The Last Alchemist : Count Cagliostro, Master of Magic in the Age of Reason

Rating:
Summary: WILL THE REAL CAGLIOSTRO STAND UP!
Review: On the back cover of historian Iain McCalman's latest book, The Last Alchemist Count Cagliostro, Master Of Magic In The Age Of Reason, it states, "depending on whom you ask, he was either a great healer or a dangerous charlatan."

This just about sums up an intriguing historical novel pertaining to one of the most charismatic and interesting characters of the late 18th century, Giuseppe Balzamo or better known as, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro.
No doubt, after reading this unbelievable biography, I would have to ask, would the real Cagliostro stand up?
This gentleman certainly seemed to have extraordinary mystical and even cabalistic powers, although at times, they may have been somewhat diabolic.
Even after his death there were many stories about him that perhaps stretched one's imagination but nevertheless were quite entertaining.

Written in narrative format, McCalman explores the many facets of Cagliostro's life and his escapades as a freemason, necromancer, shaman, Copt, prophet, rejuvenator, and finally a heretic.
In fact, such a fascinating character was he that a kind of cult of Cagliostro swept Paris, or as the author termed it, "Cagliostromania."

We learn of his belief in Egyptian Freemasonry, which we are not quite sure if it actually existed or was a figment of his imagination. Nonetheless, it did open up for him many doors to the royal courts of Europe, for it entailed science, religion and magic, all of great interest during the Age of Reason.

Traveling with Cagliostro and his wife Seraphina throughout their world travels, we can't help being captivated with his uncanny ability to meet up with such figures as Casanova, or his implication in such notorious events as the Diamond Necklace affair in France involving Marie Antoinette, Cardinal deRohan and Countess de Lamotte. Apparently, the Countess swindled 1.6 million francs for a necklace for Marie Antoinette and then accused Cagliostro for stealing it. As a result, Cagliostro was sent to the Bastille, tried for fraud, and eventually exonerated and banished from France.

We are also enamored by Cagliostro's sympathy for the poor or the "petit people," who adored him, while he spent his life among them as well as the sick, distributing remedies free of charge and paying out of his own pocket for soup.

In Italy his reputation as a healer attracted crowds, who besieged him in carriages, in chairs or stretchers,"
However, it was also here where the church imprisoned him after his wife, who was fed up with his shenanigans, denounced him to the Inquisition as a heretic, magician, conjuror and Freemason. This led to a trial, where he was found guilty and sentenced to death. However, the Pope subsequently commuted his sentence to life imprisonment in the fortress of San Leo in the Apennines, where he died.

The eloquent writing of The Last Alchemist Count Cagliostro, Master Of Magic In The Age Of Reason is a fascinating endeavor taking our curiosities to new levels, and even the most skeptical readers will want this one on their bookshelves.

Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com

Rating:
Summary: Anti-Masonry and Masonic charlatans
Review: This book is a delightful insight into one of the most fascinating and influential periods in the history of Western Civilization. This book will be of interest and entertainment to Masons and non-Masons (even anti-Masons) alike.

Professor McCalman is a historian who delights in literary form. In his paper "Cultural History and Cultural Studies: the Linguistic Turn Five Years On" Iain McCalman tells us "Ever since a boy I have always believed intensely in the 'storyness' of life. Our world is suffused with stories. Consciously or not we use them continually to make sense of the mass of incoherent facts and sensations that immerse us."
This shows in his book "The Last Alchemist". Indeed by the fourth page of his introduction he has wasted no time to paint for us with a vivid brush of words:

"The Ballaro market that abuts Cagliostro's birthplace looks, feels, and smells like a casbah. It reminded me of parts of Cairo or even of Zanzibar: frying peanut oil, saffron, cloves, garlic, and rotting garbage. The flagstones are streaked with dust blown from North African deserts or smeared with slops tossed from windows and balconies. You have to step carefully because the tenements cast deep shadows. The paint on most of the buildings is covered in fungal-like stains. Bits of iron hold up the door frame; washing flaps on rigging strung between the houses."

