[CAGLIOSTRO]. -WILDERMETH (Alexander)]. [The Count of Caglio - Lot 113

Lot n° 113
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1000 - 1200 EUR
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Result : 1 300EUR
[CAGLIOSTRO]. -WILDERMETH (Alexander)]. [The Count of Caglio - Lot 113
[CAGLIOSTRO]. -WILDERMETH (Alexander)]. [The Count of Cagliostro authorized to reside in the Swiss city of Bienne]. Issued as mayor of Bienne, written and signed by its chancellor Alexander Moser. Biel, March 3, 1787. In-folio, armorial seal of the city in wax under paper; wetness. Swiss residence permit. Expelled from France following the affair of the necklace, in which he had unwillingly become embroiled, the Count of Cagliostro stayed in England, but failing to establish a favourable position there, he decided to settle in Switzerland, a central point in Europe where he also had an influential close friend, Jakob Sarasin. Jakob Sarasin, an Enlightenment-minded notary from Basel who ran a salon where he entertained the likes of Lavater and Pestalozzi, had met Cagliostro in Strasbourg, where Cagliostro had treated his wife who was considered lost by doctors. It was he who helped the Count settle in Switzerland: as he had received no insurance for the city of Neuchâtel (then under Prussian control), he suggested Biel, south of Basel, as he himself had connections with leading figures in the city, notably the brothers Jakob Sigmund Wildermeth and Alexander Wildermeth, one a bannerman and the other a mayor. He first made sure that LouisXVI's consul in Berne would not object to the bannerman settling so close to France, and in March went to Biel to obtain the present residence permit. In April 1787, the Count of Cagliostro visited Biel, and founded the "Mother Lodge of the Helvetic Countries" at Jakob Sarasin's house in Basel, around the Basel and Biel men he had initiated into his Egyptian Rite during his previous visit to Basel in 1781. He finally settled in Biel in June 1787, working mainly as a healer, but a falling-out with his friend, the Strasbourg painter Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg, himself a healer, led to a court case and his decision to leave Switzerland in July 1788. "We, Mayor, Burgomaster and Council of the City Republic of Bienne in Switzerland, hereby certify, having been informed by Monsieur le Comte de Cagliostro, currently domiciled in London, that the intention of the said Monsieur le Comte was to go to Switzerland and that he would have preferably chosen to stay in our city, if we were willing to grant him the protection, safety and other rights attached to the habitation of this city, on this considering the personal merits, distinguished talents, and the sentiments of benevolence of the Count of Cagliostro, generally known in this country, we have eagerly granted him all the protection, safety, tranquility, rights, prerogatives and privileges which our Constitutions and regulations assure to persons of his consideration, established in our jurisdiction, notably that of exercising in complete freedom his talents and benevolence, which he has practiced elsewhere with such success, for the relief of the unfortunate; provided, however, that he complies with the laws, regulations and customs of this country-cy, wishing him the utmost contentment, success and satisfaction following his stay with us..." A flamboyant adventurer, alchemist and founder of "Egyptian Masonry", the Count of Cagliostro, whose real name was Giuseppe Balsamo (1743-1795), was a Sicilian of noble and mixed Jewish origin. He left his first profession as a draughtsman to travel around Europe, putting his knowledge of the occult sciences to good use and exercising his talents as a healer. An esotericist with links to the mystical Masonic lodges, he aroused particular interest and enthusiasm in France, becoming the personal alchemist of Cardinal Louis-René-Édouard de Rohan-Guéméné (1756-1791). The Count of Cagliostro became embroiled in the affair of the Queen's necklace: the victim of a virulent pamphleteering campaign, he was imprisoned for ten months (August 21, 1785 - June 1, 1786), eventually cleared of all charges but expelled under a lettre de cachet. He then led a wandering life in England, Switzerland, Savoy and Italy, before being arrested in Rome and handed over to the Inquisition (1789): condemned to death in 1791 for heresy, magic and freemasonry, Count Cagliostro's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Detained in the fortress of SanLeo, he died there in 1795. The Count of Cagliostro was immortalized by Dumas père, Sand, Nerval and Mozart, who exalted him in the character of Sarastro (The Magic Flute, 1791).
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