Cagliostro – doskonały przykład „absolutnego fałszu”
Cagliostro – a Perfect Example of “Absolute Falsehood”

Summary/Abstract: In the presented text, Giuseppe Balsamo, the self-proclaimed Count Cagliostro, born in a poor district of Palermo, is merely a point of departure for taking a closer look at Sicilian self-narratives. The author meticulously follows and exposes heroic legends - particularly those concerning the origin of the Sicilian mafia - about the island’s past, discovered in the Beati Paoli sect, active from the end of the 18th century and regarded by numerous historians as the original archetype of the modern mafia. Other findings were made in literature, particularly in Beati Paoli, a novel by Luigi Natoli, an example of cult literature particularly popular among contemporary members of the mafia organisation. Finally, M. Collura demonstrates that the image of the mafia conceived as an organisation offering justice and protecting the poor (a portrait additionally enhanced by such outstanding films as The Godfather) has as much in common with the truth as Balsamo’s confabulations about himself (his biography is an example of “absolute falsehood”).

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