Alessandro di Cagliostro

(b. June 2, 1743, Palermo, Sicily, Italy – d. Aug. 26, 1795, Forte di San Leo, Romagna, Italy )

Gender: M

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (1743-1795) was the alias of the occultist Giuseppe Balsamo. He was an Italian adventurer and self-styled magician, and toured the royal courts of Europe promoting his skills in alchemy and psychic healing. He was highly successful for a time, but came to be regarded as a charlatan and impostor. He was involved in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, in which the Cardinal Louis de Rohan was persuaded to buy a necklace in the belief that he was acting on behalf of Queen Marie Antoinette. Cagliostro was imprisoned in the Bastille for nine months but ultimately acquitted for lack of evidence. He was banished from France and visited England and then Rome, where he was arrested on the orders of the Inquisition and sentenced to death on the charge of being a freemason. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he died shortly after attempting to escape from the Castel Sant’Angelo.

Also known as:

Alessandro di Cagliostro

Please note that all dates and location information are provisional, initially taken from the library and archive catalogues. As our section editors continue to work through the material we will update our database and the changes will be reflected across the edition.

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