Marano made his acquaintance and confided to him that he had spent a great deal of money upon quack alchemists, but he was convinced that by meeting him he had at last chanced upon a real master of magic. He became attracted to young Balsamo, who at the age of seventeen posed as being deeply versed in occultism and had been seen evoking spirits. In Palermo resided a goldsmith named Marano, a superstitious man who believed devoutly in the efficacy of magic. Tiring of the life at last, he succeeded in escaping from the convent, and went to Palermo. Even then his desire was more to discover surprising and astonishing chemical combinations than to gain more useful knowledge. The father superior quickly discovered his natural aptitude, and Balsamo became the assistant of an apothecary attached to the convent, from whom he learned the principles of chemistry and medicine. He was sent next to a Benedictine convent, where he was under the care of a father superior. From infancy, young Joseph Balsa-mo showed an unconventional individualism, and when placed in a religious seminary at Palermo he more than once ran away from it usually found in undesirable company. It is therefore necessary to apply a critical eye when dealing with the myriad contradictions.Ĭagliostro's father, whose name is alleged to have been Peter Balsamo, died young. The problem of assembling a biographical sketch of Cagliostro is difficult due to the significant amount of legendary material that surrounds him.
Trowbridge (1918), have argued that if Cagliostro was not a man of unimpeachable honor, he was by no means the quack and scoundrel so many have made him out to be.įollowing is an outline of Cagliostro's life as known before Trowbridge's examination, after which the details of his career are explored in view of what may be termed as Trowbridge's "discoveries." Cagliostro's Mysterious Life This viewpoint was greatly aided by the savage attack perpetrated on his memory by Thomas Carlyle, who alluded to him as "the Prince of Quacks." Others, such as W. It was the fashion during the latter half of the nineteenth century to regard Cagliostro as a charlatan and fraud.
Considered by some to be one of the greatest occult figures of all time.
0 kommentar(er)
