“This extraordinary man, a born deceiver, without of any kind of embarrassment, for granted, he said, that he is 300 years old, that he has a panacea for all diseases, that nature has no secrets from him that he knows how to melt diamonds … “So Casanova spoke of Count Saint-Germain, teacher of Count Cagliostro. These the same words can be attributed to the student. 
Photos from open sources Mysteries have always attracted people. Therein including the secrets of history. Although, logically, history doesn’t have there may be secrets (unless this is a pseudo-story), but secrets do not there can be stories: if you tell it, the secret will cease to be immediately secret and will turn into a fact, a point on the line of sequence events. Count Cagliostro (aka Giuseppe Balsamo, aka Count Phoenix, aka Marquis de Anne, aka Marquis de Pellegrini, aka Tiscio, aka Melina, aka Belmonte) left us instead of a point on lines are just a lot of clumsy commas. Some said he was a son Portuguese Jew from Brazil, others believed that he was a son Neapolitan hairdresser, others considered illegitimate the offspring of Louis XV, the fourth claimed that his parents – a couple of devout Catholics who traded cloth in Palermo … One story states that the future “Count Cagliostro” (who borrowed his sonorous surname and in no way due to him count title untimely deceased aunt) was kicked out of school for theft as a child, virtually making it impossible to get an education. And after unhappy parents put the negligent son in re-education the monastery, having convicted him of fraud, they soon drove him away and from there. According to another, more mysterious, version (voiced notorious E.P. Blavatsky), “his universities” count received from the “great hermetic sage” Altots first in Rhodes, and then in Malta, was a highly honest man and, as an outstanding occultist, possessed of amazing magical secrets. No one really knew and does not know what kind of person he was. Not even the Inquisitors were identified, who tortured him 43 times during four years … when, after a long inquiry, the church finally delivered his death sentence (last minute burning at the stake was replaced by life imprisonment), against Cagliostro were two exhaustively proven but mutually exclusive accusations: the first is that he is a warlock, that is, a sorcerer, and the second – that he is a fraud, that is, he only betrayed himself, with selfish goals, for the sorcerer, but he himself was not at all … Cagliostro managed to confuse not only the bloodthirsty inquisitors, but also less biased researchers of his biography, historians. There are two major versions. In essence, they repeat the sentence of the Holy Inquisition: either the count was one of a galaxy of prominent people eighteenth century, a bold explorer of nature, a talented chemist and doctor, an advanced adept of secret doctrines the east and the miracle worker, the “Great Copt” of Masons; either this upstart he was nothing at all and spent his whole life tricking gullible for the purpose of profit at home and abroad. Curious as in the case sentencing him, and during the life of the count he was often considered and both at the same time. Cagliostro was rightfully one of the most revered and hated people of his time. He conquered London Paris, Rome: achieved there unheard of luxury and honors, usually rendered only to the princes of blood, earned the respect of the powers that be this and outstanding thinkers (among his faithful admirers were Schiller and Goethe) finally enjoyed the true worship of the crowd – just to be debunked every time and expelled (and always without good reason). Related story crowned the extraordinary adventures of the Italian in Russia, with that the difference is that here he was met without much admiration and adoration, but escorted without burning hatred. Despite thorough self-promotion (Cagliostro said that it was in Russia that he would open his true name and appear in all greatness), in the city of Peter the Italian was accepted without special honors: a kind of inglorious and not understood “a prophet in his own country.” The history of this momentous visit detailed and fascinating, although perhaps not always historically reliably, was described by the symbolist poet Mikhail Kuzmin in three-volume novel “The Wonderful Life of Joseph Balsamo, Count of Cagliostro” (1919) and inspired Alexey Tolstoy for mystical and touching the story “Count Cagliostro” (1921). “Earl Phoenix,” as introduced Cagliostro in Russia, managed to entertain the Orthodox people a lot, creating “a little miracle in a cold country”, bringing to life different events that combined his true and fictional being, truth and fiction that showed it from different angles: a selfless healer and unscrupulous adventurer, generous philanthropist and mercantile businessman. Contemporaries found it difficult to distinguish one from the other, and now you really can’t figure it out. Entering Russia on fake documents like “Mr. Count Cagliostro, Gishpan colonel”, the enterprising Italian at first did not raise any suspicions: mainly thanks to advice on Freemasonry. By arrival Cagliostro rented a spacious apartment on the Palace embankment in the general’s house. In addition to personal chambers, he has there a room for medical practice and a room for spiritualistic sessions. A rich clientele among the capital’s nobility Cagliostro acquired almost immediately after arrival, cured of hoarseness his fellow countryman, Italian tenor Giovanni Locatelli. Soon Count Phoenix became famous for his miraculous healings on all of St. Petersburg. He treated not only the favorite of Catherine G.A. Potemkin, influential freemason I.P. Elagin and the rich Baron A.S. Stroganov, but also commoners: lackeys, cooks, coachmen, postal workers and maids. He didn’t take money from the poor, and sometimes even sponsored the needy; from the rich he took without hesitation crazy amounts, giving rise to many to argue that his charity, in modern terms, is pure PR. However, the famous Soviet historian Valentin Pikul anyway then called him “friend of the poor.” Count’s most sensational miracle Phoenix in Russia was the deliverance of assessor Ivan Islenev from severe forms of cancer, again in a “miraculous” way. Healing really was instant and complete, but entailed a blissful light dementia cured: recovered, Islenev began to drink and stagger