Alessandro Cagliostro
Encyclopedia
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of the occultist Giuseppe Balsamo (also called Joseph Balsamo), an Italian adventurer.
Origin
The history of Cagliostro is shrouded in rumour, propaganda and mysticismMysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
. Some effort was expended to ascertain his true identity when he was arrested because of his possible participation in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace
Affair of the diamond necklace
The Affair of the Diamond Necklace was a mysterious incident in the 1780s at the court of Louis XVI of France involving his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The reputation of the Queen, which was already tarnished by gossip, was ruined by the implication that she had participated in a crime to defraud...
.
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
relates in his Italian Journey
Italian Journey
Italian Journey is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's report on his travels to Italy from 1786–7, published in 1816–7. The book is based on Goethe's diaries...
that the identification of Cagliostro with Giuseppe Balsamo was ascertained by a lawyer from Palermo who, on official request, had sent a dossier with copies of the pertaining documents to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Goethe met the lawyer in April 1787 and saw the documents and Balsamo's pedigree: Balsamo's great-grandfather Matteo Martello had two daughters, Maria who married Giuseppe Bracconeri, and Vincenza who married Giuseppe Cagliostro. Maria and Giuseppe Bracconeri had three children, Matteo, Antonia, and Felicitá who married Pietro Balsamo. The latter couple's son was Giuseppe Balsamo who was christened with the name of his greatuncle and eventually adopted his surname too. Pietro Balsamo was the son of a bookseller, Antonino Balsamo, who had declared bankruptcy before dying at age 44. Felicitá Balsamo was still alive in Palermo then, and Goethe visited her and her daughter.
Cagliostro himself stated during the trial following the Affair of the Diamond Necklace to have been born of Christians of noble birth, but abandoned as an orphan upon the island of Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. He claimed to have travelled as a child to Medina
Medina
Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...
, Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
, and Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, and upon return to Malta to have been initiated into the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights of Malta
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
, with whom he studied alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
, the Kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
and magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
, much of the typical mystical background asserted by many impostors and charlatans of those times. Goethe classifies this as "silly fairy-tales."
Early life
He was born to a poor family in Albergheria, which was once the old Jewish Quarter of PalermoPalermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Sicily. Despite his family's precarious financial situation, his grandfather and uncles made sure the young Giuseppe received a solid education: he was taught by a tutor and later became a novice in the Catholic Order of St. John of God
Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God
The Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God are a Roman Catholic order founded in 1572. They are also known commonly as the Fatebenefratelli, meaning "Do-Good Brothers" in Italian.-History:...
, from which he was eventually expelled.
During his period as a novice in the order, Balsamo learned chemistry as well as a series of spiritual rites. In 1764, when he was seventeen, he convinced Vincenzo Marano—a wealthy goldsmith—of the existence of a hidden treasure buried several hundred years prior at Mount Pellegrino. The young man's knowledge of the occult, Marano reasoned, would be valuable in preventing the duo from being attacked by magical creatures guarding the treasure. In preparation for the expedition to Mount Pellegrino, however, Balsamo requested seventy pieces of silver from Marano.
When the time came for the two to dig up the supposed treasure, Balsamo attacked Marano, who was left bleeding and wondering what had happened to the boy—in his mind, the beating he had been subjected to had been the work of djinns.
The next day, Marano paid a visit to Balsamo's house in via Perciata (since then renamed via Conte di Cagliostro), where he learned the young man had left the city. Balsamo (accompanied by two accomplices) had fled to the city of Messina
Messina, Italy
Messina is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, Italy and the capital of the province of Messina. It has a population of about 250,000 inhabitants in the city proper and about 650,000 in the province...
. By 1765–66, Balsamo found himself on the island of Malta, where he became an auxiliary (donato) for the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and a skilled pharmacist.
