Alessandro Cagliostro

Alessandro Cagliostro

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (US: , Italian: [alesˈsandro kaʎˈʎɔstro]; 2 June 1743 – 26 August 1795) was the alias of the occultist Giuseppe Balsamo (pronounced [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈbalsamo]; in French usually referred to as Joseph Balsamo).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. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Alessandro Cagliostro has received more than 558,769 page views. His biography is available in 31 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 30 in 2019). Alessandro Cagliostro is the 9th most popular occultist (up from 28th in 2019), the 371st most popular biography from Italy (down from 1st in 2019) and the most popular Italian Occultist.

Alessandro Cagliostro was an Italian adventurer and self-styled magician. He became a glamorous figure in European high society. Cagliostro was a skilled con artist and self-promoter.