April 30, 2026 • 12 mins
Two strange characters, two curious tales. Both, though, should be highly entertaining.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Every single one of us, in our own way, is
passing through history. We have no way of knowing exactly
who is going to earn their place in a history
book on the main page, or who will wind up
as mere footnotes. For those of us who read history
for a living know one thing to be true. There's
more life in between the lines than any history book
can tell us, and it's there that the most fascinating
(00:59):
questions live. Follow me to the Haymarket Theater in London
in the year seventeen forty five, an opera called lyn
Costanza de Luza has just premiered. A lavish spectacle. But
what made this opera notable was not its content or
its production, but a little known musician who contributed three
arias that he'd written. He had just arrived in Europe,
(01:21):
and writers of the time described him as suave and charming,
with dark hair and a fine sense of dress. This
man was arrested in London that same year under suspicion
of spine, but later released due to lack of evidence.
Horace Walpole, the famous British author and politician, referred to
him in one of his letters, he has been here
(01:41):
these two years and will not tell who he is
or whence, but professed that he does not go by
his right name. He sings, plays the violin wonderfully, composes,
is mad and not very sensible. He has called an Italian,
a Spaniard, a poll a, somebody that married a great
fortune in Mexico and ran away with her jewels to Constantinople,
(02:04):
a priest of fiddler, a vast noblemen. The man who
fits this intriguing description was known by a single French title,
the Compe de Saint Germain. He seemingly came out of
nowhere in the seventeen forties, impressing high society in London
with his musical talents, but after his arrest in seventeen
forty five, he did not stay long in London. Instead,
(02:27):
he traveled to mainland Europe, where he ingratiated himself with
the French courts of King Louis the fifteenth. By the
late seventeen forties he had become a close counselor and
occasional political agent for the French crown. He spoke many languages,
including French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, and Spanish, and was
(02:47):
able to converse on a wide variety of topics, from
politics to science. Although perhaps science might be overstating it
just a little, you see, one of the count's primary interests,
according to the stories, was the field of alchemy. It was,
at this point in history, on the decline in comparison
to other natural sciences, but there were still many eager practitioners.
(03:11):
After all, goals like turning lead into gold or achieving
immortality will always inspire some people. As the decades wore on,
members of high society pointed out that he barely seemed
to age. One anecdote tells of an encounter with an
elderly countess in the seventeen sixties who expressed disbelief at
seeing him. She said that she had known account Saint
(03:34):
Germain and Venice back in seventeen ten. She asked if
it was his father that she had met, and instead,
Saint Germain said that he had lived in Venice at
that time, so it was he that she remembered, and
she was amazed. The man she knew was forty five
years old at the time, meaning that he would be
one hundred years old. During their conversation. Saint Germain accepted
(03:56):
the suggestion proudly, still never confirming what his original name
was nor where he came from. Later, at various dinner parties,
he would claim to be over three hundred years old.
Both Voltaire and Casanova wrote about him with skepticism, referring
to him as a teller of enormous lies. Voltaire referred
to him as and I quote, a man who never dies,
(04:19):
who knows everything, but Casanova conceded that as a liar,
Saint Germain was an incredibly persuasive one. In seventeen sixty,
for example, he talked his way into the Hague and
began peace talks to end the Seven Years War between
England and France. No one ever knew where all his
money came from either. He seemed to be wealthy, but
(04:39):
had no bank account or land to speak of. This observation,
of course, fueled rumors of him being a powerful alchemist.
After all, if you can turn any substance into gold,
then you don't need a bank account, do you. After
forty years of traveling freely throughout Europe, charming high society,
and writing music, Saint Germain spent the last few years
(04:59):
of his life life in Central Germany doing alchemy experiments
with the Danish Prince Charles Now In his eighties, he
confided to the Prince that he was the son of
Francis the second Racozzi, a renowned nobleman from Transylvania, which
would explain his wealth and comforts among nobility. Like all
of his stories, this part was never confirmed. Saint Germain
(05:21):
seemingly died in seventeen eighty four, but that was not
the end of his story. Sightings of him persisted long
after his death. After his tall tales, a growing number
of people believe that he really was immortal. In the
two hundred years that followed, many copycats have appeared, claiming
to be the man himself, still alive after all these years.
(05:43):
The most recent was in the nineteen seventies. Even if
the original Count of Saint Germain was just an incredibly
skilled con artist, a talented mister Ripley of the eighteenth century.
