One of the main characters in Mark Zakharov's painting "The Formula of Love" based on the story by Alexei Tolstoy is the mysterious Count Cagliostro, who was considered by some to be a magician and sorcerer, while others - a clever adventurer and charlatan. The count indeed once visited Russia …
Career of a magician-swindler
It is believed that Cagliostro's real name is Giuseppe Balsamo. Although is it real? Indeed, in the language of the Kabbalists "Balsamo" means - "He who was sent." According to official information, Giuseppe was born in 1743 in Palermo. His father was a cloth dealer.
After the young Giuseppe was expelled from school - either for blasphemy or for theft, his parents sent him to a Benedictine monastery located in Caltagirone, where he received the beginnings of knowledge in chemistry and medicine. But soon the young man was expelled from the monastery, being accused of fraud.
Giuseppe returned to his native Palermo and began to make a living by selling "miraculous potions" and "old maps", allegedly indicating the location of the treasures. When the scam was revealed, Balsamo fled to Messina, where he continued his adventures already under the pseudonym Alessandro Cagliostro. He also declared himself a count.
Then Giuseppe left Italy for a while. Subsequently, he claimed to have visited the East, where he studied secret knowledge. Returning a few years later to his homeland, the imaginary count married the young Lorenza Feliciati. She became her husband's assistant in his "enterprises". They began touring Europe, visited Spain, Portugal, England, France … Cagliostro demonstrated his miracles - he "grew" precious stones, "guessed" the winning numbers of lottery tickets, claimed to have the secret of immortality …
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Russian "season"
In 1779, Alessandro and Lorenza arrived in St. Petersburg, where they stayed for nine months. Here Cagliostro for some reason called himself "the Spanish Colonel Count Phoenix".
In St. Petersburg, "Count Phoenix", who had previously entered Freemasonry, was introduced to the great master of the provincial grand lodge in St. Petersburg, the actual privy councilor Ivan Elagin, who was the chief of the chamberlain and state secretary at the imperial court.
Thanks to Elagin, the spouses of Cagliostro managed to get to the court of Catherine II. The empress herself refused the services of a "miracle worker", but recommended him to her entourage. Basically, the "count" was engaged in healing and, according to testimonies, really helped many.
The main "miracles" of Cagliostro in Russia were the "expulsion of the devil" from the holy fool Vasily Zhelugin, as well as the healing of the nine-month-old son of one of the courtiers. The doctors recognized the baby as hopeless, and then the "count" offered his services. But he put forward such a condition: the baby is given to him and they do not try to see him until he is healed. The kid was taken to the house on the Palace Embankment, where Cagliostro lived. About a month later, he finally announced that the parents could see their son. They saw the child completely healthy, and, bursting into tears of happiness, the father immediately laid out in front of the "healer" a bag tightly stuffed with gold coins …
But later there were rumors that the "magician" simply changed the baby: after all, children at this age change very quickly. At that time, as you understand, there was no trace of DNA expertise …
On another occasion, Cagliostro told the favorite of Catherine II, Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky, that he could triple the amount of gold belonging to him, but for this the prince must give him a third of the gold. The prince agreed - not because he needed wealth, but solely for fun. Two weeks passed, and it turned out that there were actually three times more gold coins. But Potemkin was not convinced. He mistook "miracle" for a clever trick.
Shameful exile
Meanwhile, the empress did not like the fact that Potemkin was showing undue attention to the wife of "Count Phoenix" Lorenza. Yes, there is also allegedly from the Spanish envoy information came that no Count Phoenix was in military service in Spain … It is not known whether this information is reliable or not, but the spouses of Cagliostro were advised to leave Russia as soon as possible. Subsequently, Catherine II ordered that the comedy The Deceiver, composed by herself, be staged on the stage of the theater in the Hermitage. The premiere took place on January 4, 1786. Cagliostro was easily guessed in the main character of Califalkgerston …
As for the "Count" himself, after a series of adventures and scandals, he received a life sentence for fraud and spent the end of his life in the Tuscan castle of Saint-Leo on the top of a steep cliff …