The tone set and our attention grabbed, McCalman does not disappoint and continues to draw us into a very different time when a newborn Age of Reason battled with the institutions that had dominated Humanity since its beginning. A world where a common flimflam man can rise up from the gutter, lie and steal his way to prominence, and before his death help change history itself.

Which brings us to the subject of this book, one Guiseppe Balsamo who in the process of altering the history of Europe also contributed heavily to the burden still carried by the Freemasons of our modern time. That he was able to do so, we learn from McCalman, is due to a youthful mastery of chemistry and religious symbology, an intervening period of roguery and flimflam, and the social contacts earned from a job he talked his way into with the Knights Hospitalier of Saint John. McCalman runs us quickly through this period but with the benefit of his scholarship and passionate writing style we are led to understand this formative period of the man the world would later come to know as Count Cagliostro.

How does all this relate to modern Freemasonry? In a direct sense it does not relate at all - today's Masons will not find much modern Freemasonry as they read McCalman's accounts of how different Masonic lodges in different part of Europe embraced Cagliostro while repeatedly suspending their better judgements. As with all con-men Cagliostro simply plays on their greed, lust, and other flaws. Most Masons of this time were learned and successful men, interested mainly in an education and social activity unburdened by the official and social oppression of states and churches. And of course that time was no different than ours where all organizations have fringe groups. The fringe Masons of that time wanted power, were superstitious, and yearned for spiritual satisfaction through the occult. Few of them consciously considered anything they were doing was wrong or evil; most convinced themselves they were serving God.

As we read between the lines of McCalman's wonderful storytelling we begin to get a feel for what worried the governments and churches of the time. And of course what continues to concern anti-Masons to this day. Freemasonry was in fact widely used to mask the actions of men intent on founding democracies and/or societies free of tyranny in any form. The absolute rulers of that time, from Catherine of Russia to the Louis XVI of France to Pope Pious VI, all employed legions of spies and secret police to suppress that activity. Those few Masons who appealed to the occult were committing double crimes and providing an easy noose to the enforcers. Those Masons who worked more nobly for more honorable reasons succeeded in their founding of the Great Experiment that was America and their contributions were indeed observable in the replacement of Europe's aristacracies with modern democracies - those Masons we do not encounter in Cagliostro's story and indeed it is fair to assume the Count would have done his utmost to stay away from such people.

Through all these interwoven stories Iain McCalman does a masterful job gleaning from the newspaper articles, the legal papers, even the diaries and journals of the players of the time to engage us, to show us how otherwise rational men and women were easy fodder for Guiseppe Balsamo and other rogues like him. MaCalman's narration of the Affair of the Necklace, the final straw that brought on the French Revolution, reads like a fine mystery and so is particularly gripping and educational. The professor's declared fascination with Balsamo/Cagliostro is genuine and its influence on his writing clearly obvious. The Antiquarian Mason highly recommends this book to Masons and non-Masons alike.

Rating:
Summary: Count Cagliostro... a man of passion or a con artist
Review: What a surprising book The Last Alchemist was for me. I really did not know what to expect, but I do know once I started, I was completely intrigued with the life that Count Cagliostro lived.

Was the Count a man of passion and love who gave his all to the weak and unfortunate, or was he simply a con artist who thrived on glory, fame, money and power???

Ultimately, it is for the reader to decide what kind of a man the Count really was. Maybe he had no choice and simply became what his destiny called for him to be.

Whatever he was, the man was loved and loathed all at the same time. With each "miracle and healing" performed, his status grew and grew, among the locals, to dizzying heights. With each level of status attained, his enemies, full of jealousy, plotted and patiently awaited their chance for revenge.

The Last Alchemist comes in a very easy to read format. The illustrations are quite good and gives insight to the person being talked about.

Give it a chance and learn all about the man who was the "Robin Hood" and "Prince John" combined of two centuries past.

I recommend it.