Cagliostro, Alessandro, Conte di definition of Cagliostro, Alessandro, Conte di in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Cagliostro, Alessandro, Conte di (älĕs-sän`drō kōn`tā dē kälyō`strō), 1743–95, Italian adventurer, magician, and alchemist, whose real name was Giuseppe Balsamo. After early misadventures in Italy he traveled in Greece, Arabia, Persia, and Egypt. While in Italy, he married Lorenza Feliciani, who became his assistant on his trips to the cities of Europe, where he posed as a physician, alchemist, mesmerist, necromancer, and Freemason. He claimed the secret of the philosopher's stone and of miraculous philters and potions. As the Grand Copt of the order of Egyptian Masonry he organized many lodges. His reputation was amazing, particularly at the court of French king Louis XVI. Implicated in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace Diamond Necklace, Affair of the, scandal that took place at the court of King Louis XVI of France just before the French Revolution. An adventuress who called herself the comtesse de La Motte duped Cardinal de Rohan , the grand almoner, who was out of favor with
..... Click the link for more information. , he was imprisoned, acquitted, and banished. Cagliostro returned to Rome in 1789, where the Inquisition charged him with heresy and sorcery. Imprisoned for life, he died in a dungeon. Cagliostro has fascinated later generations as well as his contemporaries, and he appears often in literary works.

Bibliography

See biographies by F. King (1929), W. R. H. Trowbridge (new ed. 1961), F. R. Dumas (tr. 1968), R. Gervaso (tr. 1974), R. Silva (1975), T. Freller (1997), and I. McCalman (2003); H. C. Schnur, Mystic Rebels (1949).