Travels
In early 1768 Balsamo left for Rome, where he managed to land himself a job as a secretary to Cardinal Orsini. The job proved boring to Balsamo and he soon started leading a double life, selling magical "Egyptian" amulets and engravings pasted on boards and painted over to look like paintings. Of the many Sicilian expatriates and ex-convicts he met during this period, one introduced him to a fourteen-year-old girl named Lorenza Seraphina Feliciani, whom he married.The couple moved in with Lorenza's parents and her brother in the vicolo delle Cripte, adjacent to the strada dei Pellegrini. Balsamo's coarse language and the way he incited Lorenza to display her body contrasted deeply with her parents' deep rooted religious beliefs. After a heated discussion, the young couple left.
At this point Balsamo befriended Agliata, a forger and swindler, who proposed to teach Balsamo how to forge letters, diplomas and a myriad of other official documents. In return, though, Agliata sought sexual intercourse with Balsamo's young wife, a request to which Balsamo acquiesced.
The couple traveled together to London, where Balsamo allegedly met the Comte de Saint-Germain. He traveled throughout Europe, especially to Courland
Courland
Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...
, Russia, Poland, Germany, and later France. His fame grew to the point that he was even recommended as a physician to Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
during a stay in Paris.
Affair of the diamond necklace
He was prosecuted in the affair of the diamond necklaceAffair of the diamond necklace
The Affair of the Diamond Necklace was a mysterious incident in the 1780s at the court of Louis XVI of France involving his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The reputation of the Queen, which was already tarnished by gossip, was ruined by the implication that she had participated in a crime to defraud...
which involved Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
and Prince Louis de Rohan, and was held in the Bastille
Bastille
The Bastille was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. The Bastille was built in response to the English threat to the city of...
for nine months but finally acquitted, when no evidence could be found connecting him to the affair. Nonetheless, he was asked to leave France, and departed for England. Here he was accused by Theveneau de Morande
Charles Theveneau de Morande
Charles Théveneau de Morande was a gutter journalist, blackmailer and French spy who lived in London in the 18th century.-Links and references:* Simon Burrows, from Johns Hopkins University Press....
of being Giuseppe Balsamo, which he denied in his published Open Letter to the English People, forcing a retraction and apology from Morande.
Betrayal, imprisonment, death and legacy
Cagliostro left England to visit Rome, where he met two people who proved to be spies of the InquisitionInquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
. Some accounts hold that his wife was the one who initially betrayed him to the Inquisition. On 27 December 1789, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Castel Sant'Angelo
Castel Sant'Angelo
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family...
. Soon afterwards he was sentenced to death on the charge of being a Freemason. The Pope changed his sentence, however, to life imprisonment in the Castel Sant'Angelo. After attempting to escape he was relocated to the Fortress of San Leo
Fortress of San Leo
The Fortress of San Leo is a castle on the border of the Marche and Romagna regions of central Italy, and famous as the death-place of Count Cagliostro. It contains a museum....
where he died not long after.
Portuguese author Camilo Castelo Branco
Camilo Castelo Branco
Camilo Ferreira Botelho Castelo-Branco,1st Viscount de Correia Botelho , was a prolific Portuguese writer of the 19th century, having authored over 260 books . His writing is, overall, considered original in that it combines the dramatic and sentimental spirit of Romanticism with a highly personal...
credits to Balsamo the creation of the Egyptian Rite of the Freemasons and intensive work in the diffusion of Freemasonry, by opening lodges all over Europe and by introducing the acceptance of women into the community.
Cagliostro was an extraordinary forger. Giacomo Casanova
Giacomo Casanova
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie , is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century...
, in his autobiography, narrated an encounter in which Cagliostro was able to forge a letter by Casanova, despite being unable to understand it.
Occult historian Lewis Spence
Lewis Spence
James Lewis Thomas Chalmbers Spence was a Scottish journalist, whose efforts as a compiler of Scottish folklore have proved more durable than his efforts as a poet and occult scholar....
comments in his entry on Cagliostro that the swindler put his finagled wealth to good use by starting and funding a chain of maternity hospitals and orphanages around the continent.
He carried an alchemistic manuscript The Most Holy Trinosophia
The Most Holy Trinosophia
La Très Sainte Trinosophie, The Most Holy Trinosophia, or The Most Holy Threefold Wisdom, is a French esoteric book, allegedly authored by Cagliostro or the Count of St Germain. Dated to the late 18th century, the 96-page book is divided into twelve sections representing the twelve zodiacal signs...
amongst others with him on his ill-fated journey to Rome and it is allegedly authored by him.
