Castel Sant'Angelo Prisoners – Cellini, Cagliostro & Papal Intrigue

Power concentrates near the Tiber—and so did its shadows.

1. Artists, Alchemists, and Adventurers

• Benvenuto Cellini: gilt genius, soldier, inmate; a bedsheet descent broke mid-air—his legend grew nonetheless.
• Count Cagliostro: fraud, Freemason, sorcerer to some; from plush loggia apartment to escape, recapture, and death.

2. The Papal List of Peril

• Formosus maligned posthumously; Stephen VI jailed and strangled in 897.
• Leo V (904) and John X (974) imprisoned and killed.
• Benedict VI (974) and John XIV (984) met similar fates—centuries before modern rule of law.

3. Marozia, the Power Behind Thrones

Mistress to popes, mother to another (John XI), enforcer in an era when Roman nobility rivaled papal might.

4. Borgia Calculus

Cardinal Orsini’s prison death via poison in 1503 points to Cesare Borgia’s ruthless arithmetic.

5. Ethics of Display

Interpretation today seeks dignity for the dead and context for choices—sensationalism dimmed in favor of sober narrative.

Bottom Line

The prison ledger reads like a mirror to power—reflecting the cost of ambition and the fragility of authority.