Alessandro Cagliostro the Life of Joseph Balsamo 1791.pdf

Alessandro Cagliostro the Life of Joseph Balsamo 1791

The life of Joseph Balsamo, commonly called Count Cagliostro: containing the singular and uncommon adventures of that extraordinary personage. To ... of his trial before the Inquisition…


This work pretends to be a translation of Barberi's work, with an admittedly sympathetic preface placed at the beginning. However, as I am fluent in Italian and English, the key difference is the two pages discussing the Illuminati in the Italian original are entirely omitted in the English translation. This appears therefore to be a major purpose of Cagliostro's friends offering an English translation -- to cut off the impetus to examine the Italian original. Barberi in the Italian original has no idea that Cagliostro is talking about the Bavarian Illuminati. Cagliostro mentions they operated as superiors of a Frankfurt Templar lodge of the Strict Observance. Barberi never links this "Illuminati" to that of Weishaupt. Cagliostro's interview at Frankfurt took place in 1780. Thus, in Barberi's work it is a fairly innocuous reference, printed in 1791. Yet, as this was a sensitive moment in the revolutionary struggle, it was obviously considered necessary to deliberately obscure Cagliostro's revelation. (Marco Di Luchetti.)