In popular culture
- He appears as a principal character in the 1794 opera Le congrès des roisLe congrès des roisLe congrès des rois was a 3-act French Revolutionary opera of the genre comédie mêlée d'ariettes with a libretto by De Maillot, a stage name used by Antoine-François Ève early in his career, and music by a collaborative of twelve composers...
, a collaborative work of 12 composers. - The French composer Victor Dourlen (1780–1864) composed the first act to Cagliostro, ou Les illuminés which premiered on 27 November 1810. The second and third act were composed by Anton ReichaAnton ReichaAnton Reicha was a Czech-born, later naturalized French composer. A contemporary and lifelong friend of Beethoven, Reicha is now best remembered for his substantial early contribution to the wind quintet literature and his role as a teacher – his pupils included Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz...
(1770–1836). - The Irish composer William Michael Rooke (1794–1847) wrote an unperformed work Cagliostro.
- Adolphe AdamAdolphe AdamAdolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle and Le corsaire , his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau , Le toréador and Si j'étais roi , and his Christmas...
wrote the opéra comiqueOpéra comiqueOpéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...
Cagliostro which premiered on 10 February 1844. - Albert LortzingAlbert LortzingGustav Albert Lortzing was a German composer, actor and singer. He is considered to be the main representative of the German Spieloper, a form similar to the French opéra comique, which grew out of the Singspiel.-Biography:Lortzing was born in Berlin to Johann Gottlieb Lortzing and Charlotte Sophie...
wrote in 1850 the libretto for a comic opera in three acts, Cagliostro, but did not compose any music for it. - Johann Strauß (Sohn)Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
wrote the operettaOperettaOperetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
Cagliostro in WienCagliostro in WienCagliostro in Wien is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II to a libretto by F. ZellF. Zell was the pen name of Camillo Walzel . and Richard Genée...
(Cagliostro in Vienna) in 1875. - The French composer Claude TerrasseClaude TerrasseClaude Terrasse , was a French composer of operettas.Claude Terrasse was considered by some as the true successor to Jacques Offenbach , one of the originators of the operetta form, a precursor of the modern musical comedy.Terrasse was born in L'Arbresle, Rhône...
(1867–1923) wrote Le Cagliostro which premiered in 1904. - The Polish composer Jan MaklakiewiczJan MaklakiewiczJan Adam Maklakiewicz was a Polish composer, conductor, critic, and music educator.-References:**...
(1899–1954) wrote the ballet in three scenes Cagliostro w Warszawie which premiered in 1938. - The Romanian composer Iancu DumitrescuIancu DumitrescuIancu Dumitrescu is a Romanian avant-garde composer.- Life and works :Dumitrescu received a master's degree in composition in Bucharest; Alfred Mendelssohn was among his teachers...
(1944–) wrote the 1975 work Le miroir de Cagliostro for choir, flute and percussion. - The opera Cagliostro by the Italian composer Ildebrando PizzettiIldebrando PizzettiIldebrando Pizzetti was an Italian composer of classical music.- Biography :Pizzetti was born in Parma in 1880. He was part of the "Generation of 1880" along with Ottorino Respighi and Gian Francesco Malipiero. They were among the first Italian composers in some time whose primary contributions...
(1880–1968) was performed on Italian radioRAIRAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
in 1952 and at La ScalaLa ScalaLa Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
on 24 January 1953. - The comic opera Graf CagliostroGraf CagliostroGraf Cagliostro is a comic opera in two acts by Mikael Tariverdiev, written in 1981 to a libretto by Nikolai Kemarsky, after the tale of the same name by Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy....
was wrtiten by Mikael TariverdievMikael TariverdievMikael Tariverdiev |Georgia]] - 24 June 1996, Sochi, Russia) was a prominent Soviet composer of Armenian descent. He headed the Composers' Guild of Soviet Cinematographers' Union from its inception.-Biography:...
in 1983. - Friedrich SchillerFriedrich SchillerJohann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
wrote an unfinished novel Der Geisterseher (The Ghost-Seer) between 1786 and 1789 about Cagliostro. - Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote a comedy based on Cagliostro's life, also in reference to the affair of the diamond necklaceAffair of the diamond necklaceThe Affair of the Diamond Necklace was a mysterious incident in the 1780s at the court of Louis XVI of France involving his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The reputation of the Queen, which was already tarnished by gossip, was ruined by the implication that she had participated in a crime to defraud...
