CAGLIOSTRO
Count Cagliostro.
CAGLIOSTRO
THE SPLENDOUR AND MISERY
OF A MASTER OF MAGIC
BY
W. R. H. TROWBRIDGE
AUTHOR OF
“SEVEN SPLENDID SINNERS,” “A BEAU SABREUR,” ETC.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & CO.
31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
1910
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
PREFACE
Though much has been written about Cagliostro, most of it is confined to articles in encyclopedias and magazines, or to descriptive paragraphs in works dealing with magic, freemasonry and the period in which he lived.[1] This material may be described as a footnote which has been raised to the dignity of a page of history. It is based on contemporary records inspired by envy, hatred and contempt in an age notoriously passionate, revengeful and unscrupulous. It is, moreover, extremely superficial, being merely a repetition of information obtained second-hand by compilers apparently too ignorant or too lazy to make their own investigations. Even M. Funck-Brentano, whose brilliant historical monographs have earned him a deservedly high reputation, is not to be relied upon. In the sequel[2] to his entertaining account of the affair of the Diamond Necklace, the brief chapter he devotes to Cagliostro contains so many inaccuracies as to suggest that, like the majority of his predecessors, he was content to impart his information without previously taking the trouble to examine the sources from which it was derived.
It has been said that every book on Cagliostro must be a book against him. With this opinion I totally disagree. In choosing Cagliostro as the subject of an historical memoir I was guided at first, I admit, by the belief that he was the arch-impostor he is popularly supposed to be. With his mystery, magic, and highly sensational career he seemed just the sort of picturesque personality I was in search of. The moment, however, I began to make my researches I was astonished to find how little foundation there was in point of fact for the popular conception. The deeper I went into the subject—how deep this has been the reader may gather from the Bibliography, which contains but a portion of the material I have sifted—the more convinced I became of the fallacy of this conception. Under such circumstances there seemed but two alternatives open to me: either to abandon the subject altogether as unsuited for the purpose I had in view, or to follow the line of least resistance and, dishonestly adhering to the old method, which from custom had almost become de rigueur, help to perpetuate an impression I believed to be unfounded and unjust.
On reflection I have adopted neither course. Irritation caused by the ignorance and carelessness of the so-called “authorities” awoke a fresh and unexpected interest in their victim; and I decided to stick to the subject I had chosen and treat it for the first time honestly. As Baron de Gleichen says in his Souvenirs, “Enough ill has been said of Cagliostro. I intend to speak well of him, because I think this is always preferable providing one can, and at least I shall not bore the reader by repeating what he has already heard.”
Such a statement made in connection with such a character as Cagliostro is popularly supposed to be will, no doubt, expose me to the charge of having “whitewashed” him. This, however, I emphatically deny. “Whitewashing,” as I understand this term, is a plausible attempt to portray base or detestable characters as worthy of esteem by palliating their vices and attributing noble motives to their crimes. This manner of treating historical figures is certainly not one of which I can be accused, as those who may have read previous biographical books of mine will admit. Whatever sympathy for Cagliostro my researches may have evoked it has always been exceeded by contempt of those who, combining an unreasoning prejudice with a slovenly system of compilation, have repeated the old charges against him with parrot-like stupidity. The object of this book is not so much an attempt to vindicate Cagliostro as to correct and revise, if possible, what I believe to be a false judgment of history.
W. R. H. Trowbridge
London, August 1910.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The books and documents relating to Cagliostro are very numerous. Their value, however, is so questionable that in making a critical choice it is extremely difficult to avoid including many that are worthless.
In the French Archives:
A dossier entitled Documents à l’aide desquels la police de Paris a cherché à établir, lors du procès du Collier, que Cagliostro n’était autre qu’un aventurier nommé Joseph Balsamo, qui avait déjà séjourné à Paris en 1772:
Lettre adressée par un anonyme au commissaire Fontaine, remise de Palerme, le 2 Nov., 1786.
Plainte adressée à M. de Sartine par J. Balsamo contre sa femme.
Ordre de M. de Sartine au commissaire Fontaine de dresser procès-verbal de la capture de la dame Balsamo, 23 Janvier, 1773.
Procès-verbal de capture de la dame Balsamo, 1 Fevrier, 1773.
Interrogatoire de la dame Balsamo, 20 Fevrier, 1773.
Rapport au Ministre.
The above have also been printed in full in Emile Campardon’s Marie Antoinette et le Procès du Collier.
The following documents are unprinted:
Procès-verbal de capture des sieur et dame Cagliostro.
Procès-verbal de perquisition fait par le commissaire Chesnon le 23 Août, 1785, chez le sieur Cagliostro.
Interrogatoire de Cagliostro le 30 Janvier, 1786.
Minute des confrontations des témoins de Cagliostro.
Procès-verbal de la remise faite à Cagliostro, lors de sa mise en liberté, des effets saisis à son domicile le jour de sa mise en êtat d’arrestation.
Journal du libraire Hardy.
Copie d’une lettre écrite de Londres par un officier français remise á Paris le 19 Juillet 1786.
Lettre au peuple français.