through the streets, endlessly glorifying Cagliostro and plunging all this into the horror of his respectable wife. However, it’s hard to be surprised at this Islenev’s completely natural behavior! The most curious thing Cagliostro in Russia was the case of the possessed Vasily Zhelugin, whose elderly parents were forced to chain, so how he beat them, calling them “slaves” and saying that he was allegedly “God of hosts.” They say that in this case, Phoenix did not apply no black magic, but drove Zhelugin to ride a boat and in the middle of the Neva, unexpectedly threw the possessed into cold water (case it was in winter). Caliostro’s calculation turned out to be correct: after such a “shock therapy “the patient fully came to his senses, abandoned to remember God Of hosts, he recognized his parents and even managed to immediately steal from the magician a golden snuffbox! And the earliest patron of Count Phoenix in Russia was His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin, favorite of Catherine II. Cagliostro offered Potemkin, who was one of the richest people in Europe, triple its gold reserves if the prince agrees to pay him a third of the profit: that is, by of such an arrangement, Potemkin received twice as much gold as that of he was. Potemkin, whether from commercial gain, or from pure curiosity agreed. And the most interesting thing is that after dubious magic manipulation Cagliostro gold really became exactly three times more! The Italian received his fee, and Potemkin involuntarily imbued with confidence in him and settled down to him, and with him partly Catherine, and the whole yard. “Mother Empress” herself was a man the mundane and wonderful services of the “gishpan” magician neglected, but she recommended it to her subjects, as she put it, “for benefits in every way. “Cagliostro (continuing his charity medical practice!), literally bathed in glory and money thanks to fees for various “magic services”, spiritualistic sessions and the successful sale of the “elixir of youth”, made up of ordinary medicinal herbs … however happiness the touring prophet did not last long. Opened soon scandal: Potemkin, a powerful and decisive man, started an intrigue with the wife of Cagliostro Lorenza Feliciana (who was the first in Rome beauty), and openly appeared with her in the light and almost officially made his mistress. Learning about this behavior favorite, Catherine urchil, commanded Cagliostro with his wife to get out of Russia “it is possible perhaps hastily” and even composed a play comic content “Deceiver”, designed to ridicule and defame Count (deduced in it under the name of Kalyflakzherstona). Soon after this was followed by even worse. Prince G.P. Gagarin is deadly sick one-year-old son Paul, and all the best doctors of the Northern capital recognized that his situation is completely hopeless. Count there was only one hope – the sorcerer Cagliostro. Having examined the baby, the magician admitted that the matter is bad, but nevertheless undertook to treat the child with provided that the parents give him during the treatment to the Italian house and they won’t be able to see for some time. What was to be done? Parents gave consent. Two weeks later (filled for the Gagarins, as says, languid expectation) the count said that the child recovered, and returned the boy. Immediately rumors spread that Cagliostro just replaced the child by buying a similar boy from the poor peasants for two thousand rubles, and the real Pavlush Gagarin allegedly healed to death; they even said that the child’s corpse burned down during a time of unsuccessful magical ritual of revitalization. But be that as it may It was, the count of his son himself acknowledged and gave joy to Cagliostro a thousand gold imperials (almost 12 kg of pure gold!). And Pavel Gagarin, whoever he is in reality, has grown healthy and strong, became an officer, fought and retired general … However, for the medical career of Cagliostro in St. Petersburg this case, which received such negative publicity, became fatal. The Petersburg Aesculapians of the “old schools “, and the life doctor was especially successful in this field Empress Rogerson. He tried by hook or by crook to prove that his competitor Cagliostro is a useless physician and in general charlatan. At some point, Cagliostro even suggested that he decide a gentlemanly case, a kind of “medical duel”: they exchange pills with poison, and one who knows how to make the antidote will survive and perhaps become famous. Life Medic refused a duel. After the case of an allegedly healed baby the “legend” of the “Gishpan colonel” was tested. The Italian envoy in St. Petersburg checked the military lists, in whose surname Cagliostro, of course, did not appear. In April In 1780, the fallen sorcerer was glorified as an impostor and put on a criminal wanted list … In the end, he and him to a charming wife, followed on the heels by royal agents, managed to escape from Russia with impunity (not otherwise Masonic again connections helped). These events inspired Alexei Tolstoy on the story “Count Cagliostro”, successfully transformed in Soviet times Mark Zakharov and Grigory Gorin in the television movie Formula of Love. And so it ended – before the deadline – the visit of the unrecognized prophet to cold Russia. The mystery of Cagliostro – whether an outstanding adept of secret sciences, or no less an outstanding fraudster – so no one was disclosed. It is believed that the magician died in captivity, in the castle fortress San Leo on a steep rock, but when it was subsequently unearthed the grave, no remains were found there. Some fans of it doubtful talents even consider that freed thanks his magic Cagliostro secretly returned to Russia (or America), where lived incognito until the end of his days, and maybe still lives: because he, they say, owned the elixir of immortality. P.S. With us you still have the opportunity to finally reveal the secret of Cagliostro and check “by little tooth” his magical art. The fact is that in the Count revealed to Potemkin the Masonic secret: they say, in the cellars of the Rotunda pavilion of the Elaginsky Palace in St. Petersburg buried sarcophagus of Homer. Investigating this secret, secretary Elagina was damaged by reason. However, sane researchers of the present there is every chance to put an end to this mysterious story. Alexey Sokolovsky
Time Life Russia
