on 2 June 1743, Cagliostro’s early years were ones of poverty and petty crimes. Spending time at a Benedictine monastery, he proved himself adept at chemistry, though the thought of spending his life as monk failed to appeal to him. Still only a teenager, he left the monastery for Palermo and quickly began making a living by scamming the city’s naive citizens.
At age 21 he carried out his most daring scheme yet, convincing a goldsmith known as Marano that he knew the location of a hidden magical treasure, defended by spirits. Persuading Marano to depart with a substantial amount of his own gold, he provided him with the location of the hidden loot and the pair agreed to meet there. Upon his arrival however all Marano received was a beating by the thugs Balsamo had led in waiting. Perhaps afraid of Marano’s revenge, Balsamo fled Palermo to travel the continent.
For a few years he used the skills he had learnt to work as a physician in Malta, though other sources state that he instead toiled in the laboratory of a ‘deluded’ alchemist known as ‘Pinto.’ Finally, the young con-man found himself in Rome in 1768 where he was introduced to the 17-year-old Lorenza Seraphina and soon married her. The couple’s plans of cohabiting with Seraphina’s parents were quickly thwarted by Balsamo’s incorrigible manners and salacious ideas, which were at odds with the simple lives of his mother and father in law. Although financially it would have be