There is still something about him that makes even skeptics
want to believe the impossible. Through his lies and charms,
he cast a spell on history. The animal rights movement
(06:20):
seems like a modern phenomenon. You might think that people
only started to speak out against killing animals once food
became plentiful in the second half of the twentieth century. However,
even in the past, when modern conveniences were still a
long ways off, there were compassionate individuals begging others to
think of the animals. One such person was Anna Kingsford,
(06:41):
a nineteenth century physician with some very curious methods when
it came to furthering the cause. Anna was born near
London in eighteen forty six to a wealthy merchant family.
From an early age, she claimed to receive strange visions
and communicate with fairies. These communications gave her a profound
sense of spiritualism and a connection to the natural world.
(07:05):
Though she initially enjoyed fox hunting with her family, a
vision where she saw herself as a fox being hunted
led to her never wanting to participate again. As she
grew older, her love for animals only increased. She had
a pet guinea pig named Rufus, who she confided in.
She became a vegetarian and realized that she needed to
(07:25):
pursue a medical degree if she wanted to convince others
that her diet was the healthiest now. Women weren't allowed
to become doctors in England at the time, and so
she traveled across the Channel to Paris, but she soon
found herself in her own personal hell. It was while
studying at the Natural History Museum there that she heard
a horrible scream of pain from down the hall. Afraid
(07:48):
that someone was being hurt, she raced toward the sound,
only to find a lab where a professor was dissecting
a live dog. At this time, anesthesia wasn't common and
it wasn't used on animal These vivisections, as they were known,
were a horrible thing to behold. Anna was mortified, and
she continued to be every time she saw one of
(08:08):
these experiments. As part of her coursework, she began her
own studies into the chemical composition of both meat and
plant matter, and was encouraged when she found that they
can contain the same chemical compounds. It seems obvious to
us now, but finding that you could get protein from
both meat and certain plants, for example, was a big discovery.
At the time, Darwin's theory of evolution was growing in
(08:32):
prominence as well, and the idea that we are all
related to every other animal on the planet only further
encouraged her. She wrote her thesis on the Benefits of
a vegetarian diet, including some of these discoveries, while also
including some less scientific assertions. For example, she believed that
eating meat made someone more violent and lowered their IQ,
(08:53):
and she also believed that all great warriors in history,
like the Spartans, were great because they ate bread. And
her legacy would continue to be a mixture of science
and superstition. Although she had become a doctor, she would
never let go of her spiritual side. She continued to
claim to have visions and believed in frequent prayer to
evoke God into saving animals. Anna disliked organized religion, though,
(09:18):
believing that it was corrupt, but she did believe in God,
and she believed that if he was the divine source
of life in all humans and animals were a part
of him. But her compassion didn't always extend to her
fellow human beings. You see, Anna maated her life's mission
to put an end to the kind of vivisection that
she witnessed in medical school. She decided to start practicing
(09:39):
what she called white magic, which was essentially the use
of prayer to try and cast spells in the physical world.
Most famously, or perhaps most infamously, this included directing psychic
attacks against some of the greatest vivisectionists of the day.
Among them were names that are still recognizable, such as
Louis Pasteur, Claude Bernard, and Paul Bert died in eighteen
(10:03):
seventy eight and eighteen eighty six. Anna took credit, claiming
that she had used her abilities to assassinate them. Of course,
no one took her seriously. They had died of natural causes,
of course, But to be fair, it wasn't as if
every other scientist of this era behaved rationally all the
time and that Anna was just an outlier. For example,
(10:23):
many scientists of her day had the opposite view of hers,
believing that eating meat actually made someone superior. They used
this to justify racist beliefs that Asians and Africans who
ate a mixed diet were somehow inferior to Europeans. Today,
we know that eating a well rounded diet is best,
although vegetarianism has benefits when it comes to heart health
(10:46):
and a carnivore diet has some advantages for those dealing
with certain chronic diseases. And so Anna's legacy is less
about accurate scientific discovery and more about compassion and determination.
She reminds us to remain curious about the world around us,
to not take anything for granted. In the end, how
we treat our fellow animals may impact us in ways
(11:09):
we simply can't imagine. I hope you enjoyed today's guided
tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created
by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched
and written by the Grim and Mild team, and produced
by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the
people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities.
(11:34):
You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of
Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well
as ebook and audiobook, and if you're looking for an
ad free option, consider joining our Patreon It's all the
same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee.
Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com.
Slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Every single one of us, in our own way, is
passing through history. We have no way of knowing exactly
who is going to earn their place in a history
book on the main page, or who will wind up
as mere footnotes. For those of us who read history
for a living know one thing to be true. There's
more life in between the lines than any history book
can tell us, and it's there that the most fascinating
(00:59):
questions live. Follow me to the Haymarket Theater in London
in the year seventeen forty five, an opera called lyn
Costanza de Luza has just premiered. A lavish spectacle. But
what made this opera notable was not its content or
its production, but a little known musician who contributed three
arias that he'd written. He had just arrived in Europe,
(01:21):
and writers of the time described him as suave and charming,
with dark hair and a fine sense of dress. This
man was arrested in London that same year under suspicion
of spine, but later released due to lack of evidence.
Horace Walpole, the famous British author and politician, referred to
him in one of his letters, he has been here
(01:41):
these two years and will not tell who he is
or whence, but professed that he does not go by
his right name. He sings, plays the violin wonderfully, composes,
is mad and not very sensible. He has called an Italian,
a Spaniard, a poll a, somebody that married a great
fortune in Mexico and ran away with her jewels to Constantinople,
(02:04):
a priest of fiddler, a vast noblemen. The man who
fits this intriguing description was known by a single French title,
the Compe de Saint Germain. He seemingly came out of
nowhere in the seventeen forties, impressing high society in London
with his musical talents, but after his arrest in seventeen
forty five, he did not stay long in London. Instead,
(02:27):
he traveled to mainland Europe, where he ingratiated himself with
the French courts of King Louis the fifteenth. By the
late seventeen forties he had become a close counselor and
occasional political agent for the French crown. He spoke many languages,
including French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, and Spanish, and was
(02:47):
able to converse on a wide variety of topics, from
politics to science. Although perhaps science might be overstating it
just a little, you see, one of the count's primary interests,
according to the stories, was the field of alchemy. It was,
at this point in history, on the decline in comparison
to other natural sciences, but there were still many eager practitioners.
(03:11):
After all, goals like turning lead into gold or achieving
immortality will always inspire some people. As the decades wore on,
members of high society pointed out that he barely seemed
to age. One anecdote tells of an encounter with an
elderly countess in the seventeen sixties who expressed disbelief at
seeing him. She said that she had known account Saint
(03:34):
Germain and Venice back in seventeen ten. She asked if
it was his father that she had met, and instead,
Saint Germain said that he had lived in Venice at
that time, so it was he that she remembered, and
she was amazed. The man she knew was forty five
years old at the time, meaning that he would be
one hundred years old. During their conversation. Saint Germain accepted
(03:56):
the suggestion proudly, still never confirming what his original name
was nor where he came from. Later, at various dinner parties,
he would claim to be over three hundred years old.
Both Voltaire and Casanova wrote about him with skepticism, referring
to him as a teller of enormous lies. Voltaire referred
to him as and I quote, a man who never dies,
(04:19):
who knows everything, but Casanova conceded that as a liar,
Saint Germain was an incredibly persuasive one. In seventeen sixty,
for example, he talked his way into the Hague and
began peace talks to end the Seven Years War between
England and France. No one ever knew where all his
money came from either. He seemed to be wealthy, but
(04:39):
had no bank account or land to speak of. This observation,
of course, fueled rumors of him being a powerful alchemist.
After all, if you can turn any substance into gold,
then you don't need a bank account, do you. After
forty years of traveling freely throughout Europe, charming high society,
and writing music, Saint Germain spent the last few years
(04:59):
of his life life in Central Germany doing alchemy experiments
with the Danish Prince Charles Now In his eighties, he
confided to the Prince that he was the son of
Francis the second Racozzi, a renowned nobleman from Transylvania, which
would explain his wealth and comforts among nobility. Like all
of his stories, this part was never confirmed. Saint Germain
(05:21):
seemingly died in seventeen eighty four, but that was not
the end of his story. Sightings of him persisted long
after his death. After his tall tales, a growing number
of people believe that he really was immortal. In the
two hundred years that followed, many copycats have appeared, claiming
to be the man himself, still alive after all these years.
(05:43):
The most recent was in the nineteen seventies. Even if
the original Count of Saint Germain was just an incredibly
skilled con artist, a talented mister Ripley of the eighteenth century.
