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Count Alessandro di Cagliostro | |
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_LACMA_62.18_(1_of_2).jpg) Bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon, c. 1786 | |
| Born | Giuseppe Balsamo June 2, 1743 |
| Died | August 26, 1795 (aged 52) |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Other names | Joseph Balsamo |
| Occupation(s) | Occultist, adventurer, magician |
Giuseppe Balsamo (Italian: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈbalsamo]; 2 June 1743 – 26 August 1795), known by the alias Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (US: /kɑːlˈjɔːstroʊ, kæl-/ ka(h)l-YAW-stroh,[1][2] Italian: [alesˈsandro kaʎˈʎɔstro]), was an Italian occultist.
Cagliostro was an Italian adventurer and self-styled magician. He became a glamorous figure associated with the royal courts of Europe where he pursued various occult arts, including psychic healing, alchemy, and scrying. His reputation lingered for many decades after his death but continued to deteriorate, as he came to be regarded as a charlatan and impostor, this view fortified by the savage attack of Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) in 1833, who pronounced him the "Quack of Quacks". Later works—such as that of W. R. H. Trowbridge (1866–1938) in his Cagliostro: the Splendour and Misery of a Master of Magic (1910), attempted a rehabilitation.
- ^ "Cagliostro". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ^ "Cagliostro". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 19 February 2019.