# Monsignore Cristoforo Rischio — The Humbugs of the World character guide

> Monsignore Cristoforo Rischio in The Humbugs of the World by P. T. Barnum.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Cristoforo, Cristoforo Rischio

**First appearance:** 0051-xl

## Snapshot

A failed actor turned marketplace charlatan, he peddles nostrums beneath Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, peering through gold spectacles at peasants who buy his vials without stint.

## Who they are

Cristoforo Rischio, called Créso by the crowd, holds a three-hour clinic twice weekly in the open daylight, a skeleton swaying beside him and skulls grinning below. He is no diplomaed physician, yet may have mastered enough Materia Medica to effect real cures — which only makes his pretension to greater wisdom the sharper fraud. His career, from Siennese farm boy to bankrupt Alfieri aspirant to druggist's hawker, illustrates how disappointed ambition curdles into humbug.

## In the story

### [Monsignore Cristoforo Rischio: The Humbug of Florence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/chapters/xxx)

The central figure, a quack doctor and former actor who sells nostrums in Florence, known for his dramatic presentations and shrewd understanding of human nature.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/characters/cristoforo_rischio
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/characters