, The Great Cophta (Der Groß-Coptha) which was published in 1791. - Alexandre Dumas, pèreAlexandre Dumas, pèreAlexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
used Cagliostro in several of his novels (especially in Joseph Balsamo). - Cagliostro is mentioned by Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich NietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
in section 194 of Beyond Good and EvilBeyond Good and EvilBeyond Good and Evil is a book by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first published in 1886.It takes up and expands on the ideas of his previous work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but approached from a more critical, polemical direction....
, first published in 1886: "One type wants to possess a people -- and all the higher arts of a Cagliostro and Catiline suit him to that purpose." - Aleksey Nikolayevich TolstoyAleksey Nikolayevich TolstoyAleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy , nicknamed the Comrade Count, was a Russian and Soviet writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels...
wrote the supernatural love story Count Cagliostro where the Count brings to life a long dead Russian Princess, materializing her from her portrait. The story was made into a 1984 Soviet TV movie Formula of Love. - The PhantomThe PhantomThe Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. A popular feature adapted into many media, including television, film and video games, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the fictional African country Bengalla.The Phantom is...
comic bookComic bookA comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
featured Cagliostro as a character in the story The Cagliostro Mystery from 1988, written by Norman Worker and drawn by Carlos Cruz. - In the DC ComicsDC ComicsDC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
universe, Cagliostro is described as an immortalImmortalityImmortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
(JLAJLA (comic book)JLA was a monthly comic book published by DC Comics from January 1997 to April 2006 featuring the Justice League.-Publication history:The low sales of the various Justice League spinoff books by the mid-1990s prompted DC to revamp the League as a single team on a single title...
Annual 2), a descendant of Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
as well as an ancestor of ZataraZataraGiovanni "John" Zatara is a fictional character in the DC Universe. He first appeared in Action Comics #1 , and was created by writer and artist Fred Guardineer. He is a stage magician who also practices actual magic...
and ZatannaZatannaZatanna Zatara is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson, Zatanna first appeared in Hawkman vol. 1 #4...
(Secret OriginsSecret OriginsSecret Origins is the title of three American comic book series published by DC Comics.The title began in 1961 and for one issue, all reprints. The title Secret Origins of Super Heroes went onto a second series, also reprints, which ran for seven issues from 1973-1974...
27). Also, the DC Comics supervillain known as the Fadeaway ManFadeaway ManThe Fadeaway Man is a DC Comics supervillain and a recurring foe to Hawkman. He first appeared in Detective Comics #479, and was created by Len Wein and Rich Buckler.-Fictional character biography:...
wields an item called the Cloak of Cagliostro, which allows him to teleport. - Cagliostro is a character in Robert Anton WilsonRobert Anton WilsonRobert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...
's The Historical Illuminatus ChroniclesThe Historical Illuminatus ChroniclesThe Historical Illuminatus Chronicles is a series of three novels by Robert Anton Wilson written after his highly successful The Illuminatus! Trilogy and his 1981 "Masks of the Illuminati"...
. - Cagliostro is frequently alluded to in Umberto EcoUmberto EcoUmberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
's novel Foucault's PendulumFoucault's PendulumFoucault's Pendulum is a novel by Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988; the translation into English by William Weaver appeared a year later....
. - Mikhail KuzminMikhail KuzminMikhail Alekseevich Kuzmin was a Russian poet, musician and novelist, a prominent contributor to the Silver Age of Russian Poetry.Born into a noble family in Yaroslavl, Kuzmin grew up in St. Petersburg and studied music at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov...
wrote a novella called The Marvelous Life of Giuseppe Balsamo, Count Cagliostro (1916). - Cagliostro is a character in PsychoshopPsychoshopPsychoshop is a science fiction novel begun by Alfred Bester, who died in 1987, and Roger Zelazny. It was published posthumously in 1998 by Random House under their Vintage imprint, following Zelazny's death in 1995....
