Alessandro Cagliostro (Cagliostro Alessandro)

(1743-1795), real name - Giuseppe Balsamo
Born June 2, 1743 in Palermo. Having performed at home a number of minor crimes, Cagliostro fled from Sicily, and then traveled to Greece, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, Rhodes and Malta. Perhaps, then Cagliostro acquired knowledge of alchemy and the occult. Returning to Europe, he was awarded the title of Count and married Lorenza Felichiani the extraordinary beauty of which used their own purposes. Razyezzhaya Europe, Cagliostro was presented by a doctor, alchemist, necromancy and Freemason, selling magic drinks and drugs, alchemical potions, love and rejuvenating elixirs. The audacity and ingenuity brought him wealth and respect in the high society of Europe. As a friend of Cardinal de Rogan, Cagliostro was involved in a scandalous fraud with a diamond necklace Queen (1785). After spending nine months in the Bastille, in 1786 he was expelled from France. Later settled in Rome, where in 1789 he was arrested and sentenced to death as a heretic, but the death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment. Cagliostro died in prison of the town of San Leo in the Apennines, August 26, 1795. His adventures have repeatedly been described in literature (comedy JW Goethe Grand Copt, novels A.Dyuma-father, Joseph Balsamo, Queen's Necklace, etc.).