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ANONYME & (Alessandro CAGLIOSTRO ) et Alexandre DUMAS FILS

[CAGLIOSTRO] Manuel à l'usage des actionnaires des loteries [...] ou, Calculs indubitables et combinaisons savantes trouvées dans les papiers du célèbre Cagliostro, lors de son arrestation à Rome

Chez Granjon, imprimeur, rue St. Germain l'Auxerrois, N° 98 [...] ; Chez tous les libraires, Paris, 1791 ; 1851, 13x20,5cm, relié.

[translation: Manual for lottery players, the Royal Lottery of France, the Cologne Lottery, the Offenburg Lottery and the Austrian Netherlands Lottery, or, Indubitable calculations and clever combinations found in the papers of the famous Cagliostro, when he was arrested in Rome.]
 
Rare first edition of a lottery manual claiming to reveal the predictions of famous occultist Joseph Balsamo, Count of Cagliostro. Published during Cagliostro's imprisonment by the Inquisition, it is the first known of its kind using his name, and most certainly the only one printed during his lifetime.
We are able to trace only two copies in libraries (BnF and Kress Library).
Numerous illustrations including a frontispiece showing Cagliostro giving lottery predictions, as well as 15 plates containing 90 vignettes depicting dreams, each associated with a lottery number. Also contains a folding leaf on the influence of sunrise and sunset on the French Royal Lottery draws.
Preceded by a leaf with a pasted press clipping, with a note “Combinations of the Royal Lottery Games /Extract from the Paris-Journal of 18 8bre 1878”.
Bound with: a rare pamphlet by Alexandre Dumas-Fils, Histoire de la loterie : depuis la première jusqu'à la dernière loterie. La loterie des lingots d'or. Preceded by a leaf with an inscribed note Histoire de la loterie des lingots d'or.
Green half cloth, smooth spine, gilt title framed by a double fillet border, marbled paper boards. Spine-ends, corners and joints rubbed, scuffs to boards, foxing to edges. Damp stain in the margin of the first 6 leaves of the Manual.
Both charlatan and mystic, Cagliostro made a name for himself with his extraordinary healing powers and gained popularity in European courts. His visions using young mediums and hydromancy earned him both the admiration of the public and the hostility of his competitors. In London in 1776, he is said to have predicted the winning numbers of the English and French lotteries with the help of a mysterious manuscript - the frontispiece of the manual is inspired by this event, showing Cagliostro described as a “French cabalist” in consultation with three Englishwomen. A few years later, he created Egyptian Masonry in Lyon and discovered the intrigues of the Parisian court. He received the protection of very powerful families and personalities, such as the Rohans, King Louis XVI and Catherine the Great. Involved in the famous “Queen's necklace” affair, he was imprisoned in the Bastille. Furious with the French, he published a violent letter after his release where he predicts the fall of the French monarchy who would indeed crumble shortly after. Having attracted as many enemies as followers, he ended up after many twists and turns in the dungeons of the Inquisition where he died in 1795. This manual was published in 1791 when Cagliostro was imprisoned by the Roman Church at Castel Sant'Angelo - his memoirs, published shortly before, were immensely popular at the time.
His exploits had spread throughout Europe and encouraged publishers to print numerous lottery predictions using his name. Their publication ceased when the royal lottery was interrupted in 1793 and resumed in full force as soon as it reopened with expanded editions. This copy published in 1791 in the midst of the French Revolution is the first known of its kind bearing Cagliostro's name, and most certainly the only one printed during his lifetime. He claimed to derive his predictions directly from the papers of the master, based on obscure manuscripts seized during his imprisonment in Rome. It contains “cabalistic tables”, mathematical martingales, and other “mystical manipulations of numbers” (Stigler, Casanova's Lottery: The History of a Revolutionary Game of Chance) supposed to predict the draws. Each of the 90 lottery numbers illustrated by numbered vignettes is associated with proper names, astrological divinations or Cagliostro's dreams. There are also “columns” of magic numbers drawn from the Kabbalah, the Zoroastrian religion or Cagliostro himself... The manual would be followed by numerous reissues, although the engravings of the dreams would be of a lower quality than the original edition. At the beginning of the 19th century, the publication of this type of work exploded - most of them, like our copy, were anonymous, with the publisher claiming to have only set out Cagliostro's predictions. They are called “catechism”, “great interpreter of dreams”, “telegraph of Fortune”, “philosopher's stone of imperial lotteries”, “Roman almanac”, “sympathetic combination” or even pompously describe themselves as “assured means of not losing”. Cagliostro would regularly appear in these divination books and magical almanacs throughout the century, alongside renowned sorcerers and astrologers: Alcrofribas, Nostradamus, Mathieu Laënsberg, Campabollino-Romani, etc.
Cagliostro's (mis)fortunes inspired several novels by Alexandre Dumas, as well as operas, plays, and even an “alla Cagliostro” hairstyle. Bound with the manual is a rare pamphlet by Dumas fils on the history of the lottery, illustrated on the title page and 5 illustrations in the text. It contains interesting anecdotes about the gains and losses of this game of chance written in his renowned style: “for everything in the world is a lottery. Life is a perpetual lottery in favor of death; love is the lottery of the heart; ambition is the lottery of the head; the future is the lottery of everything”.
Extremely rare divination manual inspired by the magician who bewitched Europe in the 18^th-century.
Goldsmiths'-Kress library of economic literature; no. 14941.42 (Kress Library B. 2154).

BnF catalogue
Kress library catalogue

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