, a novel by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny. - Josephine BalsamoJosephine BalsamoJoséphine Balsamo a.k.a. Countess Cagliosto, is a fictional character who is the best known antagonist of Arsène Lupin, the notorious gentleman burglar created by Maurice Leblanc.-History:...
, a descendent of Joseph Balsamo who calls herself Countess Cagliostro, appears in Maurice LeblancMaurice LeblancMaurice Marie Émile Leblanc was a French novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective Arsène Lupin, often described as a French counterpart to Arthur Conan Doyle's creation Sherlock Holmes.- Biography :Leblanc was born in...
's Arsene LupinArsène LupinArsène Lupin is a fictional character who appears in a book series of detective fiction / crime fiction novels written by French writer Maurice Leblanc, as well as a number of non-canonical sequels and numerous film, television such as Night Hood, stage play and comic book adaptations.- Overview :A...
novels. - Cagliostro makes several cameo appearances as a vampire in Kim NewmanKim NewmanKim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
's Anno Dracula novels. - The manga Rozen MaidenRozen Maidenis a manga series created by Peach-Pit. The story centers on Jun Sakurada, a young hikikomori boy that forms a bond with Shinku, a living doll of the "Rozen Maiden" series, who was created by the mysterious dollmaker Rozen hundreds of years ago...
reveals Count Cagliostro to be merely one of many different aliases adopted by the legendary dollmaker Rozen. He was shown to be in prison whittling wood. - The French film director Georges Méliès (1861–1938) directed the 1899 film Le Miroir de Cagliostro.
- Cagliostro has been played in film by
- Hans Stüwe (Cagliostro, 1929, silent movie directed by Richard OswaldRichard OswaldRichard Oswald was an Austrian director, producer, and screenwriter.Richard Oswald, born in Vienna as Richard W. Ornstein, began his career as an actor on the Viennese stage. He made his film directorial debut at age 34 with Das Eiserne Kreuz...
) - Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
(Black MagicBlack Magic (1949 film)Black Magic is a 1949 film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas, père's novel. It was directed by the Russian-born Gregory Ratoff and stars Orson Welles in the lead role as Joseph Balsamo and Nancy Guild as Lorenza/Marie Antoinette...
, 1949) - Howard VernonHoward VernonHoward Vernon was a Swiss actor.Vernon was born Mario Lippert to a Swiss father and an American mother and was fluent in German, English, and French...
(Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, 1972) - Nodar MgaloblishviliNodar MgaloblishviliNodar Alexandrovich Mgaloblishvili is a Soviet, Russian and Georgian theatrical actor.Best known for his portrayal of Count Cagliostro in Formula of Love....
(Formula of Love, 1984 (TV)) - Nicol WilliamsonNicol WilliamsonNicol Williamson is a Scottish-born English actor who was described by English playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando".-Early life:...
(SpawnSpawn (film)Spawn is a 1997 American superhero film loosely based on the comic book of the same name, by Todd McFarlane and published by Image Comics. Directed and co-written by Mark A.Z. Dippé , the film stars Michael Jai White in the leading role...
, 1997) - Christopher WalkenChristopher WalkenChristopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
(The Affair of the NecklaceThe Affair of the NecklaceThe Affair of the Necklace is a 2001 American historical drama film directed by Charles Shyer. The screenplay by John Sweet is based on what became known as the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, an incident that helped fuel the French populace's disillusionment with the monarchy and, among other...
, 2001)
- Hans Stüwe (Cagliostro, 1929, silent movie directed by Richard Oswald
- In the 1943 German epic Münchhausen, Cagliostro appears as a powerful, morally ambiguous magician, portrayed by Ferdinand MarianFerdinand MarianFerdinand Marian was an Austrian theatre and film actor, best known for playing the leading character of Joseph Süß Oppenheimer in the Nazi propaganda film Jud Süß.-Life and career:...
