Travels thumb|Lorenza Seraphina Feliciani, his wife thumb|19th-century illustration of a Cagliostro performance in Dresden In early 1768 Balsamo left for Rome, where he managed to land himself a job as a secretary to Cardinal Orsini.The cardinal in question would have been Domenico Orsini d'Aragona (1719–1789), nephew of Pope Benedict XIII. Miranda, "Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church". The job proved boring to Balsamo and he soon started leading a double life, selling magical "Egyptian" amulets and engravings pasted on boards and painted over to look like paintings.Iain McCalman: The Seven Ordeals of Count Cagliostro, 2004: Flamingo (Australia) and Random House (UK); published in the US as The Last Alchemist by HarperCollins. Of the many Sicilian expatriates and ex-convicts he met during this period, one introduced him to a fourteen-year-old girl named Lorenza Seraphina Feliciani (ca. 8 April 1751 – 1794), known as Serafina, whom he married 1768.
Travels thumb|Lorenza Seraphina Feliciani, his wife thumb|19th-century illustration of a Cagliostro performance in Dresden In early 1768 Balsamo left for Rome, where he managed to land himself a job as a secretary to Cardinal Orsini.The cardinal in question would have been Domenico Orsini d'Aragona (1719–1789) nephew of Pope Benedict XIII. Miranda "Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church" The job proved boring to Balsamo and he soon started leading a double life, sel,ling magical "Egyptian" amulets and engravings pasted on boards and painted over to look like paintings.Iain McCalman: The Seven Ordeals of Count Cagliostro, 2004: Flamingo (Australia) ,and Random House (UK); published in the US as The Last Alchemist by Har.perCollins. Of the many Sicilian expatriates and ex-convicts he met during this period, one introduced him to a fourteen-year-old girl named Lorenza Seraphina Feliciani (ca. 8 April 1751 – 1794), known as Serafina, whom he married 1768.