There is still something about him that makes even skeptics
want to believe the impossible. Through his lies and charms,
he cast a spell on history. The animal rights movement
(06:20):
seems like a modern phenomenon. You might think that people
only started to speak out against killing animals once food
became plentiful in the second half of the twentieth century. However,
even in the past, when modern conveniences were still a
long ways off, there were compassionate individuals begging others to
think of the animals. One such person was Anna Kingsford,
(06:41):
a nineteenth century physician with some very curious methods when
it came to furthering the cause. Anna was born near
London in eighteen forty six to a wealthy merchant family.
From an early age, she claimed to receive strange visions
and communicate with fairies. These communications gave her a profound
sense of spiritualism and a connection to the natural world.
(07:05):
Though she initially enjoyed fox hunting with her family, a
vision where she saw herself as a fox being hunted
led to her never wanting to participate again. As she
grew older, her love for animals only increased. She had
a pet guinea pig named Rufus, who she confided in.
She became a vegetarian and realized that she needed to
(07:25):
pursue a medical degree if she wanted to convince others
that her diet was the healthiest now. Women weren't allowed
to become doctors in England at the time, and so
she traveled across the Channel to Paris, but she soon
found herself in her own personal hell. It was while
studying at the Natural History Museum there that she heard
a horrible scream of pain from down the hall. Afraid
(07:48):
that someone was being hurt, she raced toward the sound,
only to find a lab where a professor was dissecting
a live dog. At this time, anesthesia wasn't common and
it wasn't used on animal These vivisections, as they were known,
were a horrible thing to behold. Anna was mortified, and
she continued to be every time she saw one of
(08:08):
these experiments. As part of her coursework, she began her
own studies into the chemical composition of both meat and
plant matter, and was encouraged when she found that they
can contain the same chemical compounds. It seems obvious to
us now, but finding that you could get protein from
both meat and certain plants, for example, was a big discovery.
At the time, Darwin's theory of evolution was growing in
(08:32):
prominence as well, and the idea that we are all
related to every other animal on the planet only further
encouraged her. She wrote her thesis on the Benefits of
a vegetarian diet, including some of these discoveries, while also
including some less scientific assertions. For example, she believed that
eating meat made someone more violent and lowered their IQ,
(08:53):
and she also believed that all great warriors in history,
like the Spartans, were great because they ate bread. And
her legacy would continue to be a mixture of science
and superstition. Although she had become a doctor, she would
never let go of her spiritual side. She continued to
claim to have visions and believed in frequent prayer to
evoke God into saving animals. Anna disliked organized religion, though,
(09:18):
believing that it was corrupt, but she did believe in God,
and she believed that if he was the divine source
of life in all humans and animals were a part
of him. But her compassion didn't always extend to her
fellow human beings. You see, Anna maated her life's mission
to put an end to the kind of vivisection that
she witnessed in medical school. She decided to start practicing
(09:39):
what she called white magic, which was essentially the use
of prayer to try and cast spells in the physical world.
Most famously, or perhaps most infamously, this included directing psychic
attacks against some of the greatest vivisectionists of the day.
Among them were names that are still recognizable, such as
Louis Pasteur, Claude Bernard, and Paul Bert died in eighteen
(10:03):
seventy eight and eighteen eighty six. Anna took credit, claiming
that she had used her abilities to assassinate them. Of course,
no one took her seriously. They had died of natural causes,
of course, But to be fair, it wasn't as if
every other scientist of this era behaved rationally all the
time and that Anna was just an outlier. For example,
(10:23):
many scientists of her day had the opposite view of hers,
believing that eating meat actually made someone superior. They used
this to justify racist beliefs that Asians and Africans who
ate a mixed diet were somehow inferior to Europeans. Today,
we know that eating a well rounded diet is best,
although vegetarianism has benefits when it comes to heart health
(10:46):
and a carnivore diet has some advantages for those dealing
with certain chronic diseases. And so Anna's legacy is less
about accurate scientific discovery and more about compassion and determination.
She reminds us to remain curious about the world around us,
to not take anything for granted. In the end, how
we treat our fellow animals may impact us in ways
(11:09):
we simply can't imagine. I hope you enjoyed today's guided
tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created
by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched
and written by the Grim and Mild team, and produced
by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the
people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities.
(11:34):
You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of
Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well
as ebook and audiobook, and if you're looking for an
ad free option, consider joining our Patreon It's all the
same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee.
Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com.
Slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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