Cagliostro and the Affair of the Diamond Necklace

Giuseppe Balsamo a/k/a Alessandro di Cagliostro

Alchemist, forger, quack, pimp – in the 18^th century, the self-styled Count Alessandro di Cagliostro was all of these and more.  He might have been forgotten were it not for his alleged involvement in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace in 1785.  The event – involving the theft of an expensive diamond necklace by means of Marie Antoinette’s forged signature —  cast suspicion on the unpopular queen and may have contributed to the French Revolution.  Although Cagliostro was found innocent of any involvement in the crime, he nevertheless was held in the Bastille for nine months and eventually asked to leave France.

Cagliostro was most likely born Giuseppe Balsamo in Palermo, Sicily.  Although his family was poor, Balsamo had a tutor and eventually became a novice in the Catholic Order of St. John of God.  Before he was expelled, he learned chemistry as well as religious rites.