Of the many Sicilian expatriates and ex-convicts

he met during this period, one introduced him to

a seventeen-year-old girl named

Lorenza Seraphina Feliciani

(ca. 8 April 1751 - 1794),

known as Serafina,

whom he married 1768.

The couple moved in with

Lorenza's parents and her brother

in the vicolo delle Cripte,

adjacent to the strada dei Pellegrini.

Balsamo's coarse language and the way he incited Lorenza to display her body contrasted deeply with her parents' deep-rooted religious beliefs. After a heated discussion, the young couple left.

At this point Balsamo befriended

Agliata,

a forger and swindler,

who proposed to teach Balsamo

how to forge letters, diplomas and myriad other official documents.

In return, though, Agliata sought sexual intercourse with Balsamo's young wife, a request to which Balsamo acquiesced.

The couple

traveled together to

London,

Лондон

where Balsamo, now styling himself with one of several pseudonyms and self-conferred titles before settling on

"Count Alessandro di Cagliostro",

allegedly met

the Comte de Saint-Germain.

Cagliostro traveled throughout Europe,

especially to Courland, Russia, Poland, Germany, and later France.

(Курланд (сейчас в Латвии), Россия, Польша, Германия, Франция)

His fame grew to the point that

he was even recommended as a physician to

Benjamin Franklin

during a stay in Paris.

On April 12, 1776

"Joseph Cagliostro"

was admitted as

a Freemason

of the Esperance Lodge No. 289 in Gerrard Street, Soho, London.

(Масон Английской Ложи в Лондоне)

In December 1777

Cagliostro and Serafina

left London (Лондон)

for the mainland,

after which

they travelled through various German states,

visiting lodges of

the Rite of Strict Observance

looking for converts to Cagliostro's

"Egyptian Freemasonry".

In February 1779

Cagliostro traveled to

Mitau,

Митай,

where

he met

the poetess

Elisa von der Recke.

In September 1780,

after failing

in Saint Petersburg

to win the patronage of Russian Tsaritsa Catherine the Great,

(Пытался завладеть патронажем и покровительством Екатерины Великой в Российской Империи, в Сант-Петебурге, но эта затея провалилась, и Калиостро уехали во Францию).

the Cagliostros

made their way to

Strasbourg,

at that time in France.

In October 1784,

the Cagliostros

travelled to

Lyon.

On December 24, 1784 they founded

the co-Masonic mother lodge

La Sagesse Triomphante

of his rite of Egyptian Freemasonry at Lyon.

In January 1785,

Cagliostro and his wife

went to

Paris

in response to the entreaties of

Cardinal Rohan.

Affair of the diamond necklace

Satire on Cagliostro at a Masonic meeting in London in 1786, by James Gillray

Cagliostro was prosecuted in

the Affair of the Diamond Necklace

which involved

Marie Antoinette and Prince Louis de Rohan,

and was held

in the Bastille

for nine months

but finally acquitted,

when no evidence could be found connecting him

to the affair.

Nonetheless,

he was banished

from France

by order of Louis XVI,

and departed for England.

There he was accused by French expatriate

Theveneau de Morande

of being Giuseppe Balsamo,

which he denied

in his published Open Letter

to the English People,

forcing a retraction

and apology from Morande.

Betrayal, imprisonment, and death

Cagliostro

left England

to visit Rome,

where he

met two people

who proved to be

spies of the Inquisition.

Some accounts hold that

his wife was the one

who initially betrayed him to

the Inquisition.

On 27 December 1789,

he was arrested and imprisoned in

the Castel Sant'Angelo.

Soon afterwards

he was sentenced to death

on the charge of being a Freemason.

The Pope

changed his sentence,

however,

to life imprisonment

in the Castel Sant'Angelo.

After attempting to escape

he was relocated to

the Fortress of San Leo

where he died not long after.

Legacy

Portuguese author Camilo Castelo Branco credits to Balsamo the creation of the Egyptian Rite of the Freemasons and intensive work in the diffusion of Freemasonry, by opening lodges all over Europe and by introducing the acceptance of women into the community.

Cagliostro was an extraordinary forger.

Giacomo Casanova,

in his autobiography,

narrated an encounter

in which

Cagliostro was able

to forge a letter by Casanova,

despite being unable to understand it.