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Please do not assume that a book's appearance in 'The Builder' library means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. The Webmaster , Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/cagliostrosplendOOtrowuoft tAGLI0STg4' THE SPLENDOUR AND Af/^i?^i^' '3 OF A MASTER OF MAGIC^f^''^'*'^^'^ ,, By w. R. h/trowbridge' AUTHOR OF SEVEN SPLENDID SINNERS," "A BEAU SABREUR," ETC. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS ^^.^.^^ T'^'^^'"^'^;^^:. in^CfUs, LONDON CHAPMAN AND HALL, Ltd. 1910 Richard Clay & Soks, Limited, bread street hill, b.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.^ 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 ^ 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 pre- viously taking the trouble to examine the sources from which it was derived. It has been said that every book on Cagliostro ^ Prior to the present volume no complete biography of Cagliostro has been published in English. 2 La Mort de la Reine : Les suites de Vaffaire du collier. Translated into English under the title of Cagliostro and Company. V Preface 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 1 was astonished to find how little foundation there was in point oi 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 honesdy. 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." vi Preface 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. vu '., _;,., : BIBLIOGRAPHY The books and documents relating to Cagliostro are very numerous. Their value, however, is so question- able 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 a Vaide desquels la police de Paris a cherche a etablir^ lors du proch du Collier^ que Cagliostro n'etait autre qu'un aventurier nomme Joseph Balsamo^ qui avail deja sejourne a Paris en i'J'/2 Lettre adressee par un anonyme au commissaire Fontaine, remise de Palerme, le 2 Nov., 1786. Plainte adressee a M. de Sartine par J. Balsamo centre sa femme. Ordre de M. de Sartine au commissaire Fontaine de dresser procbs-verbal de la capture de la dame Balsamo, 23 Janvier, 1773. Proces-verbal de capture de la dame Balsamo, i 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 Proces du Collier. The following documents are unprinted : Proces-verbal de capture des sieur et dame Cagliostro. Proces-verbal de perquisition fait par le commissaire Chesnon le 23 Aout, 1785, chez le sieur Cagliostro. Interrogatoire de Cagliostro le 30 Janvier, 1786. ix — Bibliography In the French Archives (continued) : Minute des confrontations des t^moins de Cagliostro. Procbs-verbal de la remise faite a Cagliostro, lors de sa mise en sa mise etat liberty, des effets saisis a son domicile le jour de en d'arrestation. Journal du libraire Hardy. Copie d'une lettre e'crite de Londres par un officier fran^ais remise d Paris le 19 Juillet 1786. Lettre au peuple franQais. Published Works : Vie de Joseph Balsamo, connu sous le nom de Comte Cagliostro ; extraite de la procedure instruite contre lui a Rome, en 1790, traduite d'apr^s Toriginal italien, imprime a la Chambre Apostolique. Courier de I'Europe, gazette anglo-frangaise, September, October, November, 1786; also Gazette de HoUande, Gazette d' Utrecht, Gazette de Leyde, Gazette de Florence, Courier du Bas-Rhin, Journal de Berlin, Public Advertizer, Feuille Villageoise, and Moniteur Universel. Cagliostro d^masqu^ k Varsovie en 1780. Nachricht von des beriichtigten 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 rathselhafte Menschen (F. Bulau) ; or the French translation by William Duckett Fersonnages Anigmatiques. Souvenirs de Baron de Gleichen. Souvenirs de la Marquise de Cr^quy. Correspondance litt^raire (Grimm). M^moires rdcrdatifs, scientifiques, et anecdotiques du physicien a^ronaute G. E. Roberson. M^moires authentiques de Comte Cagliostro (spurious, by the Marquis de Luchet). M^moires de Brissot, Abb^ Georgel, Baronne d'Oberkirch, Madame du Hausset, Grosley, Bachaumont, Mdtra, Casanova, Comte Beugnot, and Baron de Besenval. Reflexions de P. J.