. - Jean MaraisJean Marais-Biography:A native of Cherbourg, France, Marais starred in several movies directed by Jean Cocteau, for a time his lover, most famously Beauty and the Beast and Orphée ....
played Count Cagliostro in the 1978 film Cagliostro in Wien. - The second Lupin IIILupin III, also known as Lupin the 3rd, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazuhiko Kato under the pen name of Monkey Punch. The story follows the adventures of a gang of thieves led by Arsène Lupin III, the grandson of Arsène Lupin, the gentleman thief of Maurice Leblanc's series of...
movie goes by the title of The Castle of CagliostroThe Castle of Cagliostrois a 1979 Japanese animated film co-written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is one of the films featuring master thief Arsène Lupin III.The second animated Lupin III movie and arguably the best known, Castle of Cagliostro was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who also co-directed the first...
, drawing on Maurice LeblancMaurice LeblancMaurice Marie Émile Leblanc was a French novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective Arsène Lupin, often described as a French counterpart to Arthur Conan Doyle's creation Sherlock Holmes.- Biography :Leblanc was born in...
's Arsene LupinArsène LupinArsène Lupin is a fictional character who appears in a book series of detective fiction / crime fiction novels written by French writer Maurice Leblanc, as well as a number of non-canonical sequels and numerous film, television such as Night Hood, stage play and comic book adaptations.- Overview :A...
novels. Cagliostro appears as the main antagonist of the film, a ruler of a fictional country bearing the same name who influences the world's economy through counterfeiting. - The Mummy (1932 film), starring Boris Karloff, was adapted from an original story treatment by Nina Wilox Putnam, titled "Cagliostro" for Karloff to star in. Based of the concept of Allessandro Caliostro, set in San Francisco, the story was about a 3000-year old magician who survives by injecting nitrates.
Further reading
- W. R. H Trowbridge: Cagliostro: The Splendour and Misery of a Master of Magic (Chapman & Hall, London 1910)
- Alexander Lernet-HoleniaAlexander Lernet-HoleniaAlexander Lernet-Holenia was an Austrian poet, novelist, dramaturgist and writer of screenplays and historical studies who produced a heterogeneous literary opus that included poesy, psychological novels describing the intrusion of otherworldly or unreal experiences into reality, and recreational...
: Das Halsband der Königin (Paul Zsolnay VerlagPaul Zsolnay Verlag-Overview:The company was created in 1923 by Paul Zsolnay. It was the most successful publishing company during the interregnum period, publishing authors such as John Galsworthy, H.G. Wells, Pearl S. Buck, A.J...
, Hamburg/Vienna, 1962, historical study on the Affair of the diamond necklace, including a description of Cagliostro's background) - Iain McCalmanIain McCalmanIain McCalman is an Australian historian, and research professor at the University of Sydney. He is a specialist in eighteenth-century and early-nineteenth British and European history and has a particular interest in popular culture and low life...
: The Seven Ordeals of Count Cagliostro, 2004: Flamingo (Australia) and Random House (UK); published in the US as The Last Alchemist, HarperCollins. - Thomas CarlyleThomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
: Count Cagliostro, Fraser's Magazine (July, Aug. 1833). - Giovanni Barberi, The life of Joseph Balsamo commonly called Count Cagliostro, London, 1791.
- Faulks, Philippa and Cooper, Robert L.D., The Masonic Magician; The Life and Death of Count Cagliostro and his Egyptian Rite, London, Watkins, 2008.
- Camilo Castelo Branco: "Compêndio da Vida e Feitos de José Bálsamo Chamado Conde de Cagliostro ou O Judeu Errante", excerpts from the process against him in Rome, on 1790. Translated from the Italian by the author. Livraria Chardron, de Lelo & Irmão, editores, R. das Carmelitas, 144, Porto, Portugal. Date unknown.
External links
- Biography from TheMystica.com, identifying him with Giuseppe Balsamo.
- Biography from DJMcAdam.com, an account that just denies this hypothesis without giving a reason.
- Biography from The Psychic Investigator.
- The Great Cagliostro: Master Illusionist and King of Liars