Published Works:
Vie de Joseph Balsamo, connu sous le nom de Comte Cagliostro; extraite de la procédure instruite contre lui à Rome, en 1790, traduite d’après l’original italien, imprimé à la Chambre Apostolique.
Courier de l’Europe, gazette anglo-française, September, October, November, 1786; also Gazette de Hollande, Gazette d’Utrecht, Gazette de Leyde, Gazette de Florence, Courier du Bas-Rhin, Journal de Berlin, Public Advertizer, Feuille Villageoise, and Moniteur Universel.
Cagliostro démasqué à Varsovie en 1780.
Nachricht von des berüchtigten Cagliostro aufenthalte in Mitau, im jahre 1779 (Countess Elisa von der Recke).
Lettres sur la Suisse en 1781 (J. B. de Laborde).
Geschichten, geheime und räthselhafte Menschen (F. Bulau); or the French translation by William Duckett Personnages Énigmatiques.
Souvenirs de Baron de Gleichen.
Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy.
Correspondance littéraire (Grimm).
Mémoires récréatifs, scientifiques, et anecdotiques du physicien—aéronaute E. G. Roberson.
Mémoires authentiques de Comte Cagliostro (spurious, by the Marquis de Luchet).
Mémoires de Brissot, Abbé Georgel, Baronne d’Oberkirch, Madame du Hausset, Grosley, Bachaumont, Métra, Casanova, Comte Beugnot, and Baron de Besenval.
Réflexions de P. J. J. N. Motus.
Cagliostro: La Franc-Maçonnerie et l’Occultisme au XVIIIᵉ siècle (Henri d’Alméras).
Orthodoxie Maçonnique (Ragon).
La Franc-Maçonne, ou Révélations des Mystères des Francs-Maçons.
Annales de l’origine du Grand Orient en France.
Acta Latomorum (Thory).
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire du Jacobinisme (Abbé Barruel).
Histoire du Merveilleux (Figuier).
Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie (Clavel).
Histoire philosophique de la Maçonnerie (Kauffmann et Cherpin).
Les Sectes et les sociétés secrètes (Comte Le Couteulx de Canteleu).
Schlosser’s History of the Eighteenth Century.
Histoire de la Révolution Française: Les Révolutionnaires Mystiques (Louis Blanc).
Histoire de France: XVIIIᵉ siècle (Henri Martin).
Histoire de France: L’Affaire du Collier (Michelet).
Recueil de toutes les pièces (31) qui out paru dans l’affaire de M. le Cardinal de Rohan.
Marie Antoinette et le Procès du Collier (Emile Campardon).
L’Affaire du Collier (Funck-Brentano).
The Diamond Necklace (Henry Vizetelly).
Marie Antoinette et le Procès du Collier (Chaix d’Est-Ange).
La Dernière Pièce du fameux Collier.
Mémoire du Sieur Sacchi.
Lettre de Labarthe à l’archéologue Seguier.
Lettre d’un Garde du Roi (Manuel).
Lettres du Comte de Mirabeau à ... sur Cagliostro et Lavater.
Requête au Parlement par le Comte de Cagliostro.
Mémoire pour le Comte de Cagliostro, demandeur, contre M. Chesnon le fils et le sieur de Launay.
Lettre au Peuple Anglais par le Comte de Cagliostro.
Theveneau de Morande (Paul Robiquet).
Liber Memorialis de Caleostro dum esset Roboretti.
Alessandro di Cagliostro. Impostor or Martyr? (Charles Sotheran).
Count Cagliostro (Critical and Miscellaneous Essays; Carlyle).
Vieux papiers, vieilles maisons (G. Lenôtre).
Italiänische Reise (Goethe).
CONTENTS
| PART I | ||
| Chap. | Page | |
| [I] | The Power of Prejudice | 1 |
| [II] | Giuseppe Balsamo | 19 |
| PART II | ||
| [I] | Cagliostro in London | 49 |
| [II] | Eighteenth Century Occultism | 74 |
| [III] | Masked and Unmasked | 111 |
| [IV] | The Conquest of the Cardinal | 155 |
| [V] | Cagliostro in Paris | 180 |
| [VI] | The Diamond Necklace Affair | 214 |
| [VII] | Cagliostro Returns to London | 253 |
| [VIII] | “Nature’s Unfortunate Child” | 283 |
| [Index] | 309 |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| To face page | |
| Count Cagliostro | [Frontispiece] |
| Cardinal de Rohan | [8] |
| Countess Cagliostro | [14] |
| Mesmer | [76] |
| Emmanuel Swedenborg | [90] |
| Adam Weishaupt | [104] |
| Countess Elisa von der Recke | [128] |
| Lavater | [170] |
| Saverne | [182] |
| Houdon’s Bust of Cagliostro | [194] |
| Countess de Lamotte | [214] |
| Marie Antoinette | [224] |
| Lord George Gordon | [258] |
| Theveneau de Morande | [266] |
| A Masonic Anecdote | [277] |
| Philip James de Loutherbourg | [280] |
| San Leo | [304] |
CAGLIOSTRO
PART I