Door Christian Vandekerkhove

232 Bladzijden | 2023 | Softcover | Sharanam Books | ISBN 9782808325738

Frans Wittemans is bekend als de auteur van de “Geschiedenis der Rozenkruisers”. Hij was inderdaad Rozenkruiser, maar ook Vrijmetselaar, Theosoof, Martinist, Advocaat, Senator en Pacifist. Frans Wittemans heeft zijn stempel gedrukt op de cultuur, de politiek en het spirituele leven van België en Europa. Dit boek is gebaseerd op de herinneringen van reeds lang overleden vrienden van Wittemans, aangevuld met opzoekingen in een aantal archieven, onder meer het persoonlijk Wittemans-archief van de auteur.

By William Rutherford Hayes Trowbridge (1866-1940).

311 Pages | Facsimile edition of the Brentano’s, New York 1910 edition, published on January 1st, 1992 | A4 Softcover | Kessinger Publication Company Ltd. | ISBN: 1564590631.

CONTENTS

Preface by the Author
Bibliography

PART I
Chapter 1 – The Power of Prejudice
Chapter 2 – Guiseppe Balsamo

PART II
Chapter 1 – Cagliostro in London
Chapter 2 – Eighteenth Century Occultism
Chapter 3 – Masked and Unmasked
Chapter 4 – The Conquest of the Cardinal
Chapter 5 – Cagliostro in Paris
Chapter 6 – The Diamond Necklace Affair
Chapter 7 – Cagliostro’s Return to London
Chapter 8 – ‘Nature’s Unfortunate Child’
Index

From the Preface (p. xvii & xviii)::

” Though much has been written about Cagliostro, most of it is confined to articles in encyclopedias and magazines, or to descriptive paragraphs in works dealing with magic, freemasonry and the period in which he lived. This material may be describes as a footnote, which has been raised to the dignity of a page of history. […] It has been said that every book on Cagliostro must be a book against him. With this opinion I totally disagree. In choosing Cagliostro as the subject of an historical memoir I was guided at first, I admit, by the belief he was the arch-imposer he is popularly supposed to be. With his mystery, magic, and highly sensational career he seemed just the sort of picturesque personality I was in search of. The moment, however, I began to make my researches I was astonished to find how little foundation there was in point of fact for the popular conception. The deeper I went into the subject – how deep this has been the reader may gather from the Bibliography, which contains but a portion of the material I have sifted – the more convinced I became of the fallacy of this conception. “