CAGLIOSTRO, Count ALESSANDRO DI, a notorious impostor, who, in the latter part of the 18th c., traveled through Europe, and whose adventures afford considerable insight into the social characteristics of his times. He was born at Palermo, of poor parentage, June 2, 1743, and his true name was GIUSEPPE BALSAMO. Carlyle's picture of him when a boy—" brass-faced, vociferous, voracious"—is probably accurate, and already prophesies the bold and boisterous quack. When 13 years old, he ran away from the seminary of St. loch, and was afterwards sent to a monastery at Cartagiore. here he became assistant to the apothecary of the monastery, and picked up that scanty knowl edge of chemistry and medicine, which was afterwards found quite sufficient to impose upon so many respectable individuals. His conduct in the monastery was in keeping with his character, but finding it too contracted a sphere for the development of his ambitious genius, he left it, or was ejected, and for a time led "the loosest life" in Palermo. When 26 years old, he found it highly advisable to leave his native place. In company with a certain sage named Althotas, C. is vaguely represented as traveling first in some parts of Greece, Egypt, and Asia. At Rome, " his swart, squat figure first becomes authentically visible in the Corso and Campo Vaccino. He lodges at the sign of the Sun in the rotunda, and sells etchings there," very hard up at this time. In Venice, " the bull-necked forger" contrived to marry a very pretty woman named Lorenza Feliciana, who became a skillful accomplice in his schemes, and captivated many admirers, while C. picked their pockets. C. now made the tour of Italy with great suc cess as a physician, philosopher, alchemist, freemason, and necromancer! Next, he extended his victorious career through some parts of Germany, and especially carried on a lively business in his "elixir of immortal youth," which became very popular among the ladies. By virtue of this fine medicine, the count assured his patients that lie had already attained his 150th year, while his young and charming wife often talked affectionately of her son as " a commander in the Dutch navy." Through Courland, the count and his accomplice advanced triumphantly to the court of St. Petersburg, where he seems to have first made a failure; for the empress Catharine, aided by her Scotch physician, Rogerson, a keen-witted native of Annandale, who skeptically exam ined his famous " Spagiric food," and pronounced it "unfit for a dog," penetrated his real character, and made him the subject of a comedy. C. soon found it convenient to vanish. We next find him at Warsaw, discoursing on his pet Egyptian masonry, medi cal philosophy, and the ignorance of doctors, but he has the misfortune to be unmasked by a certain count M. This, however, had little effect on the stupid credulity of C.'s
dupes—belonging, it must be remembered, to the upper classes, who in that age, accord ing to Carlyle, were at once sensual, infidel, and superstitious—so that they persisted for a time in " distending his pockets with ducats and diamonds," which, however, his lavish dissipation soon scattered to the winds—for this prophet of a new physical and moral regeneration, and inventor of an "invaluable pentagon for abolishing original sin," was a desperate gambler. In 1780, lie went to Strasburg; and soon afterwards we find him in Paris, still founding lodges of " Egyptian freemasons," holding nocturnal meetings for calling "spirits from the vasty etc., and scandalously simulating the character and deeds of a philanthropist. • From Paris he came over to England, where he was cordially received by the followers of Swedenborg. On his return to Paris (178•), he became distinguished at court, was intimate with the weak and credulous cardinal Rohan, and played a prominent part in the affair of the diamond necklace (q.v.). This lodged him in the Bastille; but be cleared himself by a statement which gained credit, and, after being liberated, carried on his adventures once more in England, but feebly, the sunshine of success now obviously growing dim; in short, the count, in gloom and foreboding, disappeared from the island. But the market in Germany, too, was closed, a general distrust having been excited by the revelations of one of the count's dupes. Elsewhere, also, these began to fail him. " At Aix, in Savoy, there are baths, but no gudgeons In them ;" at Turin, lie is ordered off by the king; a similar fate befalls him at Roveredo; at Trent, we catch a glimpse of him, " painting a new hieroglyphic screen," which, however, attracts no more the gaping crowd; lower still, "he pawns diamond buckles;" finally, his wayworn wife—in whom, perhaps, because of her womanhood,, the enormous lie and quackery first breaks up—" longs to be in Rome by her mother's hearth, by her mothers grave, where so much as the shadow of refuge awaits her." In May, 1789, he entered the city; on the 29th December, the holy inquisition detected him founding "some feeble ghost of an Egyptian lodge." Ile was imprisoned, and con demned to death for freemasonry. . His sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life in the fortress San Leon, where, in spite of his "elixir of inunortal youth," he died, 1795, aged 52 years. His wife ended her days in a convent. His llfemoires Authen tiques, posthumously circulated in Paris, were not authentic.—See Carlyle's Miscellaneous Essays, art. Count Cagliostro.